Today I share two favorite things...

Remember that post from August where I mentioned being happy on Dec. 31, 2010 (and then had a happiness dry spell until July)? It's okay if you don't. You can read it here. Or not.

I really just wanted to share what I look forward to every single day: Being in my bedroom, an hour or so before sleep, snuggled in my super comfy bed with my other favorite (not sure if she qualifies as "thing"), the Prettiest Puppy in the World, a.k.a. Sweet Girl, a.k.a. Lulu Tiny Dancer. She knows my routine at night (outside in yard one last time, inside to fill my nightstand water pitcher, turn off living room and dining room lights, plug in my iPod to sync podcasts, grab a "night-night" bone) and runs upstairs about 5 minutes before I do.


This is what that looks like. This is where I keep my (paper) notebook. This is where I've had some of my best ideas. This is what gives me peace no matter what's going on in my life. The thread count matters. I have special Texas Lavender linen spray that I get at the Farmer's Market. At least once a day, it's the most soothing place in the world. And right now I'm happy just thinking about it.

Happy now.

Now.

Vacation, all I never wanted...

I've never been great about taking vacations, especially as a freelancer when every hour is a potentially billable one. Over the past year - actually since moving to Austin in early 2010 - work-life balance has been one of my priorities.

This holiday weekend, I'm not headed on a jaunt to the islands, to a cabin in the mountains, or on my dream Alaskan cruise (whale-watching!), but I am disconnecting from work and work-related marketing tasks for the weekend. I have a great stack of books to read, my air conditioning works really well, I plan on taking lots of naps (had a good one this afternoon, falling asleep on the couch with a book open on my chest), getting some things in my house in order, re-organizing my home office space, maybe doing some housekeeping on my own personal sites (not really work-related, but I know that one is a stretch), taking the dog to a dog park for some running around and ball-throwing, and sleeping until my furbaby wakes me up instead of the alarm.

Right now, this is the vacation I need: taking my brain to a new creative space, writing for personal gratification instead of professional gain, taking my body outside for some people-watching and dog-bonding, exploring a few parts of the city I haven't seen yet (yes, I've been here a while but there's lots to see in Austin), and reading for pleasure instead of research.

I might even break out the Moleskine and colored pens and do some actual handwriting (can't remember the last time I went there, but my Moleskine dated pages says it's been too long). And I'm charging my camera now in case I feel like wandering around and snapping a few pictures of this crazy city in which I live, maybe find some interesting things off the beaten path, strike up some conversations with strangers, re-set my internal clock. It's not the Caribbean, but it's what I need now - and bonus: it's all here in a 10-mile radius.

I hope you're getting out - of town or in - and doing some exciting things this holiday weekend. And I haven't forgotten why we have a three-day weekend and plan on including some thoughts on gratitude and respect for the brave people who have sacrificed so much to make our country a better place (you can't see it, but I'm waving a tiny American flag right now). For those of you spending the weekend with your families, be grateful. I'm thinking about mine far away right now after having a marathon phone conversation tonight with my older sister, who I know will have the family over for a barbecue on Monday and I'm going to miss out on the chaos and laughter.

Love you, mean it.

There's nothing better...

than a rainy, stormy Saturday afternoon when it's 90+ degrees outside and you were smart enough to take the dog for a nice long walk in the morning when it was still cool and not raining and do the dishes and go to the grocery store, which leaves your afternoon free to turn down the air conditioning to 67 degrees and take a nap on top of your duvet/comforter with a throw blanket over your feet, fat little puppy on one side and cat on the other while it pours rain and thunders outside. Guilt-free group naps. They're the best.

Also good: having a stack of unread library books, dinner that doesn't require a lot of preparation in the fridge, the 2nd two discs of Weeds season 4, and a great excuse for staying in for the evening.

The only thing better: if I get to do it all over again on Sunday.

Manufactured productivity...

After spending four months in a high-pressure, 24/7, getting-up-at-5am-to-read-the-news-online job, I clearly had adrenaline withdrawal. Which looks something like the following:

*Wake up at 8am. Roll over. Go back to sleep.
*Wake up again at 10am. Spend 30 minutes deciding whether or not to get out of bed.
*Get out of bed and make coffee (no need for auto brew now that I don't set alarm for 6am).
*Halfheartedly drink coffee, check email, and end up playing umpteen games of spider solitaire.
*Cold. Make a fire in fireplace. Try to do some writing, but it's so waaarrrrrrm now.
*Shut down computer before noon and nap.
*Wake up around 3. Hate daytime television. If no food in house, go to store. If lazy, call for chinese takeout.
*Consider taking a second nap around 6pm. So. Tired.
*Eat, don't eat, don't care.
*TV is boring, try to read. Reading is boring. Watch TV.
*Phone rings. Don't even get up to answer...they'll leave a message.
*Remember back in college when you used to get high and watch cartoons. Feel nostalgic. Do that.
*Adult Swim is on Cartoon Network until at least 2am.
Repeat.

OK, so there's been a holiday in between and I actually have done a good job of keeping up with dishes and laundry, but none of that takes as much time as a 12-hour day working on a political campaign. And since four months is enough time to develop a habit, you know it's really over when political news on CNN or MSNBC just sounds like noise. Boring noise.

I was supposed to "take it easy" between now and the end of the year. That was the plan. But "taking it easy" shouldn't mean "sleep all effing day long." I think that's a symptom of depression, or in my case, adrenaline withdrawal. I need something else- a deadline, a crisis (not wishing, Universe, hear?), or a $750 bill for 30,000-mile maintenance on my Honda - to get my ass off the couch and start working again.

This week I started getting it together. I made an appointment for my car (see above "maintenance on my Honda." I committed to having lunch with a friend next week. I called my sister just to talk. I've had several conversations with friends and family about whether or not I should get a puppy (working from home again = perfect opportunity, no?). I paid all of my bills early. I bought stamps. I did some "real" grocery shopping (meaning not just dinner, but a week or more of meals), I updated my resume, I called Earthlink for the umpteenth time about my slow-ass "fast-access DSL" that I pay $65 a month for (finally got a straight answer on that one instead of them selling me another modem: slowdown is from "additional customers in broadband area and they are going to expand my line." Hello, could you have told me this a YEAR ago when I first starting calling about it? Pissed off.), updated Netflix queue, wrote a couple of blog posts, had lunch with mom and sister and nephew, downloaded Hemingway short stories on audio vols 1, 2 and 3 and listen while cleaning house, and once this week I made my bed.

There is still much to do. I have a guest room that needs cleaning, holiday shopping, puppy shopping, and need to start writing again regularly - even if only in the form of blog posts here.

Putting a toe in the water...

It was a wild ride, folks. I got four months of "how to run press for a political campaign" boot camp. I made some great friends. I had a lot of really good (long) days, and a few bad ones. In the end, my candidate only lost by four percentage points. She did really well in Charleston County, got more votes than Obama in Horry County, and I think we ran a hell of a campaign. I have lots of stories, but need some time to process before jumping in all the way.

My job didn't end on Election Day - I was really busy until the 15th and have been doing some of the things I listed in my previous post, but mostly sleeping and spending time with the family. I had a birthday (strangely, did not get a year older). I spent Thanksgiving with my mom, three sisters, five nieces, one nephew, a brother-in-law, a nephew-in-law (is there such a thing?), and some family friends. We ate a disgusting amount of food and played Cranium all afternoon.

And now I'm trying to get back into a routine, go through my list of all of the things that I've been putting off for four months, and getting my creative mojo back. Step one: start blogging again. Check.

Really just wanted...

...to stop looking at the same sad post from 10 days ago. I'm still working a lot (and will be through the election) and trying to decompress when I'm not. I actually went bowling Saturday night (this will only be funny if you know me well).

I tried to read last night because I've been anxious to start Haruki Murakami's latest, but couldn't concentrate long enough to get through a paragraph. So I plugged in the iPod and listened to new music downloads instead.

I'm not a huge Zach Braff fan (probably because Scrubs went on about a season too long), but I love his taste in music. I like the soundtrack from The Last Kiss more than I liked the movie (esp. Rufus Wainwright) and I just downloaded the soundtrack for season 2 from iTunes and it's dreamy: Old 97s, Rhett Miller, Joshua Radin, The Polyphonic Spree, Colin Hay...

Then I fell asleep during Law & Order. Did the same on Monday night 15 minutes before the end of Heroes (don't tell me what happened!).

Care and feeding of a writer...

When I was still working at my day job, I didn't have time to do a lot of home cooking. Most often, dinners consisted of takeout, Earthfare or Whole Foods deli, or delivery. Now that I'm working from home again, I have time to cook for myself. It's definitely healthier and (surprisingly) I'm better at it than I thought I would be. Even though I had to call a friend and ask how to cook fresh broccoli. I have Food Network on in the background on my office television for most of the day and have made a lot of the recipes (found a good one for broccoli with garlic and olive oil from Rachael Ray). I baked a chicken (OK, I did forget to take out the bag of ick stuffed inside until it was halfway done, but the chicken was still good). I made homemade pizza with wheat crust. I located my wok, which hasn't been used in about five years, and made stir fry. I've discovered that I actually like the chopping of the vegetables, the prepping of the food, and even shopping for the recipes.

It never occurred to me that my newfound experimentation with cooking would have an impact on others. And I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've probably ordered takeout from the same Chinese Food place (very healthy, no MSG, and they have brown rice) two or three times a week for the past five years. Yesterday, I discovered a menu from said restaurant under my door with the following hand-scrawled note:

"Just stopped by to see how you were. We haven't heard from you in a while and we miss you. Signed, Joe."

Joe was my regular delivery guy. We knew each other by name. In fact, when my friend Aleigh was visiting after I had surgery in January and we ordered Chinese food, she answered the door and Joe was very surprised to see her face instead of mine.

I might have to give them a ring one night this week and skip the home cooking, just because I miss Joe too. And I have yet been able to recreate their sesame buckwheat soba noodles on my own.

All my rowdy friends....

(really just one rowdy friend this weekend).
My good friend Charlie came into town from Austin and we had a blast. Shopping, mani/pedi, Target, making silly videos, a wedding, more shopping, a lovely dinner, a lovely brunch, etc. Charlie has an amazing ability to make anyone feel like a VIP (very important Princess). And he did that for me, even though it was his vacation.

This pic is one I shot with my short arm (OK, they're both short) and you can't see that we're wearing fabulous cocktail attire. And that we're at Sewee Preserve for a reception.

All it takes to shake off a stressful week...

Is a bag of stale bread, a three-year-old, a sunny day, and a duck pond.



My mom, Connor and I spent the afternoon feeding the ducks at Hampton Park. (a) I've always been a little afraid of large birds (mostly geese after being chased by a pack of them a Page's Thieves Market some years ago), (b) the ducks at Hampton Park are quite aggressive, (c) the seagulls are worse, and (d) Connor freaked out when a big white duck snatched some bread from his hand. I laughed, I couldn't help it, but when one of the bigger ducks started chasing me and I ran away screaming, I think it made Connor feel better.



We went to Jestine's for lunch afterwards and our very smart waitress brought us some paper and crayons along with the homemade pickles. The food, as always, was yummy. Connor ate a whole hot dog (and their hot dogs are huge).

Good times.