What I do when I'm not here...

Not as much as you'd think. I went to a comedy festival last month and wrote about it for The Austinot. Actually, I turned a review of the festival into a weird observation about comedians and mental illness and why I like comedians.

I read a lot of books over a long holiday weekend. I would list them here, but I can't remember all. Here are some:

Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler (so good)

The Middlesteins: A Novel by Jami Attenberg (also good, heartbreakingly so...)

The Writing Life by Annie Dillard (my third or fourth re-read)

American Wife: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld (it's been on my list foreverrrr and she has a new one coming soon)

I am leaving off books I began and stopped reading because I lost interest. I never used to to do that; I really felt the need to finish a book even if it was bad, but now I feel like life is too short to waste time hoping something will magically get better. Also I add books to my Kindle wish list faster than I can read them. 

Watched a lot of television. It seems counter-intuitive, but I read almost as much as I watch TV. I watched the entire fourth season of Arrested Development. It was fun. I liked it. I'm not a critic. It broke my streak of binge-watching everything in the category of TV Shows That Have Been Canceled Even Though They Are Really Fucking Good. Like Fringe. And Alphas. And Touch (actually I'm cool with this one if Keifer is going back to the world of 24; also never really want to hear him say "Jake" or "sweetheart" a thousand times every episode again).

What else? I had brunch a couple of times. Dim sum. Sat on my back deck and watched a monster thunderstorm with big rain and hail one Friday night. Canceled my Match.com membership (see also: life is too short to waste time hoping something will magically get better) . Watched my adorable neighbors' adorable cats while they did adorable things in Switzerland (and brought me chocolate because they are...adorable). Sent my mom chocolate-covered strawberries. Went to the dermatologist expecting to have things removed and had nothing to be removed (see also: developed crush on my dermatologist). Went to the farmer's market in the rain and returned home with fresh peaches and pruney feet. Had some really good dreams.

There's more in my navel to be examined. I miss you.

Today I believe in happiness...

After a marvelous weekend that began with a Saturday morning trip to another farmer's market (there are many in Austin) as I kept my eye on the cloudy skies, hoping the weather wasn't being a tease again.

It wasn't. I spent the rest of the weekend enjoying the sound of rain outside, reading some new pages of a friend's book in progress, catching up on more "Doctor Who" (the first David Tennant season), napping and being a bit lazy. I steamed lovely tamales from the Farmer's Market for dinner (chicken mole and spinach/caramelized onion).


I happily spent Saturday evening watching television and drowsing off to the sound of rain on the roof. Sunday morning felt like Christmas morning, waking up before dawn to thunder, lightning and more (!) rain. For those of you outside of Texas, I am not usually obsessed with rain. I am currently obsessed with rain because we haven't had any significant rainfall in Austin since MARCH. March, people, and if you've never seen what a drought looks like I'll sum it up: depressing as shit. Brown lawns, brown leaves, brown trees, yards turned to dust and dirt, highways lined with brown grass. Oh, and there's the fires that happen spontaneously because everything turned to kindling over the dry summer.

On this wonderful Sunday morning there were puddles everywhere and it was raining so hard the puppy wouldn't go outside (but the front porch was just fiiine...). I trekked to Starbuck (happily in the rain), got my usual gigantic (trenta) iced coffee and settled in to work on some copy and line editing. The rain let up long enough for me to walk the dog and it was wonderfully cool and breezy. I wore a hoodie.

My point...if you're expecting me to lead you to one...I had several in-the-moment-I'm-happy-right-now pauses throughout the weekend. Just for the little things. Like tamales. And rain. And my dog's third birthday (my sweet Lulu went from this to this in such a short time!). I'm happy right now.

And 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.

Working for the weekend...

I love a lazy weekend, but even when I have plans to sleep in (especially when I have plans to sleep in), something happens to my brain. Last night, as I drifted off to sleep in the wee hours (was reading late at night), my last thought was "no alarm tomorrow morning...sleeping in...yay." And then I woke up at 6am for no apparent reason. Please note that during the week, my daily alarm is set for 7am, so this is a full hour earlier than I would normally wake up. I figured I'd take the dog out quickly and crawl back in between the sheets so I could sleep for a few more hours.

But after a walk (in the lovely cool morning air), I came back inside and figured I'd "just check my email." Which led to doing a little work online, which led to a cup of coffee, which led to doing some more work, another dog walk, more coffee, and before I knew it: 11am, breakfast, and I knew if I got back into bed or tried to crash on the couch, I'd end up watching Urban Legends back to back on TV for a few hours instead of sleeping.

The TV is still off and I've been working on my freelance and personal to-do list for the better part of the day. Although I love going to work at an office every day (especially after working from home for over a year), days like these remind me of the things I loved about working from home: taking breaks to walk the dog whenever I was creatively stuck so I could mull over whatever I was working on, listening to NPR podcasts while I'm working, listening to music while I'm working, still being in my pajamas (technically, yoga pants and a tank top), hair in ponytail with no makeup on, no ringing phone, no "what am I having for lunch" (because the fridge is 10 feet away), and sitting cross-legged on my couch with my laptop instead of in an office chair, blinds open with a view of my back deck and beyond.

I was prepared for a lazy weekend. I have three books to read, the current season of Weeds from Netflix, clean sheets (because I did laundry last night), and nothing terribly pressing on my to-do list. But it feels better to have accomplished something rather than nothing, and it's still only Saturday so I can have a lazy Sunday.

In honor of checking more than 10 things off of my list since 6am, some "energy music" from The Ting Tings (in my current top 25 iTunes playlist).

Why I do not look pretty on the weekends...

If the sun is shining (the Texas sun is brutal, y'all) and I'm not doing anything social, I usually spend the day covered in sunscreen because I put it on every time I take the dog out. Weekends are also the days when I exercise most, so in addition to sunscreen, I also wear giant sunglasses and a really ugly (told you!) sun hat.



a) No matter how good the sunscreen is, and even if it is "oil-free," no one looks pretty covered in white paste.
b) I look terrible in hats. Always have, always will. My head is big. Hats are small.
c) Hair is dirty because I usually wait until evening to shower, knowing that it's going to get sunscreen in it and have a hat on it.
d) I don't feel self conscious walking down the street dressed head-to-toe in black with incognito sunglasses and a sun hat because my neighborhood is culturally diverse, I see men in dresses and women carrying sun umbrellas, plus Austin is a little weird so they probably just look at me and go, "oh, vampire...no biggie."
e) I am not smirking in this photo. I am grimacing because I was sweaty and got sunscreen in my mouth and sunscreen tastes like shit.
f) Yes, mom, I put my nose ring back in. It's part of my mid-life crisis and I'm enjoying it.

Taking full advantage of tax-free weekend...

The new job is keeping me busy, which means I haven't done laundry or shopped for groceries in a couple of weeks. But I made the best possible use of our tax-free weekend by hitting Best Buy yesterday afternoon and getting the new laptop I've been coveting. I spent the better part of today at Target and a few other places to stock up on essentials, like a new pair of Converse shoes (they had the cutest ballet flats at Target), sunglasses (I broke my favorite pair last week), cat food (guilt from taking her to the vet means I've been giving her real tuna for about a week now), and Choxie dark chocolate with chipotle pepper. Also shampoo so I won't have to shake out the dregs of hotel and sample-size stash, a lovely bag for my new laptop, and deodorant to replace the bottle I mysteriously misplaced on Friday.

I love to shop. I love to check things off my list even more. Call this one a good weekend.

Everybody needs a little time away....

I am having a mini-vacation (back to work on Wednesday). I'm in Charlotte right now and today there were several hours during which I did not a) check my email, b) look at my blackberry, or c) know what time it was. Aleigh and I were in the middle of Target and I realized that I didn't know if it was 3 o'clock, 5 o'clock, earlier, later. No idea. Fish tacos for lunch, some shopping, manis and pedis (they're very summery pink), a visit to my favorite store in Charlotte, Paper Skyscraper, hanging out with the dogs in the backyard, chopping a big platter of veggies while Al made Caprese salad (buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, basil from the garden, olive oil), and now I'm sitting with my feet propped up on a big stack of books that I plan to read this weekend. After we watch the Passion of Ayn Rand (we're both Rand geeks).

Tomorrow: Brunch, shopping at the Southpark Mall (Sephora! Joseph Beth Booksellers!), lounging, reading, frittering away some time, watching videos on my new favorite iPod Nano toy, taking the dogs for a walk, and forgetting where my watch is.

Maybe she's born with it...

Charlie sent this to me (and I'd forgotten about it) with the email subject line "Maybe it's Maybelline!" Hilarious. We'd stopped off at Walgreens before the wedding we went to on Saturday to get memory cards for our cameras and I posed in front of the cosmetic display on the way out. Because I'd had some Xanax (at least the equivalent of a martini or two). And we're hilarious. Charlie kept calling me "trannie" and "hot mess" and "fierce" interchangeably. I did have enough makeup on to qualify for drag queen status.


p.s. It is not Maybelline. I am born with it.

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.

Today I need this more than you do, part seven...

A weekend spent in seclusion with too much thinking and not enough sleeping calls for another installment in my random and occasional "what I love today" series.

J'adore: Jasmine rice, Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel (nothing like watching someone try to scarf down turkey intestines while I eat Chinese food for dinner...totally fascinating), super samples from Sephora, that someone finally thought to create makeup + powder + SPF all in one, the "I'm taking your picture now!" clicky camera noise my new digital camera makes, the Visual Dictionary has many definitions for "love," love lines, going 48 hours news-free wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, other peoples' inspiration boards, Motion City Soundtrack's The Future Freaks Me Out, my teeny pink iPod Shuffle (downloaded almost eight hours of podcasts and still didn't fill the little bugger up), Parker Posey on the small screen, a little word-by-word inspiration.