QUARTERLY REPORT

When I was writing the year in review, I realized that I was having a pretty hard time remembering what the hell I was up to 12 months ago.  Which may be sign of a bigger problem, but in any case, makes me want to write stuff down more.  Anyway.

So things have been going pretty okay.  The 4-10's schedule has absolutely changed my life.  I feel like I actually get to decompress.  AND do the dishes.

Because of the extended weekends, we are going out to do stuff more often, like just spend the day out and about, go to a movie on Friday night, go out for drinks.  And it's exausting.  But fun.

Also, I went 4 weeks without doing any laundry.  Thank god I have a lot of clothes.  And plenty of underwear.

I've been living by a 'Wear it or GET RID OF IT' policy, and it's helped with the stuffed closet.  Also, lets be honest here, the compliments have been lovely.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm shallow like that.  (Hhhheeeeyyyyy.) But now, like NOW people, I'm ready to fill the 'ol closet back up.

I had been wondering how the lifestyle industries were going to react to the new normal that we've all been dealing with.  Apparently, they've decided to only offer things that I lust over and dream of and REALLY REALLY REALLY want to take home.

Well played, merchants of the world, well played indeed.

So the going out to do things bit.  B took me to do Disney 'his way', which involved tasty food and slow walking.  He took me to have coffee at the coffee bar at the Poli, which has a great little 'bar' area looking out at the fountains and the monorail stop. Nice.  Then, a yummers sandwich lunch at the Magic Kingdom, followed by me wanting to kill a small child (or myself at the end of it) so we took tea at the Grand Floridian, and wiled away the afternoon writing a Lifetime Movie of the Week plot for our server's backstory.  Good times.

Been meeting the peeps for drinks, or burgers or even just to shoot the breeze and it's been pretty fun.  

Just a regular Tuesday night.  With a GIANT beer.

Went to Miami for work, managed to make it through without out throwing up, getting a migraine, or both, which is good for me.  There's a first time for everything I guess.

 

 

  Ahhh, Miami.  Pretty people, pretty buildings.  Tried to get the guys to just leave me at Lincoln Road for the day, but more reasonable heads prevailed.

I've been working through some personal goals at work, namely to actually design more and type less.  It's a bit rocky, but good.  And let me tell you drawing a 2 point perspective is NOTHING like riding a bike.  I'm a little really rusty.  But I bought an actual sketchbook, and have managed to actually draw in it (twice), not just take notes.  Baby steps, people.

Been doing a bit of work on the side, as well.  The Winner has a new title, and (officially) her own office now, so I did a bit of a renovation on it.  It turned out lovely, but I just hope it's not so nice that she never comes home...

BEFORE
(Sort of.  Just imagine 2 of these cubicles in the room below.)

 

AFTER
(The people she works with lost their shit a bit over the new digs, and she is no longer on the waiting list for new 'office' furniture.  Her boss said she didn't need it.  We did TOO good of a job.)

In other news, I've been cooking like a fiend, and have finally, 6 weeks into the year, reached a plateau in my desire to put home-cooked food on the table.  We've had pasta and sauce, and homemade pizza 3 times in 3 weeks.  Gouloush is this weeks meal du jour.  The epitome of lazy, but still yum.  I guess that's February for ya.  But I'll be making scratch clam chowder for the first time this evening, so it's not all bad.  We'll see how that goes.

The weather has been just downright stupid, which is why, on March 1st, I'm making homemade soup, and sitting here in the living room with flannel pants, angora socks and a fleece blanket wrapped around my shoulders.  Two mere nights ago, we were enjoying the back porch at Bahama Breeze, and it was not too chilly at all.  What's up with that Mother Nature?  Hmmmm?  Really.  Can we just pick something and stick with it for more than 3 days already.

All of this 'cold' weather has allowed me the joy of purchasing and wearing my new favorite ridiculous at home outfit accessory: leg sweaters.

No I am not kidding. Grey Cable-Knit Thigh-high Socks. FABULOUS I tell ya.

And that's all the news that's fit to print.  Later, gators.

TWENTY-FIVE THINGS

1. I love the color red, but sometimes feel like a tool for having one of everything I own be red.

2. My day is not complete without at least one cup of tea. Or 9. Even in August.

3. I'm afraid of getting old, and that my body and mind will fail me. It's already starting.

4. My inability to be understood because of the way I talk is my single biggest frustration. I hate having to repeat myself, but my tongue and lips just don't do what my brain is telling them all the time.

5. I LOVE fixing things. Chairs, finances, complicated design quandries, whatever ya got.

6. Cooking is not only relaxing, but fulfilling to me.

7. I marvel everyday at how I ended up where I am, doing what I'm doing.

8. Should I have a choice, I think my last meal would be a properly cooked (med-rare), western steak with raw horseradish on the side, with a GIANT Idaho baked potato with all the fixin's, and a crispy fresh salad with homemade creamy dressing. And the OG's chocolate lasagna as a closer. But the last bite would be steak.

9. On that note, my life is a carefully balanced tightrope act of proper digestion.

10. I am a consumate, passionate list maker.

11. I am happiest when strategizing and planning things, and most nights use this as a tactic to fall asleep.

12. I still play dress-up.

13. I am very compassionate, but often don't know how to react to drama around me, so I sorta shut down, and while it may seem that I am insensitive when that happens, it's just me trying not to make the situation worse by saying the wrong thing or doing something to make people feel uncomfortable.

14. My daily commute has become a treasured time to me. I do my best thinking as I'm passing slow-ass tourists on their way back from the space center.

15. I worry about what I'll do when the ideas in my head dry up and they're aren't any left.

16. Sometimes in the morning, the clouds that hang onto the coastline during the sunrise trick me into thinking that they are mountains, which makes me almost weep with homesickness.

17. I can sing. Quite well. I can also play the piano, the cello and the violin. Less well.

18. I wish I had learned to flirt about 15 years earlier than I did.

19. I love the smell of the inside center of a book. Old or new, it's intoxicating to me. And I can usually tell what magazine I'm holding just by how the combination of paper and ink smells.

20. I find the human race and how we react (and reacted) to our lives endlessly fascinating.

21. I'd be happy to celebrate something everyday. Especially if there is champagne involved. Or bourbon.

22. As much as I should probably start spending more money on my clothes and grooming (because it DOES make a difference, especially when you're female and in the industry I work in) I still have a hard time spending more than $20 on any one thing. But I work those $20 things, baby.

23. I truly feel that if I should magically end up going back in time (post Iron Age), I could handle it and not be dead within 2 days.

24. I often wonder if I will ever let myself have children, biological or adopted.

25. My favorite words include but are not limited to: hubris, mileau, accoutrement, panache, harbinger, halcyon, plethora, hullabaloo, kismet, zeitgeist, daffodil, and mellifluous.