...but the very next day the Fetus Vampire ate it."

So, yeah. I need to start posting in this thing again. Um...what to say? St. Nick's day is tomorrow! Yay! The little german child in me is very happy about this. I have hung my stocking up and all (it's already full since my mom brought it from St. Louis when she and my dad came up for Thanksgiving, but whatever). The act of hanging a stocking still makes me smile like a little kid. I love the holidays. Tons of good will and tons of smiles. And lots and lots of hot chocolate. I've made up my own hot chocolate mix this year. It's delicious, even if I do say so myself.

I've been on a bit of a craft spree as of late. Crocheting apparently does run in my blood. I picked up a crochet hook and some yarn for the first time in years this fall and have been hooking non-stop ever since. I love it. It becomes almost meditative at some point. Also, my roommate watches a lot of television, so I can hang out with her and do something productive while watching tv. So many presents already made. I love making gifts. Been checking out tons of craft sites to get ideas. Obviously, I have to pay rent, so I'm not actually making that many things I find, but the act of being inspired by such great ideas is enjoyable.

Saw Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking" over Thanksgiving with my parents - it was hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. Also, I really like how frank she is about being bipolar. Especially since, while not bipolar, I do exhibit some manic tendencies (and depressive ones too, but I've gotten better over the years at fending those off). But, everything Carrie talked about was hilarious once she put her spin on it. Loved it!

That was the second show I've seen since moving to NYC. I also saw "Talk Like Singing". Who'd have thought I'd be going to a Japanese musical starring Shingo from SMAP and Jay Kabira? The songs were also written by Yasuharu Konishi of Pizzicato Five fame. I literally bought the last ticket available and am so glad I did. It was pretty funny and such a feel good show. Good times were had by all.

EDIT: Totally forgot to add that my mentor (and technically editor, though she's on maternity leave for another year now) had a lovely baby boy the day after Thanksgiving. I'm so thrilled for her, her husband, and big sister Georgie! Need to get cracking on his birthday present, though, since he arrived a month early (just like his big sister!).

I have signed up for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org).  Yeah.  I've just moved into a new city and am settling into a new job and looking for another one.  This is not a good time.  But really, when is a good time.  There's never been a good time for me.  I've never felt confident in my fiction writing skills.  So, I'm just going to do it.  Type out a novel.  It doesn't have to be good.  It's just about the practice.  I mean, what else am I going to do when I get home from work in the evenings?  Watch tv?  Browse the internet?  Ok, writing articles, reading and cleaning and grocery shopping are actually valid uses of my time, but I can't do those all the time.  And writing is actually very therapeutic for me.  It's how I process the world around me.  

Now, this is my first year doing this.  This is my first novel-length piece of fiction.  So, I don't actually have much hopes for seriously finishing the 50,000 words.  That's 1,666 words per day in November.  I mean, that's not too many words and I know I can punch out 2,000 word articles in little time, but fact-based articles are very different from fiction.  I think the reason I want to do this so much is so I get over my fear of writing fiction.  It doesn't have to be good when I first type it up.  That's what editing is for.  The good can come later.  I just need to learn how to get my characters and plot and setting on the page.  This doesn't have to be Waugh or Beerbohm or Proust.  It just has to be something, even a crappy first-time something.  

I got an email from the lovely Kimberly Wilson.  She told me to "keep shining and taking risks".  I plan on it!  

Also, moving into my new place today.  It's just an exciting day all around.  

What do we all think of me going as Joan from Mad Men for Halloween?  Good idea, or going to be too popular this year?  I think I own all the necessary items, which is why it is appealing.  Also, non-permanent red hair dye would cover up my roots for a week or so.  Always a good thing...

So much has happened lately that I don't know how to recount it all.  But today I'm starting over.  Today I'm moving to New York.  Today I am getting back to me.    
I start work on Monday.  It's only part-time for now, but it's a hands-on editorial/writing job in the art world.  I no longer know what I'm going to do in life or where I'll end up. But I like it that way. So here's to the next adventure. Here's to the next beginning. Here's to the next ending.

 

What we call the beginning is often the end
And to make and end is to make a beginning.
The end is where we start from. And every phrase
And sentence that is right (where every word is at home,
Taking its place to support the others,
The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic,
The complete consort dancing together)
Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
We die with the dying:
See, they depart, and we go with them.
We are born with the dead:
See, they return, and bring us with them.
The moment of the rose and the moment of the yew-tree
Are of equal duration. A people without history
Is not redeemed from time, for history is a pattern
Of timeless moments. So, while the light fails
On a winter's afternoon, in a secluded chapel
History is now and England.

With the drawing of this Love and the voice of this
     Calling

 

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, unremembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half-heard, in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always—
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
When the tongues of flame are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and the rose are one.

-T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding

I have a baby tomato on my tomato plant.  This is exciting.  Also, my lavender is growing really well, which is surprising considering how wet the summer has been.  So, I must have done well with the amount of drainage gravel I used when planting them in their containers.  My basil was looking a bit worse for wear when I got back from vacation (I hadn't picked any of it in a long time and all the leaves were dead).  I thought it might have died, but I pruned it back and I've got new sprouts and leaves on it now.  All very exciting.  

Went to the lavender farm with Mama this morning to pick up some more lamb bratwursts.  Yum!  Having some garlic butter ones tonight.  Also picked up some artichoke-garlic tapenade and treated ourselves to a lavender chocolate chip cookie.  I didn't pick up any other lavender items today, though.  I'm loving my lavender body butter, though.  It's so yummy smelling and absolutely lovely on my skin.  Expensive, but made by the lady who owns the lavender farm.  So worth it.

I made this.  With my own writing.  Yay!

Trying out some new planner ideas. Ordered a Planner Pad at a steeply discounted price to try out. Looks fabulous!

Also discovered DIY Planner and the lovely templates there.  Think I will see how the planner pad goes and then make up my own for next year.  Exciting!

I'm such an organization nerd.

Also checking out clear boxes to keep shoes in.

I love the organization aisles at Target. *starry eyes*

I haven't been on a run in a while and I'm starting to feel icky.  Better get one in tomorrow morning or I don't think I'll be able to survive until Friday. 

Birthday on Thursday followed by a weekend of joy in Boston with mes gazelles.  Went on a shopping trip today during my lunch break to pick up goodies for them.  So joyous.  Until the downpour started.  And by downpour, I mean Noah would have been frightened by it.  Everyone on the highway slowed to about 10 mph.  A semi-truck nearly jack-knifed next to me.  Eeeeek!

I have a mandolin now (the kitchen utensil, not the instrument).  It's exciting.  I managed to get it for $10, which is awesome because I saw the exact same one at Sur La Table today for $20.  Go me.  I love Home Goods.

I'm still in the office.  Everyone else is gone.  It's pretty awesome when it's like this.  Just me chilling and listening to podcasts while going through electronic files.  Good times.

I think I need some caffeine, though.  Hopefully there's a stash of diet coke somewhere...

This is mostly for mycroftnext ...

Mom (looking at mail): Oh, you've got something here from Salt Lake City.  Must be from the Mormons.
Me: Oooh!  I like Mormons, open it up!
Mom: Oh, you're pre-approved for a Discover card.
Me: A Mormon DIscover card?
Mom: You're a nut-head.

I love my mommy. XD

I'm now officially a Master.  Of Art Business.  Fat lot of good that's done me.  But it was a great vacation.  Week in Venice with my mom - shopping, wandering, popping into churches to exercise our Catholic educations (or exorcise, just depends on how you view it...).  Week in London with Dad there for the weekend - lots of friends, lots of good food, some time with Mel and baby Georgie, dinner with Brenda.  Just good fun.

We went out to the wineries for Tina's birthday.  No one had ever been out to that part of Missouri other than me, so it was fun to see everyone's reactions to the beauty of the landscape.  Missouri wines tend to be pretty sweet because of the hot summers, so we enjoyed our sweet nectars in the beautiful sunshine with a live band and good friends and good food.  Viz girls always did know how to pack a picnic!

Been working hard at the office.  Have manage to clean out and organize the store room, which desperately needed help.  Bought some new shelves and some bins.  Rearranged a lot.  Spent most days up and down the step-ladder.  This might explain why my knee all of the sudden erupted in pain this morning.  Ow.

The knee pain could also have been from my massage therapist maybe messing up yesterday.  But he's never messed up before, so I'm not sure.  I had a coupon for $72 off a service, so I treated myself to an hour and a half massage.  It was glorious.  But obviously my right knee did not agree.

I now have a basil plant on my deck that I am valiantly keeping alive (this is amazing for me. i normally kill plants within days.  I think it helps that it's outside and we've had a lot of storms lately, so it doesn't matter if i forget to water it).  It's nice to have fresh basil to add to pasta and even sandwiches.  I find that with a few leaves of basil, I don't need any dressings on my sandwiches.  Easy way to cut out unnecessary calories as part of Get Hottt 2k9.

I haven't run in a while.  This is sad.  Sinuses and allergies have been acting up, making me fall back asleep at 6 am instead of allowing me to go outside and run.  Got up to go this morning (set 2 alarms - so sad) and my knee decided it hated me.  *sigh*  Hopefully it will be better tomorrow.  I love my new running shoes and clothes and the Runner's Podcast that I listen to.

Sitting in my kitchen, waiting for brownies to bake.  Wearing an apron.  Also waiting on a load of washing.  Feeling a bit like domesticity incarnate. 

Leaving for Venice in a week and a day.  Have so much to do before then.  Oh well.  It will all get done in the end.

Excited about going out to buy new running shoes.  I think I'll go this evening.  But the evening drowsiness is starting to kick in, so maybe I'll go tomorrow morning.  I am so lazy sometimes.  And yet, I manage to get myself up at 6 am to run.  I just like mornings better.  Go figure.

Today I learned that TurboTax has a platform just for people who make no money like me.  The good thing about making no money is that it means I get to file my state returns free through TurboTax.  Yipee. 

Last night I downloaded a whole bunch of new apps for the iPhone.  They were all free, of course.  Again, I have no money of my own.  Still, I'm excited to try out some of them.  Downloaded two different ones that use GPS to track runs and give you how far you went/how fast/etc.  So I will try out each one and see which one works best for me.  I'm looking forward to running outside now that it's so nice out.  Can't wait to run around Kensington Gardens in a few weeks.

I recently wrote a page of fiction on a whim.  I really like it so far and would love to continue it into a novella or full-blown novel, but I've never been much of a fiction writer and am not really sure where to go from here.  I could just write whatever comes into my head for a few pages until I have a bit of a plot.  Or I could map out the plot first.  Any suggestions?  Any writing manuals y'all could suggest?

At work.  "Working" very hard, obviously. 

The hair and skin experiment has been going well.  Haven't needed to use any moisturizer on my face - it just seems to sort itself out.  And it's so clean and happy!  The hair was a bit of a bigger issue.  My scalp feels absolutely amazing!  For about 15 years I've had major itchy scalp and dandruff issues.  Less than a week without the chemicals in shampoos and my scalp is calm and clear.  Not itchiness and no dandruff.  It's kind of amazing.  My skin really hates chemicals in beauty products, apparently.

The only problem with the Dr. Bronner's was that it was leaving my hair looking pretty nasty.  It was all waxy and clumpy.  I realized the soap was leaving behind a "soap scum" of sorts.  So, after some thinking, I tried rinsing out my hair with lemon juice and water.  Perfect!  It cuts right through the scum and leaves my hair all shiny and nice.  I'm so excited to have found something good for my hair and scalp that's also pretty damn spiffy for the environment too.  No nasty chemicals going down my drain.

Now, to get back to work...

This morning I managed to spill coffee on my skirt BEFORE I'd even put it on.  Yeah, thank god it's Friday.

I was catching up on some manga the other day and realized I haven't read Bleach in about 3 years.  So, now I'm spending a gorgeous day catching up on it and squeeling at all the stuff I've missed.  And I'm still a good 170 chapters away from being caught up, but I'm enjoying every second of it.  I FORGOT HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS MANGA.  

Also, going back to London for graduation.  And heading to Venice before that for a little graduation trip with Maman.  I've never been.  I'm very excited to drink some good espresso and chill in piazzas.  I've missed Italy.  Sadly, we will be in London over San Marco's feast day.  Oh well.  I still plan on gorging myself on espresso and gelato.

Just got back from a lovely week in DC.  Good friends.  Good time.  Good to be back home.  It really is home.  When the plane lands in other cities I've lived in I think to myself, "oh, I'm so excited to have a week to spend here".  When the plane lands at National I think, "god, it's good to be back home".

So, lots of fun.  Hanging out in Adams Morgan a lot.  Hitting up Asylum.  Quiz nights with friends and new people.  Lots of old friends and laughter.  Reconnecting and reminiscing and planning the future.  Walking around the city.  Dirty girl scouts, wine and beer.  Playing with one of my favorite dogs and most of my favorite people.  Good times all around. 

...No, seriously, it's friggin' cold in the room I'm in right now.  Have on full-length sweater-jacket and cup of kohii and am still samui.  And yes, can you tell I just finished reviewing some Japanese vocab?  I need to get back on the whole learning Japanese bandwagon in order to make myself even more appealing the company that I love most in the world.  So, samui desu.  Charm offensive is back on full-blast.  I will charm them into giving me a job, even if they claim they're not hiring right now.  I WILL TRIUMPH!!!


"Don't be bitter...it leads to botox". 

It's been a fun week.  From recovering from parties to New Year's Eve at Blueberry Hill with old and new friends - all good times.  Have seen Frost/Nixon twice this week, once on comfy leather couches with my father, brother and sister-in-law and once with my mama.  Michael Sheen continues to amaze.  I also bought a new quilt for my bed from Pottery Barn, since it was incredibly cheap.  And it's bright and blue and white and makes my room happy and light.  I'm a bit in love.  I'm also a bit in love with my new alarm clock that has Stephen Fry's voice.  I haven't actually woken to it yet, but it's fun to play with.

Now, cleaning house and doing laundry.  Would be cooking/baking to round off the domestic goddess theme, but the oven is self-cleaning since burnt chunks on the bottom caught on fire yesterday when I tried to heat up some flatbread from Trader Joe's.  Not cool.  Now I know to pour salt on oven fires.

Currently setting up my iPhone so that I can carry my life around on it.   I am so excited to have a cell phone that actually works in my house.  Oh, the possibilities!

Christmas was absolutely lovely as usual.  Lots of family.  And tons of fun with friends at our annual Vizmas party.  I can't believe we've been getting together for Christmas parties for 11 years.  Also lots of food.  Feeling very blessed this year.

Applying for jobs = boring and demoralizing.  And yet, so extremely fun when one has pretty resume paper.  I just like the paper.

At Starbucks with Tina.  My computer is dying and my power cord is broken.  Looks like I will be calling tech support tonight.

And I'm getting a free hour-long massage tomorrow because the spa screwed up today on what was supposed to be a free mini-massage.  Exciting!

*waves timidly*  Is anyone still out there?  I know it's been a while.  A very, very long while.  But I've been living quite a bit in real life and my internet life has suffered.

Things that have happened since my last post:
I turned in my dissertation.  Had an awesome last week in London.  Moved back to the States.  Moved in with the parents (I love them and they're fabulous, but it's still a bit sucky).  My brother got married (and all of our friends got positively trashed at the reception - the best man and myself most of all - it was a glorious wedding and party).  I added to my dowry with kitchen goods.  I baked and cooked a lot.  Thanksgiving with my dad's family was lots of fun and apparently my pumpkin pies are better than my aunt's, which is the highest compliment a baker can achieve.  My car broke down and the dealership tried to get us to fix a bunch of things that weren't wrong (we'd become wary of said dealership since my car just sits in the garage for most of the year while I am gone and therefore should not need so much work - so we took it to an independent mechanic who was awesome and straight with us).  My friends were awesome and took care of me and forced me to have fun.  I spent some time at the Art Museum seeing my old boss and listening to lectures/watching films.  My editor had a baby and I'm so excited to go back to London sometime and meet her.  My grandmother turned 75.  And I've job searched.  A lot.  

So, yeah.  That's my life lately.  There's more in there, but no need to bore anyone. 

And it's glorious!!!  :D


Unfortunately, my program's office apparently closes at 4pm.  And since I had to wait to pick up my copies from the binders at 4pm, I didn't get to officially turn it in yesterday.  So I have to still do that today.  But that's alright.  It's given me longer to appreciate having my name in gold foil on the spine of a book.  

Still waking up from anxiety dreams though, ugh.

So, now I'm wondering what to do with my life now that I will not be solely focused on the Japanese contemporary art market.

Still leaving London in less than a week.  Need to pack.  Need to see people.  Need to go crazy!  XD

Stopping into the newspaper office today to get paid and say goodbye to everyone and give them cookies (that i need to bake still).  Dinner tonight with girlies at Thai River. 

Apparently Bill Clinton was in StL yesterday and my mom took her brother and her mother to see him.  My uncle got to sit in the front row and be first in line to shake hands b/c he's handicapped.  My lovely uncle who chose to wear his Georgetown sweatshirt to go see Bill talk.  I love my family.