Is it August already?

It's been a long time since I've written, and I feel like I miss writing so much. I really want to get doing this again every day, but it's so hard when you're not in the rhythm to make it a priority. I'll try for September's challenge I suppose. Though, we're going to the shore Labor Day weekend, so I don't know how that will go (if we'll have wifi or not).

Life is going quite well. Things with Dylan are great, I've been having fun with friends and coworkers, I'm actually genuinely excited to try new things at work, and I'm about to go see my family for the third time this summer. I've decided to stay in my place for another year or so, even though Dylan got into the University of Pennsylvania. Both cats have been to the vet and are healthy. And I've been great with going to the gym and have even dipped below 200 pounds, though with eating a half a pizza last night, we'll see how I fare on the scale today!

So all these good things ought to make me the happiest girl in the world, right? Well, for the most part I am. But I still feel really anxious some days (usually Mondays), and I had a day on Saturday where all I wanted to do was sleep and sleep and sleep some more. I didn't want to watch shows or do things, I just wanted to nap. Dylan gave me kind of a hard time about it, and I don't know if it was from exhaustion or from a minor bought of depression, but it was hard for me to snap out of it. This upcoming weekend, going home for the summer picnic, is going to be more busy and crazy, so I won't have time to sleep the day away, but when we come back, I want to make an effort to get up by 9AM on the weekend and maybe do some light exercise to get my body going. Maybe write! Wink wink nudge nudge. I'd love to get into more of a routine on the weekend and maybe get stuff accomplished, but it's hard when Dylan's there and there's not much for him to do at my house except watch TV.

Anyhow, other than my anxious days and the occasional super sleepy day, life has been good. As I said, Dylan got into Penn and I couldn't be happier for him. He's already invested in lots of Penn gear - 2 sweatshirts, a polo and a cute sporty T-shirt for me! We decided to put off moving in together for the time being, since he doesn't have a job aside from tutoring and it could put a strain on us for him not to have an income and us having all sorts of expenses. I think it's smart, but there's still part of me that's yearning to come home from work each night and get to see him. Even if we don't hang out all night, just to be able to give him a kiss or make him dinner would be lovely. But all good things come in time. So I'm sure whenever it does happen, it'll be worth the wait. And by then, we'll be even more sure that it's right.

Work has been pretty exciting, as I said. I've been spending lots of time after work with other coworkers as well as investigating new avenues of work itself. I rented a car and took a trip up to Morristown to meet with our resident social media expert on Monday. She told me a lot about what it is she does - profiling and auditing clients social media presence, sometimes in a crisis, to find out what people are saying (good and bad) and then making recommendations based upon this to help them engage with their customers or investors, whoever their audience might be. It's all incredibly interesting to me, and it's in a space I feel very comfortable in, since I've been involved in social media for the better part of 10 years on some level. I'm going to have one other chat today, with someone else in a different department. But I'm actually getting excited about new opportunities to learn and grow and work with different people!

I'm about to dive into my last full work day before my trip, and there's a lot to do, but I'm glad I could take a few minutes to write. I've owed it to myself, at the very least :)

Magic Happens...

...when you least expect it. And sometimes when you do kind of expect it, but doubt that it will actually materialize, it does.

I followed my heart and intuition to NY on Friday for my friend Cal's whirlwind USA-visit party and to see my forever long-lost friend Justin who has recently planted himself in Brooklyn, despite only having $100 until my next paycheck.

And here I am, only $57 poorer, having traveled the globe and met 1,000,000 people. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration. But I came away with a new white tank top, a pair of CVS moon-boot flip flops, a homemade mix disc of world music, a giant rooster glass and a 1940s water pitcher. Not to mention about 4,398 photos. You can see my up and coming photo galleries on picasa or just on facebook, which, let's be real...is where the pictures seem to be these days.

So, I don't think I made out too badly, in terms of monetary decrease to material gain and emotional release. I got to have a Magner's on ice at Niall's. I got to see old friends from college and high school...and, as always, meet brand new ones. I got to share my Sharpies with a drunken man at Pete's Candy Shop while trying to dictate the name of the band playing (Barons in the Attic, or as he wrote on his hand, Barons in vthe Atti c,) as his date was giving my friend a long range lap dance. I refused pie and felt proud and refused drugs and felt even prouder. I slept on a kitchen floor and only thought briefly about the bugs that may end up in my hair. (None were found- if they did, they only visited and left politely before I woke.) I woke at 7:21 and left a note on my folded blankets and proceeded to walk to Bedford Avenue and just be. I was greeted in New Jersey by Michael, my tiny gamma ray of a man, with a rainbow boa "lai" and a small shower of rose petals. I was treated to a picnic of fresh mozzarella, Jersey tomato and Wertlieb Family Garden Basil sandwiches, in the middle of the Radburn, NJ park, the hippie Jewish commune town in Fair Lawn. I fell in love with them. I saw butterflies. I didn't look at a clock for hours. I listened to cicadas and didn't get angry. I made peace with my big toes and their corpulence. I navigated to Bryn Mawr with sleepy wrong turns and missed exits. I made the bed. I made drinks. I made Mike smile. I had an outfit concocted for me, before my eyes, out of a pair of dress pants and half a pair of leggings. I applied make up in the dark speeding car. I took a breath and opened my eyes to see far more than I had seen in some time. I touched a latex hand-mold. I watched a woman's back get pierced. I watched a man suspend a woman by cords and carabeners. I applied mascara to a friend in a cage. I danced with leather clad and lace clad and bunny-costume clad party-goers. I played leader. And I played follower. I rolled with the punches. I laughed at myself. I swallowed my pride. I had fun. I ran in the rain. I sat in my office in dark eye makeup and packed my laptop bag. I bought fruit and eggs at 4AM. I got checked out by a teenager (agh!) while in shorts and heels. I felt tall. I am tall. I slept and slept and slept til 11:30. I made eggs and silver dollar pancakes. I was fed pancakes by a gentle clover-honey-bearing man as I flipped the ones cooking. I made mix tapes. I was baptized by Amma holy water and hugged by my tiny vagabond. I debated jumping in his car and running away from home to roam. I took stock and decided instead to wave goodbye. I joined Jess to fold and purge my clothing collection and reorganize my room and listen to a tale of whirlwind romance. I feel cleansed. I feel new. Again.

And it is time....to start the week all over again. After, of course, some veggies and beans and steak and Wall-E. And sewing. I am going to try to approach all things this week with the zennist of zen minds. And an eye on accuracy and efficiency. Cropping down excesses seems to be working out well for me. Don't spend unnecessarily, don't worry, don't procrastinate, don't get sidetracked, don't dally; just do the basics. Mantra, written. Now, to make that steak...