Avoiding Vicarious Living

Daily Dose, Day to Day /

Before BlogHer Food I was all about the art journaling and really loving the Index Card a Day challenge.

I took a couple of cards and a few pens with me on the trip but I knew I wouldn’t use them. I didn’t. Heck, I can’t even seem to find them in my suitcase or laptop bag, which is bad because one of my Pit Pens is wherever those cards are! gah.

I even stopped watching the ICAD Facebook group because I just felt overwhelmed by all of the creativity.

And then there’s KarenLynnn who’s enjoying her new Mandala book and her even newer Prismacolor 150s.

And my mom who is Zentangling and sending my photos via text message.

I’ve been home 48 hours. I haven’t looked at either of my journals or JMP’s tag journal and I’m five index cards behind in the ICAD.

I have three art journal, mixed media, collage books sitting on my bedside table, just waiting for me to get back to it.

I think tomorrow I’ll be ready.

Assuming I get just a little more sleep tonight than I did last night.

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Proper Planning

Daily Dose, Day to Day, Foodie /

It happens every time we return from a BlogHer conference, but it’s worse after a BlogHer Food conference.

We come home exhausted.

We come home to an almost empty refrigerator.

We come home to a house with no bread.

We come home with no plans for feeding ourselves (or anyone else).

That means we’re starving on the first day home. And nothing sounds good. Looks good. Or looks anything remotely interesting. So, we eat junk food or we eat nothing at all and we do a lot of complaining about the lack of food (Lack of food served to us directly at our seats, food handed to us on trays by nice people, food sitting on tables ready and waiting for us to decide to be hungry as we walk through the house.)

This also means that we come back and order pizza on day one. On day two, we’ll probably order Jimmy Johns. On day three, we might make it to the grocery store but we’ll end up not getting all of the things we might need — and even if we get everything we need, we won’t have the energy or desire to jump back into the normal routine. The BlogHer event letdown is strong and lasts for at least four days but usually closer to six.

By the time we’ve been home a week, we’re probably back to normal — but prior to that, eating (or not eating) is hell.

With BlogHer ’13 coming up quickly, I think I’m going to try a slightly different tact. I’m going to make a meal plan we can stick to. I’m going to shop BEFORE we head into the city for the event. I am going to make darn sure that there is food on hand that we will eat, as soon as we get home. Hell. I think we’ll stop at the Dominick’s on the way home and grab fresh bread, milk, and eggs just to be safe.

None of that will help with the exhaustion or the obvious lack of people bringing food or always having food sitting around just waiting for us to eat — but maybe it will speed up the recovery process by a couple of days? Maybe?

Yea. I ordered pizza. Enough for us to have it tomorrow for breakfast and lunch. It wasn’t satisfying at all. Not at all.

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Dog Travelers

3 Comments / Animal Issues, Daily Dose, Travel Log /

When we took Skeeter with us to Philadelphia and roamed around the Sheraton with her, we didn’t see a lot of people with dogs in the hotel. We heard one dog, a few doors down for us, but I don’t think we ever saw it.

People generally looked surprised to see her in the elevator or wandering around the halls. They would often comment about how unusual that was. One person wanted to pet her because she really missed her own dog while she was traveling for business. Another man had recently lost his dog and really enjoyed getting to pet her for a bit.

It was an interesting thing, to take her along to a pretty nice hotel in a big city. It felt crazy weird and we felt super crazy for doing it.

Flash forward nine months and we’re on our second trip without her and dang, we miss her. Worse yet, this hotel is full of dogs. I’m not kidding you. There must be a dozen different dogs checked in here, and those are just the ones we have seen.

We’re also right across the street from a little park (and O’Henry’s home, but that’s another post entirely) and it seems like everyone in Austin has at least one dog. Totally different from Philly where we rarely saw people walking their dogs.

We’ve had a lot of fun here but we’re ready to go home because WE MISS OUR DOG.

We are officially THOSE weird dog people. Gah.

Do you think I can bring her to BlogHer ’13 in Chicago????

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Deja Vu

1 Comment / Daily Dose, Travel Log /

We’ve been staying in the Austin Hilton for BlogHer Food and it’s kind of freaky.

The decor is very, very similar to the decor of the NYC Hilton where we’ve stayed twice for the main BlogHer conference.

We’re on the right side of the hallway, walking away from the elevators. Our room is just about the same place as the room we stayed in last time in NYC.

And… Sassymonkey isn’t here. That’s weird enough — Sassymonkey is ALWAYS here when we’re at BlogHer Food. Always. And she should be in that room, closer to the elevator.

When I carried my coffee back to my room this morning, it seemed super odd not to be bringing her (and the fake husband) a cup.

So weird.

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BlogHer Does It Again (Warning: Menstruation Ahead)

6 Comments / Daily Dose, Health and Wellness /

My periods have been irregular, to put it mildly, for a good long while now. I haven’t actually had a period since JMP was here. I really thought that was going to be my last one… but, I did hold out just a little hope that either seeing Michelle Belle or attending BlogHer Food might, MIGHT, spur a cycle. (Michelle and I are often sort of synced and I almost always menstruate at BlogHer conferences, whether I’m scheduled to or not.)

And today… tada… spotting!

Yippeee! My menopause countdown gets pushed back another month.

Not that I’m not looking forward to my old age (I totally am and have no problems being almost 50) — I just like menstruation. I know, most of you think I’m weird (if you’ve managed to get this far in the post.) I’m ok with you thinking that. I’ll just enjoy this period and we’ll see what happens next month… there is another BlogHer conference in July, you know…

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Ooops. I Did It Again

Daily Dose, Travel Log /

I forgot to blog yesterday.

Sigh.

So dumb.

I almost blogged in the morning, before we went to the airport — just in case. But I didn’t. I figured I’d have plenty of time and plenty of things to say.

Then, last night, shortly before I shut down for the night, I was heading here to write something and then… I got distracted and didn’t do it.

So here I am, six days into June and I have already missed two days — after blogging every day for more than seven months.

Poop.

~~

Austin is nice. I like it here. It’s hot. And oddly enough, the sun doesn’t come up at 4am like it does in not sunny Chicagoland. Why is that? So I slept (badly) til 5:30. An improvement but not an improvement. Which makes no sense to anyone except TW probably. Sorry about that. You’d have to be here.

Seeing Michelle is nice. Meeting her boyfriend is nice.

It’s all nice. Except apple maps which sent us on a wild walk to a bakery that was actually a mile in the opposite direction. But hey, it was fun wandering around a little bit of the Ladybird Park Trail and the lobby of the Four Seasons.

Later today… hmm… I”m not sure what’s in store but I’m pretty sure it will be nice. And, hot. I like it hot.

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Lean In

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed, Feminism, Non-Fiction /

I wasn’t going to read Lean In — too much hype, too much angst, too much infighting.

But, Sheryl Sandberg is keynoting BlogHer ’13 so I figured the least I could do would be to read her book.

I’m glad I did.

No Sandberg doesn’t represent all women, or even most women I know. It’s impossible for ANY woman to represent ALL women, that doesn’t mean her message isn’t valid or appropriate or important or… right.

Yes, the point she’s addressing is that women have to step up errr lean in and make things better for themselves and for other women. That’s totally true. No, she’s not addressing the bigger systemic issues, the patriarchal issues, but she mentions that right up front (and several times) — she never suggested that the ONLY solution is for women to change. She said (several times) that these are things we can do, right now.

Things. We. Can. Do.

And I like that.

Because lord knows the system isn’t jumping up and down to change. Rich, white, men in power aren’t jumping up and down to change. Institutional discrimination. Cultural expectations. Psychological issues. Yea, there are a lot of things that have to change before the working world (and the world at large) is a better place for women (and as a result, a better place for everyone.)

But how do you change those things?

Slowly. Very slowly.

And, by doing the things YOU can do right now.

I get that.

Lean In isn’t a perfect book. I groaned a lot. I rolled my eyes at Sandberg’s stories because they are so … privileged… it was hard to look beyond the surface and really hear what she was trying to say.

Which is a problem I think most of us have.

When we try to talk to each other about race or religion or gay rights or women’s rights or any other social issue, we have a hard time relating to what others are saying and sharing because those aren’t our experiences. We have a hard time letting go of the details and looking at the big picture.

Sheryl Sandberg is a powerful, wealthy white woman none of which means she shouldn’t be sharing advice with those who aren’t powerful, wealthy white women.

Have you noticed powerful, wealthy men who give advice and talk about all of the things we can do to change, get ahead, succeed, don’t get slammed because they are powerful and wealthy and can’t relate…?

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Now That’s Sexy!

3 Comments / Daily Dose, Day to Day /

TW: Oh! I ordered soap today.

Me: Huh?

TW: Soap. I ordered soap.

Me: Huh?

TW: Soap. Like to wash with?

Me: Umm I know what soap is but why did you order soap? Where did you order soap?

TW: Haldesoap.

Me: Oh. That makes sense.

TW: It was on sale! And it was the manly scents that were on sale.

Me: OK. Cool.

TW: And we are getting a little low on Haldesoap, believe it or not.

Me: Yes, we are. Which scents did you order?

TW: I don’t know. Those manly holiday ones. Like Pirates Plank and Musk Ox in Heat. Something that sounds sexy.

ME: Musk Ox in Heat?

TW: Yea, something sexy like that.

Me: Musk Ox in Heat does not sound sexy. What in the hell would Musk Ox in Heat even smell like?

TW: I don’t know, one of those manly scents. You know.

Me: I really don’t know. (And I’m thankful for that, sexy or not.)

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Someday, Someday, Maybe

1 Comment / 2013, Audiobooks, Books in Bed, Chick Lit, Favorites /

When I heard Lauren Graham had written a novel, I knew I had to read it. But, I also knew it was highly likely that I’d hate it and hate myself for reading it.

Lauren Graham is Lorelai.

The only hope for me was — either Someday, Someday, Maybe book is so completely different that I forget who wrote it or it’s so Lorelai that I felt comfortable with the characters and the storyline.

Knowing that, I had to decide whether I wanted the print version or the audio version. Discovering Lauren Graham read the audio version didn’t make the decision any easier. See above. Either/or.

I ended up reserving both the print and the audio versions. I figured I’d go with whichever arrived at the library first… the print version arrived BUT I noticed the audio version was in transit and sure enough, it was waiting for me two days later.

I bit the bullet and took the print version back unread… and we started listening.

Oy.

Disconcerting at first but it grew on us quickly, (as Lauren Graham is so good at doing, right?)

At one point, we were picking up the little kids and I decided to freak them out by turning the cd on… mid-story.

They loved it. Immediately loved it.

And while they didn’t listen to the whole thing along with us, they did listen to bits and pieces and were in the car for the ending… which caused them to HOWL in outrage that it was OVER like THAT and WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

And omg you’d have thought Gilmore Girls was ending all over again.

I’m calling this a big win for us. We had a little bit of Lorelai-like fun and I’m very glad I went with the audio version. I suspect we wouldn’t have enjoyed the print version nearly as much.

(tiny note to self: we read this in May and it was counted in my May totals.)

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Reading in May

1 Comment / 2013, Books in Bed /

I’m having a hard time remembering what I read in May — that’s not good. So, let’s see…

I read 26 books and I quit two — one I’ll go back to some day, another I hope never to see again.

3 audiobook (one I haven’t written about, yet)
11 were non-fiction (10 of those were art/journal/collage/mixed media titles)
2 – Cybils Challenge
1 – Nancy Drew Challenge (and also From My Stacks)
1 – Book to Movie Challenge (I still need to watch the darn movie!)

And now that I’ve looked back, I read some good books last month. No idea why I was blanking out on what they were until I reviewed. I blame getting up at 4:30am (again) for no good reason.

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