Desert Magnolia

Some days it's just hard to focus. Today is one of those for me. What I should be doing is writing at least one, if not two, case studies that are due this and next Monday, respectively. What I have been doing is...random. Get up Eat breakfast Announce to hubby that I will be unable to play until I get my case study(s) done Make bed Start a load of laundry Read a chapter in new beach book  Weigh myself Decide to move my body (yes this is directly related to prior item..ahem...) Move body Change into warm comfies, ie sweats and fleece Find recipe for Grandma Alice's Beans and Rice Text hubby about whether he's going to be anywhere near a grocery store Move laundry from washer to dryer Boot up computer, locate case study document in progress, make some edits Send hubby list of items I need for dinner recipe Search for some information, get seriously distracted after initial search frustrates me Spend half hour on some strange journey on the Web popping ...

Today dawned cold, cold, very cloudy, with a promise for very bad weather over the next few days, and feels wintry. This is our first wintry day..we've had some rain, which has been really lovely, but not so cold. Days like these make me crave homemade soups, hot teas, hot chocolate, and comfort in the form of snuggling, and soft, fleecy blankets. Oh, and fires. We're going to make a fire tonight for the first time this year. I can't wait. Fridays in general, I'm finding, are about attempting a balance between work/school/personal. The toll of the first four days of the week I tend to feel by Friday, so I'm finding I take some time to nurture myself and pamper a little just to kind of restore what I can of my strength and focus. This morning..breakfast with hubby, quick cleanup after that then a grooming session. Much needed, as it turns out. Eyebrows are now in check. Skin looks and feels a little better after nice scrub and moisturize. Body feels sleeker af...

I haven't wasted too much energy boring you all with yet another decision to grow my locks out again, because I seem to do this on a regular basis and the process is maddening. There are the phases..endless strange moments as the very short pixie layers grow out a bit. There was the decision to highlight again because, as it turns out, I am NOT ready to be just silver and dark brown yet. There is the goal setting..'this is the look I'm shooting for..I think..at this moment in time but my mood/vision could change at any moment and we might have another target entirely'.....idea...Erika the Great has a photo on file of the first look I declared to want for this particular growout. She brings it out to show me where we're headed, and fortify me for one more stint of 'just working through the middle layer growout, which is usually the hardest...' She's amazing. I am, however, having a hard day. I usually shower, wash my hair, then just brush it an...

My early childhood was spent watching my parents finish college. They were both Fine Arts majors, which meant the crowd they hung around was eclectic (most of them smoked serious amounts of ganja and had at least dabbled in psychedelics - it was the late 60's, after all), artistic, and very much not the type of people my grandparents socialized with. My grandparents, a metalurgical engineer grandpa and a nurse grandma, were cut out of different cloth. The kind that doesn't ever dabble in psychedelics unless they're prescribed by a licensed physician, and they were very much salt of the earth. Anyway, I spent a LOT of time with my grandparents. They helped raise me, and certain images from that era of my life will remain permanently etched in my psyche. One that was just triggered by a big black fly trying buzzing against the sunlit window in our dining room is one of Grandpa Jack's relentless decimation of flying insects. He was one focused dude, and used a flyswa...

Driving home after clinic last night I was struck by the sudden appearance of Fall in the color of the trees, the feel of the air, and the quality of the late afternoon light that shone down. It happens fast, and suddenly Summer is gone and the mornings have a chill, the leaves turn that beautiful golden yellow, and it's time to bust out the long sleeves and sweaters again. I always enter a soup frenzy this time of year too, and break out my favorite Italian Wedding Soup and Lemony Chicken Soup recipes to make and enjoy in the cooler evenings. There's something so fundamentally comforting about a fragrant, nourishing soup and crusty bread, often accompanied by a rich glass of red wine to round out the meal. Running during this time of year always makes me smile. As I ascend the desert trail I smell the late blooming desert plants with their tangy, spicy fragrance. I notice the shadows in slightly different positions than they've been all Summer long on the trail, and I...

These days there is no norm. Which isn't a terrible thing, but tends to be a little disconcerting at times. I watch my fellow students caught in the vortex of their studies, defining their realities by project due dates, quizzes, exams, milestones that are part of this endeavor. I have those things too. What I'm struggling with is how to meet all of the obligations for the long-term effort while striving to be productive on a work level for my former colleagues/now clients. It should be easy, but it's not. Even if it's not supposed to be easy, per se, I don't know if it's supposed to be this damned difficult. I'm not sure if I am just about to break through another one of those stupid walls that keeps showing up in front of me or if I'm missing something obvious here, but I'm looking forward to some kind of clarity, the sooner the better. And it's not about inertia. I'm pretty sure I'll figure it out soon, but in the meantime I...

Happy Fall, everyone! Aren't the cooler days and beginning of changing colors amazing?? I love this time of year...I really do. It's been awhile since I've felt like writing anything. Big changes have been taking place in my life and for some reason the energy to deal with them, their implications, the day-to-day and try to think of something remotely interesting to say has been too much. But it's time to press on and let the thoughts flow again. I'm now a consultant. What does that mean? Well, it means I am on my own to generate enough business so that our financial ship doesn't sink while I tackle the enormity of school. It means I'm no longer an employee in any sense of the word, that I have no benefits, no real ties to speak of professionally, and am floating a little in a sea of possibility that feels a little like it's pulling me under at the moment. But that's how it goes. I've done this before, but many years ago with much less a...