Looking for the old me

I was reading some old posts today. It's strange, but I barely recognize the girl who wrote them. I was funnier then. Definitely wordier. Maybe I'm just tired.

I realized the other day that in the five years I've worked here, I've never stayed in town for a vacation. I'm always flying out somewhere on Friday night after work and flying back in at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night, getting home at 1 a.m., only to start work on Monday again at 8 a.m. So I've taken the week off for a vacation with the goal that I will just completely relax. No stress. No work.

Yesterday I got a massage. Today I had my hair done. Tomorrow I'm going to the lake.

Some might say this is stupid in the middle of the recession. Maybe. But if I can just regain some of the spirit I had in 2006, I will be a better reporter for it. Hopefully my boss will see that.

Lessons learned: I miss 2006.

Birthday BBQ

Last night I went to a birthday party for one of my co-workers, Margie, who just turned 40. I hope I look as good as she does after 40 years and three kids. She has been voted "hottest woman in the newsroom" before by a previous slate of co-workers, beating out women in their 20s. So we had a barbecue with a menu of spinach artichoke dip, avocado and tomato dip, shrimp, oysters, chicken, salad, garlic mashed potatoes, garlic bread and cheesecake. Margie did a lot of the cooking, which seems a little backwards to me, considering it was her special day.

She also seems to have a much better attitude than I do about my upcoming birthday. Anyway, Happy Birthday, Margie.

Lessons learned: When I figure out how she aged so well, I will come and fill this back in.

Subscribe?

Anyone know how to allow people to subscribe to my blog via e-mail using accounts other than listed in the existing subscribe tool? I know it's possible, but it isn't listed as one of the gadgets under page elements.

Cookies and popcorn

My mom came to visit for part of my four-day weekend. She had a bike race in the region, so we did some hard care race preparation including carb loading and relaxation techniques, i.e. watching movies and playing scrabble. Mom did what moms do: made chocolate chip cookies with walnuts, cleaned my apartment about four times and fixed me breakfast.

My freezer is now stocked with enough cookie dough to hold a bake sale. Hmmm, maybe that is what I should do to raise money for the speeding ticket I got the other weekend.

Anyway, it was nice to have the company and be taken care of for a couple days. I needed it.

Lessons learned: When you're an adult, your mom lets you have popcorn, beer and cookies for lunch.

Farewell to my coffee table

My living room is now empty, my coffee table gone.

I know this sounds like the beginning of an ode. Maybe it is.

Four years ago, my boyfriend at the time, Cavan, left a coffee table he made by hand at my place as he set out for a new job in the Boston area. The plan was, I would bring it out to him when I moved there. Well, obviously our plans never came to fruition, so the table stayed right where it was.

I sort of hoped it always would.

Cavan, who now lives in Kentucky, was in California for the week and came up to pick up what is rightfully his. It was really good to see him, catch up and do a little reminiscing over lunch. It is crazy to think it's been about four years since he was here. Seeing him reminded me that there really are selfless men out there - that there is much more than what I've settled for from my relationships since. I think we both know our lives took different paths for a reason, but our relationship carries a special kind of nostalgia.

I think that's why it may be so hard to let go of that coffee table. Because it is one of the last tokens I had left from that time.

Lessons learned: I will have a hard time replacing that table.

So connected

It's official. I now can write e-mails from two different accounts. I can leave my updates on Facebook, then put them on Twitter. I can then turn around and write all the same friends on Myspace. I can network on LinkedIn. And if I'm still bored, I have this blog. Seriously. What happened to the girl who didn't have Internet just a couple years ago? I could spend all day hopping from one social networking opportunity to another.

Who needs a real life?

Ironically, I was just reading a blog post about why people get stuff done, like write that book, or record music or exercise more. Hmmm. If I thought real hard I might be able to pinpoint some distractions in my life.

Lessons learned: I need to consolidate.

Thought I'd stop by

Fourteen. That's the number of blog posts I've had this year so far. So I haven't been very prolific in 2009. Now that I have lost all of my loyal readers, I thought I would show up.

Anyway, as you can see, Mom and Ben, (the two who still read), I have a new template. It really wasn't my choice, since Blogger decides ever so often to do overhauls. I have to admit, I was over the last design, but it's such a pain to change over links and ads, I just went with it. Till now. I also have added my Twitter updates. Fancy, I know.

Well I'm back for now, and I'm going to try to be better about updating.

Lesson learned: Leave for a minute and they change everything.

Posing

So I made my debut as a butt model today. Our features department is doing a piece about inexpensive dating. For a photo illustration, they wanted me and a co-worker to hold hands, while they took pictures from the back, with a few dollar bills sticking out of his back pocket.

I felt like I was the subject of some strange experiment, as I stood there holding hands facing a white wall, while a group watched us from behind. They stacked reams of copy paper underneath where I was standing because, guess what, he is much taller than me.

This better not be my 15 minutes of fame.

Lessons learned: I'm not sure I have a future in butt modeling.

Basking

The weather has been absolutely amazing the past couple days. I've been eating lunch outside, basking in the sun. It's made me really crave summer, but I have a feeling we have a few months to go.

In the meantime, it's always nice to rub it in a bit that I live in paradise for those of you stuck in the snow up north. Sorry.

Lessons learned: I'm not really sorry.

Snow therapy

We have had a series of storms here, followed by two days of sunny bliss in the powder. My friend, Genevieve, who used to work with me here before moving to Santa Cruz, came to visit. We went snowboarding Saturday. The storms had cleared up a couple days before, so I figured the powder would be soft and all tracked up. But it stayed cold, making for some nice floaty turns in the trees. It was a beautiful day, which I needed after a long week. It was great to catch up with Gen, who I haven't seen in about two years.

Then a couple co-workers and I went snowshoeing today. We got a late start, so it was less than truly ambitious, but it was great to get into the woods, again on a really nice day.

Lessons learned: Snow makes great therapy.