25 posts tagged “update”

keeping it neutral this time:

• Monday I finally made it to what is now weekly Anagram night with Marie the 91 year old French woman. I've been once before and plan to make it a regular thing. She is half-blind and a little senile, but she still has a better English vocabulary than I do. She lives in a retirement community type thing and complains often about how quiet and devoid of life it is in the halls.
• Finishing up website for The Business, which I can now tell you more about. I will save it for another post. My partner is out of town for a week, but when she gets back we start the dreaded legwork of getting business.
• To celebrate finishing the website we were going to go see the Wyeth painting at SAM, but they are closed Tuesdays so we had drinks at the 4 Seasons instead. I'd never been there... It is located where the parking garage I used to park in for shows at the Showbox was, last I checked. I have a museum pass so I will go see the exhibit this week before it goes away.
• I moved my dresser into my living room. My bedroom is teeny and has always felt crowded, so why not put the large piece of furniture in the big room. I like the new arrangement, though it means the bird now has to watch me get dressed.
  
• The happy hour food at the 4 Seasons has given me the worst heartburn ever. I was up and down all night, stuffing myself with Tums.
• Tonight I'm going to try to see Margaret Atwood read at Town Hall, and then I signed up to help out with the VIP after-party for a Where the Wild Things Are screening to benefit 826 Seattle. I'll be pouring wine for Dave Eggers.
• I've been enjoying my weekly volunteerism at 826 Seattle. I do web updates for them. Decided to stick with this for now and maybe do tutoring once the business is more settled and making money.
• I'm starting to consider moving to a 2-br apartment with a roommate. I like living alone, but besides saving me rent money I think having someone else around might make me feel a bit less isolated and a bit more motivated to wash dishes, etc. I'm sort of waiting for my income to become more predictable to decide for real. But that may not happen anytime soon, so maybe I should just start looking... Oh, change, how I want to resist you.
• I need to schedule my GRE. Sort of reluctant to hand over $150 I don't have so I can have the privilege of taking a standardized test, but I do want to go to grad school, so it must be done. Feh.
• I received my Emergency Unemployment Compensation, so I should be "ok" for another 5 months anyway. I hope to have real income by then, but if I don't there's still a state extension available.
  
• I wonder how the financial aid for grad school will work out. If I can't get the whole ball of wax covered by grants and loans it is pretty much off unless I am making a lot of money by this time next year. One can always hope, I guess.
• This week I think I may be chronically single. I'm pretty sure that's actually a good thing.
• Looks like I'll be going to Idaho for xmas with aunt rosie. Haven't spent a holiday over there for a few years.
  

I've been spending the last hour or so checking up on what I've missed while I was away, and now I must continue with my day before my lunch meeting is upon me...

So, I went to Idaho for a week, where:

1. I discovered my mom loves to talk on camera. Stay tuned for the Vimeo channel...
2. I spent the majority of this month's rent money on a rental car. It's still "rent", right? It was a sassy Nissan Versa in charcoal.
3. I had dinner with a friend I hadn't seen in 15 years, and met her 4 kids.
4. I swam in Coeur d'Alene Lake numerous times. Still my favorite lake.
5. I perused "Art on the Green" and ate an ear of corn (childhood tradition).
6. I went out to Carlin Bay with my grandpa, aunt & uncle, where my grandpa was born in a house with "one window, one door, and a dirt floor" on August 1, 1925. There are now some wild shrubs where the house used to stand.
7. I attended a Birthday Extravaganza for my mom & grandpa who have the same birthday. A healthy lunch in my aunt & uncle's garden, on a 98* afternoon.
8. I stayed in my AC'd hotel room on Saturday night and watched Dr. Who on PBS, while down the street at the resort some black kids were beaten.
9. A 36-yr-old woman jumped to her death from her room at the resort. The local paper buried the story.
10. Heat makes people act strangely.
11. I stayed at my cousin's lake cabin for 3 nights and communed with nature. Bunnies, deer, chipmunks, bald eagle, hummingbirds, frogs, et al.
12. I rode my cousin's bike 5 miles to a railroad bridge that is now a bike path across the lake.
13. I hiked to the Plummer Creek Marsh
14. I did not see any live moose. I never have.
15. I saw 75% of the people I intended to see, as usual.
16. I got to the airport early and had 2 large beers.
17. I left my book and debit card on the plane.

And now...

1. I will be focusing on trying to get income flowing by September, either through my business or doing contract work for a few months. No one works in August around here, so I don't expect much to happen til September.
2. I am going to help 826 Seattle with some website updates over the next few weeks
3. I need to finish my company's website so we can launch soon.
   
4. I will be cashing in the last retirement fund to pay rent. I really didn't want to retire anyway.
5. I won't be spending any money this month, apart from groceries.
6. I'm going on an "actual" diet 'n' exercise regimen to get in shape. It's gotta happen. This will also help me save money because I will be eating mostly salads and not drinking much at all. I will supplant social activities with yoga and running...
   
7. I left my apartment in semi-arranged flux, and now I will finish arranging. May require longer speaker cables.
8. I am in the middle of cleaning up my iTunes library, which is a big, tedious project.
   
9. I decided to start dating again, but then I changed my mind. I'm thinking I might wait until I'm 40 (2 years), because it seems that being a woman in her late 30s makes everyone nervous... too many expectations about what is "supposed" to happen on a certain timeline. I may be wrong, but the timeline seems less relevant for those in their 40s. Plus, I really need to get my life & business & money & self in shape before I will feel good about getting involved again...
10. I have a ton of footage of Mom telling stories of her life that I need to edit, review, and integrate into my memoir writing.
11. I wonder if I should move to a cheaper apartment. I really don't want to, but a couple hundred bucks per month could make a big difference right now. My place is reasonably priced, but there are better deals out there. However, I really like my apartment and am loathe to move if I don't have to.
12. Oh, other stuff, I'm sure...
    

I'm doing a lot. But none of it is in a fit state to write about in any kind of conclusive way, so I haven't been writing about it. It just feels weird to post about things I'm half-considering of doing experimentally. But anyway, here's some stuff:

• Because the business launch is going slowly (hello economy) I may try to find a short term contract job after I get back from Idaho next month.
  
• I'm going to Idaho at the end of the month for my mom's 60th birthday. I am staying half of the week at the intriguing Japan House Suites (intriguing because finding Japanese culture in North Idaho is like... I dunno, a Turkish bath in Minnesota?) and the 2nd half at my cousin's new lake house. I am excited about this lake house. It has a lake, and I will be there by myself for 3 nights.
  
• I plan to torture my relatives by interviewing them on video, so I'm working on pulling together questions as I continue to wrestle with my memoir.
• I started a Facebook reading group and we (or at least I) just finished On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan. I'm about halfway through the next book Lush Life by Richard Price. Find me on facebook or send me a message if you'd like to join and follow along.
• I decided to see if I can sell some of my photos on Etsy. I'm not at all sure how this is going to work out, but at least I have a shop up and running. 
• I'm hoping to start volunteering  at 826 Seattle in the next couple of weeks, helping them with web and database updates over the summer, and taking a tutoring shift in the fall.
• I'm creating Squidoo "lenses" on a few topics to see if I can generate enough interest to actually develop a site about something that interests me.
• Bank of America is angry with me. I had to stop paying... I hope to start again before the end of the year... but what are you gonna do? No money is no money.
• I just discovered that my IRA from years ago has been sending my statements to North Carolina. No, I've never even been to North Carolina. I'll probably need to cash it out soon, so I called to see why I haven't been getting statements. They said they must have gotten the address through a database search. Puzzling.
• For my business I am researching and joining all of the best social networks. You may now find me everywhere.
• I'm getting really "into" Yin Yoga. My body needs it badly.
• I have 5+ active "action lists"... that never seem to get shorter.
• I will be making vegetarian enchiladas for my week's main dish. I'm trying to get more into cooking BIG dishes so I always have leftovers.
• I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island yesterday, where I got a minor sunburn and drank mai tais. It's not really the mai tai sort of island, but the weather was right anyway.
• For the 4th of July I went to a pool party at my ex-husband's best friend's parent's house in Bellevue. There were no explosions, but there was an inflatable Orca.
• I have registered my own domain. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Well, some idea... but no time to flesh it out.
• I'm utterly fascinated by Amazon's Mechanical Turk. So fascinated that I earned a whopping $0.90 in a half hour.
• I really really want to rearrange furniture in my living room, but I cannot figure out where to put the ugly black metal shelf. It seems to be in the way no matter what. But the shelf space is needed, so.... I just sit and stare at it, willing it to "fit" somewhere. Black shelving should be outlawed.
• I don't have a boyfriend. This is not to be considered problematic. I'm just trying to be OK with it.
• Saw the Star Trek film last week. Good clean fun.
  

I'm not sure if it's entirely appropriate to claim "life" gave me potatoes, when in fact it was my business partner - who just stopped by to borrow my suitcase and drop off her vegetables before leaving town for a week. The potatoes are cooked and salted and peppered and everything. So I'm eating them.

The weekend was a challenge. Several hours of yoga, a few walks, a few naps, healthy food, and NO mindless distraction. My laptop and phone were both OFF for 48 hours. That doesn't sound challenging. But the yoga really was challenging, and I was basically a sweaty heap on the floor after the 75 minute sessions. I feel worlds better now than I did on Friday. What a difference a little retreat can make.

I have to get things together for a series of video shoots next week. I really wish we had some cashflow, because this kind of planning is time-consuming and tiresome and logistical, and it is going to distract us from everything else for weeks, without bringing in any money. The good news is we found a young, female filmmaker fresh from film school in the UK who has her own camera and is very excited about working on the project. And alliterative. For free. We like working with a female crew, and women shooters are a real rarity.

Tonight I'm going by myself to see Unstuck - a documentary about a woman coming to terms with her father's schizophrenia. This is a familiar subject area for me, and the director/ producer/ star is actually a local MD, so she will be there for Q&A after.

I've successfully completed one week of the Ultimate Body Detox, and I'm starting to get bored with the healthy food. But part of the plan is to acclimate to a healthier diet so I can continue making delicious and healthy meals... forever. Rather than getting take-out half the time. So, despite my intense loooooonging for something cheesy or bready or alcoholic or ice cream, it will be 3 more weeks of fruits, veggies, and legumes. I just need to mix it up a little.

Oh la la.

I have been negligent in the blogging department. I'm never going to become a blog celebrity at this rate! But seriously. Been a bit busy/ distracted and haven't really checking in much anywhere lately. Even now I'm only getting this in because my 10AM meeting got pushed to 1.

I haven't even looked at google reader for a week.

Instead, I went to San Francisco, where there was much fun had! It was great to finally meet some of the bay area vox ladies in person. The weather was primarily frozen fog, with patches of gorgeous spring. I walked all the way to the ocean.

Then I came back to a grant app deadline (yesterday), and a month-long detox diet for June. And my friend Troy was in town last weekend, whom I hadn't seen in person since 1999. So I went out "drinking" for the first time in ages - but I was home by 9, so it hardly counts.

I still feel like I need some time for recovery. Not sure from what, precisely. But this weekend I am going to do an at-home yoga bootcamp, which means 2.5 days of yoga, meditation, journaling, walks, and healthy food. And no internet or phone!

I'll write more this week. Meanwhile I must go back to consuming fluids...

A decent thunderstorm for once. Not great, but not the usual wimpy Seattle storm-fizzle. And it now looks like weather in Seattle and San Francisco will be exactly the same this week. Mostly sunny, 70ish. Fine by me, but how anticlimactic to go on vacation and get the same weather.

I have been way too distracted trying to figure some things out (business, travel, personal, pure curiosity, etc) that I haven't been writing much, either here or in my plethora of notebooks. I guess that's ok, but I feel like I'm avoiding something.

Meanwhile.

I played the Anagram game with a 91-year-old French woman named Marie (and friends) on Sunday. This is a very random connection, but it was super fun and I predict I will be going back regularly when I'm back home. Something about spending time with the elderly is nourishing in a way I can't explain. Sure, it's depressing to see someone withering into extreme old age, but it is also uplifting. She has a remarkable vocabulary for someone for whom English is her second language.

And tomorrow I fly off to SF for fun in the mild sun. I have a map of museums and restaurants to visit if I feel like it, but like all travel, this will be subject to whims. I will report back with anything interesting. For now, gotta pack!

The best times of one's life are those that are free from drudgery. By drudgery, I mean doing work you don't much like (or hate) as a means to an end that you're indifferent to, or simply to pay the rent. For now, I don't have to do that, and I feel like it's a huge gift. At the same time all of these hours are a psychic burden. Because now that I have them, I have to decide how to use them.

And of course there is "OMG I have to have an income" saturating every empty moment with anxiety. So it's not like I can just nap.... although I do. Often.

The business feels real now. When it feels a bit more real and I am happy with the website I will tell y'all a bit more about it. The scary part is making the leap from make-believe to making-money. But I have confidence. We are two smart women, and when you put two smart women in a room they can accomplish nearly anything.

The memoir stalled again about a week ago, but it is getting really close to its full volume of words, if not yet anywhere near publishable. Tonight I start a six week personal essay class at the Hugo House, which I hope will help me bring my personal stories into focus.

Meanwhile, and in addition to all of the above, I am learning two new software programs and meditation. When I'm not asleep, which is often since I've been on this detox diet. I better feel fucking amazing next week, or I want my money back. From the lemon-grower's association.

Among the things I have done since friday:

• consumed 2 butter nut toffee and 2 salted caramel chocolate martinis at dillettante
• ordered 2 pairs of shoes from Zappo's to approximate "business attire" should such a thing become necessary
• ordered a new iPod nano to use at the gym, in red
• did I mention I got paid? and got a raise?
• outlined a business plan
• installed CS4
• built a website
• ordered and received a bunch of food from Amazon Fresh
• ate a oddfellows with lily
• had pho with wyndel
• installed evernote
• wrote a couple of blog posts
• started twittering more regularly
• tidied up my Firefox bookmarks
• vacuumed
• exchanged a bunch of email with The Client from Hell
• head a difficult personal conversation that is continues to be difficult
  
• talked to my mom
• received a xmas card from Dawnelle and Garvey with a check to make up for the fact that Dawnelle kept the gloves she bought me (this made me very happy)
• journaled a little
• took a bath
• had blood drawn for a thyroid test
• ran into a non-laid-off Microsoft client at Starbucks, who is still just darn thrilled with the video we produced
• semi-cleaned the bird cage
• scrubbed couch and chair with "Poop-Off" (no, really)
• confirmed my Wednesday dental appointment
• collected a bunch of photos of sea anemones
• watched this:

For the past several weeks I have had a pet moth. It lived in my bathroom and fluttered around in a panic every time I took a shower. I didn't bother to name it, but it was cute, as moths are. Yesterday I think it escaped when I had my kitchen window open. I hope so, because honestly what can a moth sustain itself on in my bathroom?

This past week at work we have devised a series of projects to work on that will be fun, if perhaps not profitable. We all want to use our creativity, and it makes me very happy to work with people who are willing to invest in doing cool things rather than just toeing the line with clients. Projects include videos, a blog, silkscreened posters & t-shirts. It beats monotony.

I get obsessed with Pandora.  There are few better ways to discover new music, and I take pleasure in giving The Cranberries a Thumbs Down.

I still don't want a free dinner at Chili's.

On Thursday I went to Collin's Pub in Pioneer square to watch the VP debate, but I soon became too drunk to bother trying to read the subtitles. I did watch it online yesterday and was completely un-shocked by everything that was said, including Palin's little winky-winks. Despite being a bit of a ding-bat who is out of touch with everything outside Alaska, I really don't think she's as bad as her detractors are screaming she is. Maybe not the brightest bulb. Definitely not a viable option for VP. But at least she's not Dick Cheney? When that's the best thing I can think to say about someone... not a good sign.

Last night aunt Rosie and I tried the new swanky Asian gourmet restaurant a few blocks from my house. It was just OK. For the amount of hype it's been getting I expected exceptional.

It's getting chilly around here. I have my window open to try to air out the place after I let aunt Rosie smoke inside, and now I'm sitting here wrapped up in a comforter.

I organized my pantry. That was enlightening. Who know I had so many lentils?

I have been working on my Master Plan. Not realy taking shape yet, though.

Tonight I am going to see Blood Simple at the Central Cinema. One of my favorite films at my new favorite theater, where one can eat and drink (dinner! beer! wine!) while watching.

I cannot find a copy of Infinite Jest at any of my usual bookstores. Maybe there was a rush on it when he died? I always used to see copies everywhere!

Why do Sundays come with this sense of dread? Why should anything that I do by choice fill me with anxiety? Oh well.  I suppose there's medication for that.  Here's what has happened from Wednesday til now:

• Wednesday at 1:00 client calls to see if we will be at a meeting he neglected to invite us to, at 2:00. Three of us then drive across town and sit for 2 and a half hours receiving a lot of information that has little to no relevance to what we are doing.
• Wednesday evening homebody and I had an excellent dinner at La Spiga and then went to the Wedding Present show at Neumo's.  The opener, Earlimart, was better than anticipated. Which is lucky because (I found out later) the door person neglected to give me my all access pass so we could not hang out in the basement with the band.
• Thursday I had far too many meetings.
• Friday I left work after 2 long meetings and drove with my friend to Canada in a rented Chevy. We ate a Domino's pizza in our hotel room and watched the presidential debate. McCain's smug little smirk was annoying.
  
• The Wedding Present show in Vancouver was full of extremely drunk people. One older curly-haired man repeatedly fell down near me, until the angry bouncer ejected him. There was also a surprising amount of moshing by British men over 40 who have been following the band and refer to themselves as "David Gedge's Barmy Army."
• At both Wedding Present show a (different) young couple were making out 6 inches in front of my face. A little awkward. I felt like they should either get a room or I should join in. Two different couples, mind you!
• I slept very well at the Moda hotel and Vancouver.
• Saturday morning I got a mocha with melted Belgian dark chocolate from Blenz before we visted the messiest used book store on Earth.  They have every book... somewhere in a heap.
• I always go to Lush in Vancouver even though there is now one in Seattle. I got a tub of facial mask, body cream, and toner.
• We ate lunch at Mandala Asian restaurant where I gorged myself on sushi.
• There was a long line at the border, but no problem getting through. I was entertained by watching the dog sniffer show particular interest in the back seat of another car. When we drove off the dog was actually IN the car.
• The good bookstore that I never went to in Mt. Vernon is closed.
• Dropping off my friend in Pioneer Square a crazy woman asked us for money in a very convoluted and long-winded way, despite repeatedly telling her that we didn't have any. She proceeded to wander into the street and sing loudly about losing $24 dollars and getting it back 1000-fold in heaven. She reminded me of my mom.
• I had a bath and went to bed at 9:30.
• Sunday morning I got a "hare up my arse" and went to Ikea where I spent over $100 as I always do when I go there. I also ran into Homebody who was buying a desk for her new office space. We randomly run into each other more than most people.
• Then I decided to try shopping at the GreenFresh Market in Renton. It's a nice little store - a lot of local, organic food, and very few customers. I was a bit tripped out by shopping on a Sunday afternoon at a nearly deserted store.
• I went home and took a nap.
• Binky invited me over to her apartment for dinner since we are both trying to be frugal. She made yummy vegetarian pasta and an arugula salad.
• Now I'm going to take another bath and go to bed.
• Good night.