I'd Like to Thank the Academy

I am taking a break from my break. I am leaving the confines of my blog-sabbatical and coming to you live and in-person. The reason? Today I won a major award. My favorite writer, blogger, and faraway-friend, Leigh Ann, presented me with this:

Here's the lowdown:

The rules of this award are whatever you want them to be. It would be nice if you linked back to the originator of the award and to give it for the reason he created it:

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This award is "dedicated to many who nourish and enrich the spirit and creativity. They see dedication, creativity, camaraderie, joy and above all, ART - much art. I wish that this prize is entertaining to all bloggers who share this space and enrich it a little more each day." ~ Arte Y Pico
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I am am honored to receive such a great award from such an amazing writer. I would like to thank her for keeping me on my toes, praising me when I needed it, and showing me how far a kick-ass chick can go with a bunch of talent, some grit, and a little bit of pink hair. I aspire to follow in her footsteps. Around our house, That Girl From Shallotte is famous. Remember her name because tomorrow, it'll be the world!

I would also like to thank Mike for always providing me with great material and for always sitting immediately at his computer no matter what else is going on when he learns that I actually posted that day. It's nice when someone who loves you is also a fan.

This has inspired me to get back on this horse and ride. Writers' block be damned!!

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In turn, I would like to pass this award on to two others who are very deserving.

First to KatieO from Sister Skinny. Her blog is now finished due to the fact that she reached her goal of becoming a size 6. She may be a stay-at-home mom and a fitness and weight-loss guru, but above all, she is a writer. I have never "met" someone who is so super-sweet and totally mischievous at the same time. I can't wait until she starts a new blog.


I would also like to pass this award on to Bex from The Blog of Bex. She is dirty and crass, and no subject is off limits, and she makes me laugh so hard about everything from pop-culture to the bathroom habits of her three children that I border on incontinence. Seriously, she puts the really LOUD in LOL.


So, thanks again, Leigh Ann. You are the best blog-buddy a girl could wish for.

I'm Baaaaa-aaaack

Ok, so I have been away for over a month. In fact, it has been almost TWO months. What can I say? Life got in the way.

I miss writing here so much, and so tonight I am posting an explanation, and then after this week I promise to be back with more real stories every week, whether you want them or not!

Mike is still in the midst of his horrific travel schedule. He leaves each Monday morning for the airport at the crack of dawn, returning dutifully each Friday evening around nine. I am so proud of what he is accomplishing for his career, but selfishly, I miss him and wish he were here to endure the brunt of my week with me. Things are so much easier when there is a warm body to soak up the stresses of the day. This coming Friday, I will fly to his "second city" in Chicago to see what his life is like there. I suppose, although I hate to admit it, he has become my muse, and it seems impossible to write without him around.

Life is about to get pretty topsy-turvy where my work is concerned as well. I will expand on that more tomorrow, as that is when things become "official".

I am working on a few pieces right now, although lately it seems as if everything I have put on paper (and screen) has been trash. For those who follow, I will post my next real post on Tuesday of next week, and get back to my weekly rhythm from there.

Thanks so much for the recent comments and emails regarding my whereabouts. I am alive and well and ready to get back in the game, I promise. I miss my blog, and my blog-buddies. Life is about to change. Things are about to get hilarious. I wouldn't dream of keeping it a secret.

Hiatus

There is so much traveling going on right now that I can't even keep my head straight. Mike got put on a huge project for work. His reward? Traveling to Chicago basically every single Monday through Friday for the next four months. It is great for his career, and he really deserves this huge opportunity, so I am trying not to be a baby about it. I know I have said before how I love my alone time, but come on. This is a tiny bit too much. Plus, the new responsibility comes with a Blackberry, so even when we are together, we are not quite together. I haven't flushed it down the toilet yet, and we are powering through. I am just learning to resort back to my single roots.

I saw Mike on Tuesday of last week when he left for Chicago. I then left for Girls' Ski Trip at 2pm on Friday, ten hours before he returned home. I got home Monday, saw him for the 25 minutes it took me to drive him to the airport and have not laid eyes on him since. He should be landing in about two hours, then we have to leave for Dallas to go to his friend's wedding tomorrow at noon. On top of it, things have been insane for me at work, too, and any time I have had not writing boring work stuff has been spent promising my dog that his life of being spoiled rotten with walks and constant attention will return shortly. The moral of all of this whining is that I promise to be back with more stories early next week. Here are some teasers:

I have about five stories from Girls' Ski Trip, including one where I was an actual rock star in Breckenridge for a fleeting few minutes. I'm serious.

I am up for a new job at work. A crossroads if you will, and there are some really odd elements to it all.

More about how Mike and I have become two ships passing in the night.

And more about my quest to be a tall skinny hottie even if it kills me.

So, have a great weekend. I will be in Dallas, where I heard it is supposed to be SNOWING tomorrow. How unfair is that? I think it actually follows me. In the meantime, check out some great stories from That Girl From Shallotte. I promise you won't be disappointed. She is my favorite columnist/blogger.
See you all back here on Monday.

The Resolutionist

I have been AWOL for over two weeks now. Holiday craziness and an urgent wisdom-teeth-removal adventure followed by a three-day Percoset-induced state of stupidity have kept me from my blog. (Count yourselves lucky that I did not attempt to write any stories under the influence of painkillers...those things make me so loopy.) However, I am back on the very last day of the year to discuss a subject about which I’m sure many other bloggers are certainly typing their little hearts out at this very moment. That’s right. New Year’s Resolutions.

I think the reason that I feel comfortable spilling my guts on this subject is because, last year, I actually kept a resolution. I vowed on January 1, 2007 that I would, at some point during the year, quit smoking, and I did it. I stuck to it for the first time ever, and honestly, can’t even imagine how I ever engaged in that nasty habit to start with. I feel really good about that. So, one down. On a different note, I was also supposed to lose 40 pounds last year. I was desperate to get back to my svelte age-23 weight, but alas, since realized that I am no longer 23; I am 31. While I did lose a quite a few pounds this past year, I also gained a couple here and there, resulting in a net weight loss of approximately 3 pounds for the year. Uh, yeah. Not so impressive. But wait!! I competed in my first-ever triathlon in August, finishing nowhere even remotely close to first, but actually finishing, and doing so without a trip to the Emergency Room to boot. One small step for me towards my goal.

This year, I am taking a different outlook. My past resolutions have always been about improvements in my health and in my looks. I am still resolving to lose weight this year, because it’s tradition; I resolve to lose weight every year. However, this year, I am resolving to improve my inside more than my outside. I need a new attitude and a new way to engage in and react to the world around me. I need to calm the hell down, not get so stressed, and really take time to enjoy my play and excel in my work. I resolve to think before I speak and to avoid getting angry unless it is absolutely warranted. I resolve to take the proverbial time to smell the roses. I resolve to, as Henry James would put it, be kind. Included within each of these resolutions is the resolve to exercise regularly and to write more because those are things that make me feel happy and fulfilled and useful. That’s it. Basically, I am resolving to give myself a psychological lobotomy. No big deal, right? We shall see.

There will be more stories to come this week, much more typical of my usual blogging than today’s post, but I figured I better put something up here before I lose momentum.

Some housekeeping items:

Happy 70th Birthday to my Dad today. He is an amazing man and my sisters and I are very, very lucky to have him as our dad.

…and many more, Dad!!

Also, sadly, this looks like the end of an era, if an era was indeed a period of time equivalent to approximately four months. After doing some brief internet research, it turns out that my very-not-so-creative blog name is taken. Oh, and copyrighted. Nice. I initially just threw a name on there and started my blog because a friend told me that all writers should have a blog, and so I suddenly felt very left out. I, being very similar to my father as far as technology is concerned, was unfamiliar with blogging until that point and did not realize that it was actually a really big thing. Now that I am addicted and love my blog and my fellow bloggers, I have come to realize that this is a real thing where real people and real writers express themselves as individuals and as a community and it is not cool to, as some of my favorite co-workers would say, bite someone’s steez. In other (real) words, I must change the name of my blog in order to avoid stealing from someone and breaking a law. Capisce? So, ok, I now have no name for my blog..... This blog shall heretofore remain nameless until I can think of something which will accurately capture what I do here. What do I do here? Well, I ask myself that all the time. This is the best explanation: I am a writer who is trying to get over the untimely loss of her mother whilst still attempting to crack people up with silly everyday stories. What do you call that? Oh crap. I feel a brainstorming session coming on.

Anyway, more to follow, and a Happy 2008 to everyone I love, and everyone out there in blog-world. I have a feeling it is going to be a great year!!

Now, I am finally going to go catch up on all of my fave blogs, this time with a slightly clearer head.