Cream Cheese and other Assorted Reasons to LOVE the Holidays!

I'll admit it. I've struggled with holiday cheer in the last few years. I LOVE Christmas (mostly for the color and the lights, though I don't care for colored lights) and losing that sense of joy around the holidays has been hard. My already incredibly tiny family shrank (shrunk?) even further and it is hard to celebrate with a house full of two when you are feeling guilty that the other one (my son) doesn't have a "real family" to celebrate with. These are the times of divorce and I know we are not alone in our smallness.

But today is Thanksgiving and I'm working in a community hospital ER (ok, I'm writing this so working might be a stretch) with people I genuinely like and care about. There is a ton of food (it's 838am and I've already had pumpkin bread and I'm eating cream cheese stuffed Skyline chili dip), people are looking at the paper for their Black Friday ads and there is, in fact, a sense of merriment.

I just got my Christmas decorations packed back up from LAST Christmas about 3 months ago (shameful) and I may not pull them back down again. But regardless, I'm feeling joyful. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving in a Box from Kroger and 2012 with Ryan and M. Then Ryan will be here for the rest of the weekend and we'll gorge on movies and junk. Old clients have popped back up, existing clients are warm and wonderful, I am blessed with awesome friends and family and I have an overall sense of peace. If you are reading this, I hope you have it too.

Tim Burton and the NY MoMA!

Even if I have to walk and sleep on the street, I've got to get there. It opened yesterday and ends April 26.

Is Health Care Coming? Barack at the Great Wall of China

I suppose the people fighting health care legislation are all either insured already, have never faced being uninsurable, forget that most of our financial support has gone to bailing out large corporations (not people), and that every other industrialized nation on the planet has some type of health care option for its citizens. They consider that an act of compassion (via a Dubai citizen). Regardless, it passed a major hurdle yesterday thanks to this magnificent man.

Did George W. ever even LOOK presidential? I can't remember that day.

Thought for Today

“When one loves, one does not calculate.”


Thank you to Gretchen Rubin of The Happiness Project for pointing me to this quote from St. Therese of Lisieux.
 
Not much more to add to that, is there?

Newsy Newsletter/E-zine Coming Soon!

Some of you received an email invite to my upcoming newsletter. Look to the right and you will see a new sign-up form (all of this setup and design was tremendously easy...and fun! The newsletter runs off Mail Chimp which is free if you have less than 500 subscribers and there will be a link on the site if you want to try it yourself).

Mostly I want to use the newsletter to inspire others. I'm all over the Web, see and read a lot of really awesome stuff, some for work, some simply because I love it and I do so love to share the juicy goodness that I find. I get twice as many readers here as I do on the business blog so it will be a tricky businesses to keep both groups happy...but I'm going to try.

It won't be annoying or long or terribly frequent. Probably once a month, maybe twice. Easy to unsubscribe. I think it will be juicy, but hey, it's one of my babies so I would...

Try it for an issue or two. If you don't like, unsubscribe. No harm done, eh?

Have a lovely weekend. I'll be hanging with my peeps in the ER!

Zooming Right Along...

I am not having any Jack Handy "deep thoughts" today. But I came across this photo and had to throw it up on the blog. Of course it is from Design Sponge and I do not consume enough to be able to do this but I certainly know a person or two who does and I thought it was hot.

Bright Star, a lovely, lyrical (and some would say slow like my friend Steph-oh! SHE'S not slow, but thought the movie was) movie about John Keats and his love affair with Fanny Braun is worth your time if you love a costume drama. It is NOT for your average viewer (a few people were yawning massively), but if the visuals are important to you in a film, I recommend it. I imagine heaven looks a bit like some of the English gardens in this film.

I started reading Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robison. I don't recommend it. The author is Augusten Burrough's older brother who chronicles his life with Asberger's syndrome. And I do mean chronicles. There is little flow to this book, just anecdote after anecdote. I realize that could be because of the author's unique vision, but it still made for a pretty boring read. Stick with Burroughs...

I have been rocking out to a song that's been out awhile: Paolo Nutini's "New Shoes". It just now started getting local radio play and I heard the words. Not too many truly happy songs that don't sound sappy. This one is just plain fun. Definitely going on my Motivate Me! iPod playlist.

Anything new with you?

A couple of things

Post about Patti Smith here. Clearly I was affected. See next line.

A couple of decent poems here and here.

Mad Men is absolutely tearing me to pieces. If you haven't watched, get the DVD's and catch up this winter! Flash Forward is good too (NOTHING on television compares to Mad Men, though. Everything seems amateur in comparison).

OMG! A Classic "Tool"

When Ryan was a teenager, he taught me the word "tool". I save the word "tool" because I think it is so special and fantastic. Per Ryan's definition a "tool is generally male, the guy who thinks he's funny but no one else does, the guy every one tries to get away from but he never picks up on their not-so-subtle clues". A tool differs from an asshole only slightly but there is a slimy quality about the tool that the asshole may not have (after all My Russell Crowe and Colin Farrell have both been referred to as assholes. I don't think they are tools).

I work with a real tool. I MEAN CLASSIC. He is an ex-Marine. He is the guy that has so many nervous tics and subtle (or not so) issues that when he had a minor blow up at work, everyone was afraid of what was in his backpack. He goes up to all men and shakes their hand, looks them in the eye and says "I'm a tool, nice to meet you." (He really gives his name which of course, I cannot) as they stand there going "why are you talking to me?".

You can't say anything to him without him getting painfully defensive and agitated so constructive criticism is out of the question. He lies chronically, takes excessive lunches and is always schmoozing with someone. He has a cruel streak and his sexism is dripping out of each pore. EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.

Why do these people last in any business? Why do we cower to these kinds of people who cause our whole culture to stink? FIRE THE TOOLS OF THE WORLD or threaten them with therapy.

End of rant (I'm working with the tool today. It was this or have a conniption fit.

Singing High Praises: The Bloggess

NOT me! Her.

SO:

I started off the day like this:

(missed alarm so overslept, spilled coffee down my shirt, unexpected ice on windows, temporary crown fell out again and there was FOG the whole way to work so I had to drive 40 for 1/2 of my 45 miles, got to hospital, ER full, cover front where I actually TOUCH everyone who says they think they have swine flu, and then the creepy volunteer wants to sit by me and do nothing...you get the picture, right?)

Anyone who can get me to laugh out loud from cyberspace, repeatedly, when I haven't eaten since my tiny, but yummy serving of Bertollis Chicken Florentine last night and with crying babies everywhere, deserves big kudos.

In case you don't have the energy to actually go read it, her is a snippet:

So this weekend I leave for Japan. ”Why?” you ask? Because it’s there. And also because I got drunk one night and Victor asked me if I’d go to Japan with him and apparently I said yes. This is what happens when you get drunk around Victor. You wake up in the morning and need a passport. Whenever I mention it to people they’re all “JAPAN! THAT’S AWESOME!” but to be honest I’m a terrible traveler and Japan scares the shit out of me and all I really know about Japan is that Godzilla was born there. Also, I may be mixing Japan up with China. Which I think makes me racist. Or just bad at geography. Possibly both.

I don't think I know her name, I have yet to follow on Twitter (I'm going to but I'm at work and there are restrictions), and she has a SEX COLUMN to boot (obviously, I can't read that here either).

She doesn't need it (uber popular) but show her some love anyway....

New Stuff and Silly Lovely Humans

Have had some great feedback on some recent posts over at the AROnetworking blog. Check them out.

So You Think You Can Dance has rolled out its new fall version (enough viewers that they could move from summer to fall). I'm consistently touched by this show. Not just the talent but the REAL mentoring these extremely powerful and motivated young dancers receive. They don't have their egos torn down (ala American Idol), but are given concrete feedback as needed and loads of genuine praise.

This year sees the addition of 3 tap dancers. Now, I'll be the first to say that tap gives me the snoozies. BUT I am just amazed at the wealth of curious little passions of the human spirit. Tap, remote control airplanes, peace, cake design, PowerPoint presentations, license plate collecting, building monuments to things we care about...we may not be making the best decisions for our fellow creatures or planet, but we sure are entertaining and silly.

And speaking of passion and American Idol, MY Adam Lambert's upcoming albut (release date 11/23) has more pre-ordered sales than the current albums by Barbra Streisand, Mariah Carey and Madonna. GET OUT! SHUT UP! I'm so happy for him. He was on Oprah briefly this week and they showed a clip from Idol and I got goosebumps again. His photos in Details magazine are hot, hot, hot. I will see him in concert and I might toss some panties. I know. It makes NO SENSE. But hey, he's got that thing!