Monday, August 10, 2009

As a matter of fact, I WOULD jump off a bridge, if Flurrious told me to

No need to send out a search party; I am alive and well. Or, alive, anyway, and mostly well, but feeling persistently disgruntled for possibly no good reason, that being the fact that I am TIRED and life is hard, yo, at least when suddenly forced to live it like a proper grown-up, with a full schedule and commensurate responsibilities and so forth. I told a good friend in an email recently that I was feeling unusually busy lately, and that I've missed my sitting-around time. I really am quite excellent at wasting large chunks of time, and for a while there, I was doing so only at work, not at home. It's good to have a proper work/life balance, after all. My preferred way to restore that balance would have been to free my social schedule and to-do list for a while and hole myself up with two seasons' worth of Mad Men DVDs. The people who direct-deposit my paycheck had other ideas, however, and instead of my scaling back on the off-hours activity, they have upped my 8-to-5 responsibilities significantly. Rather, make that 7-to-5, because it turns out being a responsible, professionally employed grown-up means not just doing valid and work-related activities all day long with no breaks for idle internetting, but also occasionally starting that day at the ungodly hour of 7:00 am. (The horror!) At 7:00 am, I would much prefer to be still soundly sleeping, but in the interest of remaining gainfully employed in a job I occasionally enjoy, I will consent to having pried myself out of bed and be toweling off from a shower right around that hour. Being expected at a meeting 30 minutes from my home at 7:00 am, however? Fully dressed and alert and in business-ready mode? I did not realize that was part of the deal. Oh my.

This is a long and roundabout, excuse-laden way of saying I am tempted to follow Flurrious's lead and give myself official permission to ignore my blog for the remainder of August. Writing here is supposed to be something I do because I enjoy it, not something I do because it is the longest-neglected thing at the bottom of my to-do list. A blog is just a blog, and neglecting it should not instill any particular guilt, but I was raised Catholic; unwarranted guilt is standard operating procedure for me.

Before I vanish again, I suppose could tell you what I've been up to since you heard from me last. Let's see. Well, I enjoyed another summer pilgrimage to the magical Pizza Farm, I made my first flan, I kissed a 27-year-old stranger (for no better reason than that he asked), I unintentionally alienated someone who is supposed to be one of my closest friends, and I came three steps closer to finally finishing a hand-made birthday gift that is now nearly a full year overdue. (Note: I am not necessarily proud of any of these accomplishments, but am significantly less proud of some than of others.) Also, I failed to solidify any actual plans for my upcoming vacation, but there is some benefit and excitement to the fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants mode of leisure travel, so I see no reason fret to any degree about that.

Of course, now that I have given myself permission to check out until Labor Day, I will probably find myself logging in with something amusing-only-to-me to say in less than two days' time. Perhaps I will and perhaps I won't. Midwestern Girl of Mystery; that's me.

17 comments:

3carnations said...

Thanks for checking in to let us know...that you're checking out.

nancypearlwannabe said...

Nooo... come back, Midwestern Girl of Mystery! I need blogs to read! They distract me from doing any work!

-R- said...

I am going to have to try that pizza farm next year.

I would think you would be proud of both the plan and the 27-year-old guy. Why not?

I start work at 7 too. Isn't it awful? But the commute is way better.

lizgwiz said...

I don't think I could be a responsible enough grown-up to start my work day at 7:00. Kudos to you.

I'm curious as to the context of the kissing? WHERE exactly did the "asking" take place? I mean...at a bar, at a concert, in line at Target? ;)

flurrious said...

I would never ask you to jump off a bridge. However, I am trying to get big hair to catch on again, so if you could get a perm, that would be great, thanks.

When you do post again, I would like more details about the 27-year-old please.

Jess said...

You should always be able to check out of your blog if you need to. Seriously.

Courtney said...

Booooo for the blog hiatus. I will now commence pouting. (I'm so helpful with the guilt, aren't I?) Fine, I respect your busy schedule and need for a break. But that doesn't mean I have to like it.

Sauntering Soul said...

Kissing random 27 year olds? Please tell us more about that.

badger reader said...

A break, right when I am in most need of procrastination at work? I say boooo! At least pop in to end the suspense and clear up the 27 year old kissing incident. I was laughing at Liz's comment about kissing in line at Target.

Poppy said...

"I enjoyed another summer pilgrimage to the magical Pizza Farm, I made my first flan, I kissed a 27-year-old stranger (for no better reason than that he asked), I unintentionally alienated someone who is supposed to be one of my closest friends, and I came three steps closer to finally finishing a hand-made birthday gift that is now nearly a full year overdue."

Such an awesome run-on sentence recap of your life. I love it!

Stefanie said...

3Cs--You're welcome. I figured it was about time for you to start worrying about me again. :-)

NPW--Oh, I'll be back. I'm not quitting. I just need to let myself not have "I should really write a blog post" constantly nagging me in the back of my head for a while.

R--You must! Shall I invite you the next time I go? The only thing is it is only on Tuesday nights, and it's an hour and a half away. And we very much try to leave before rush hour starts, or by the time we get there, the wait time is two hours long. The Pizza Farm is not very conducive to a lawyer's schedule is what I'm saying. Can you sneak out early on a Tuesday or no?

Liz--It was a bar. A bar I never go to, and yet, I get semi-hit-on by twenty-somethings in strange ways nearly every time I do. It's sort of like entering into a strange, alternate universe. Or maybe it's just that every time I go, I am more than a wee bit drunk. That might be more likely. ;-)

Flurrious--Even with a perm, my hair is incapable of being big. Circa 1990, my ridiculous pouf of bangs was the least ridiculous of all my friends'. In retrospect, maybe I'm lucky my hair does nothing.

Jess--Thanks; I appreciate that.

Courtney--Oh, relax. Given how sporadic my posting's been lately, you probably won't even notice! Still, it's sweet of you to care. :-)

SS--Seriously, that one sentence is more interesting than the actual story. There really isn't much of a story. The whole encounter took up all of maybe 45 seconds, and I could barely even piece together how it happened immediately thereafter. The two shots of limoncello prior may have had something to do with that, I think. Oof.

Badger Reader--That WOULD be a lot more interesting a story... Alas, for all the past dates I have run into at Target, I have never ever kissed anyone there.

Poppy--Hold on now. That may have been a LONG sentence, but it was grammatically sound! :-)

-R- said...

The pizza farm is way more important than my job. Seriously.

Allie said...

There's no point in stressing about vacation plans. Sometimes, by the seat of your pants is the only way to fly.

Tress said...

Just when I determine to make a concentrated effort to blog more, everyone checks out. I cannot wait until September.

Also, I have a hair appointment on Friday and will keep flurrious in mind. Though thinking about getting big hair is probably going to be the extent of my assistance.

Lara said...

Ha. I hope you do take Flurrious's lead and get a perm so big hair will come back and I will finally fit in again.

Also, what friend did you alienate?

3carnations said...

Welcome to September. Should we expect a post from you soon? :-)

Unknown said...

Are you all right? It's now 10th September and no post. Do we need to send a search party?