respite

Life has been quite a whirlwind lately, and I am so looking forward to respite. I found that I was overloading myself this month -- lots of extra work, continuing with the Sparkle*Shelf gig, and still having some social life (very important).

In an attempt to get my life back to zen (and I use that term very loosely), I have decided to put the Sparkle*Shelf gig on hold until October and not obsess too much about getting all my OT hours in before my trip (though I'm pretty close to filling them).

Further respite will come in an upcoming vacation to Peru and Argentina, and I cannot wait. The Mister and I will meet up with our dear friend who has already become our intermittent travel agent and will be our guide/translator/party person.

Here are a few recent highlights and things to come:

New Mexico - I went to the desert in search of something but what I found was a little different. I went alone to do a personal writing retreat to get my creative writing in gear but instead I got bored quickly and missed The Mister. I got some writing done, admitted I need a lot of work in fiction because I'm not good at it, and had one of the loveliest evenings.

The Lovely New Mexico Evening - This deserves its own blurb. I stayed at a beautiful B&B and the evening weather was perfect. I walked the grounds for an hour first in quiet, and then to some spiritual Moby tracks. It took me a sec to realize I was perfectly safe walking the grounds late at night, alone. There was a full moon, and beautiful tree silhouettes. It pretty much made my trip, and I crave those types of moments that are not possible in suburbia.

Birthday Girls Night Out - My friend decided she wanted to go out dancing for her belated, "faux 30" bday. Despite being sick the two days before, I got better in time and was able to party down. For a short time - my 4" heels were a mistake. Ha. As was Simon Rex's (a.k.a. Dirt Nasty) decision to be a rapper. Yeah, he was there as a guest DJ.

Birthday Pub Quiz Night - My other friend had a birthday get-together at a pub on quiz night. It was a fun night as we put our collective knowledge of random information together and cheered on Michael Phelps in between rounds. GOOOOO Team Steph! Oh, and I stayed past my bedtime on a work night, but it was worth it.

Things to come:

Demo - We're going to get a bathroom remodel done (yay!) and the quote is higher than what we planned on (boo!). To cut costs, we'll be handling some demo with the kind help of friends and then painting later.

So basically, will be working hard right up to the time of vacation - the good thing is, I really feel we've earned it!

america's best dance crew 2 - top 2

SERIOUSLY?!

So Real Cru got the most votes?! Did anyone else see Super Cr3w's Superman routine and Fanny Pak's Get Your Freak On number?! So Real Cru is boring. Not very innovative and no crazy tricks.

This is what I HATE about shows that require viewer votes.

Super Cr3w and Fanny Pak should have been top 2. Props to both - they both brought everything to the 80s challenge.

But please don't let So Real Cru win it all. Can you imagine how weak that would be considering how awesome the season 1 winning crew was? No, no, no, no, no.

VOTE Super Cr3w.