yippee!!

i invite you all to please join me in a rousing rendition of my new favorite song (sung to the tune of "happy birthday," of course):

1... 2.... 3...

happy sabbatical to me,
happy sabbatical to me!
happy sabaaaaatical to meeeeeeee....
happy sabbatical to me!!



hee hee :-)

mardi gras parade

as promised, here's a pic from the mardi gras parade we did this weekend in the small town of crockett, ca.

it rained RIGHT up until it was time for the parade to start, then a little bit of sunshine cleared everything ... just for us!

we rocked it, but the SB Freaks motorcycle crew were the real highlight - front wheelies, horizontal donuts, the works. i loved them.

there are a couple of other pics on the website, but i like the lighting in this one the best. so there you go.

juicy!

one of the most exciting things that dave and i have done recently sounds dirty but it's actually quite delicious (not that they are mutually exclusive, mind you - that would just be a completely different type of post).

we have been juicing! hee hee :-) the juicer is my new favorite kitchen accessory. actually, if you want to get technical, it's the Breville JE900 Juice Fountain, which i got at amazon for only $99 (+$4 overnight delivery because i am an amazon junkie and pay an annual fee for their prime membership - it has been sooooooo worth it).

as for the juicer, we bought it in preparation for my upcoming sabbatical (4.5 days left!), so i can fulfill my fresh-squeezed juice obsession without having to a) drive to work every day just to hit up my favorite cafe, or b) spend all my money at a different cafe, somewhere else.

so far, we've juiced carrots, tomatoes, celery, pineapple, and a few combinations of those. the pineapple juice was AMAZING - creamy, smooth.... just dreamy.

and speaking of dreams, this is the funny part. i actually had a dream last night about juicing! i can't remember any specific combinations, but i know i was making green smoothies - kale was one ingredient i remember. they were all freshy-fresh, bright green, and, of course, they were all delicious.

i realize my fantasies might be a bit ... tame these days, but i make no excuses. i love to juice.

w00t!

heh. that was my shout-out to the geeks in my life.

my past week has been back-to-back meetings, from 9-5 every day. i know some of you think all i do is eat gourmet lunches and get massages, but you are so wrong i can't even begin to tell you.

i also know that you all are sooooooo eager for hot, sexy, juicy fire dancing posts, but they ain't happening right now! sorry, folks! my life is a shee-nazzle of google madness until feb. 28th! i am missing a fab-o gig on the 18th, but my co-performers should get hot pix that i'll post when i get 'em!

day one of my leave - march 1st - i have booked 3 hours at kabuki. i say, may as well start it off right! but until then... just pray that everything will work out a.o.k....

this is a crazy thing, taking a leave of absence. it's like, i want to wrap things up forever, but i also know that i will come back in june.

heh. "yeah, riiiiiiiiight," i can hear your choruses.

that's what you all say, when i tell ya i'm taking a sabbatical. for some funny reason (heh), no one believes i'll actually come back.

well, believe it. i WILL be back in june........... if only for a party to celebrate whatever decisions i've made over the 3 months....... besides, i would still have to turn in my laptop and make all sorts of HR decisions, right?..... leaving a company you've worked at for almost five years isn't as easy as a letter and a cake, at least, not here.

all that said, i'm not leaving for good..... yet.

i'm just taking a few months off to chill the fuck out and re-evaluate my life and my goals and my health and ..... well, to stop evaluating things, in general. just to live.

goldman's post about his time off was timely and true in so many matters:

• getting away from your current situation is awesome.
  
• travel, time, and true relaxation are awesomer.
  
• having the financial flexibility and freedom to actually take time off is unbelievably great.
  
• actually relaxing and figuring out what you want to do next is ... damn straight.

i am extremely fortunate to have the financial ability to take 3 months off. i am also extremely fortunate that my dear, sweet, sweetie will be able to take time off and enjoy freedom with me.

i am also vaguely concerned that i will not actually be at my desk or in a meeting, working every day, but i am hoping that that particular reality will only take a few days to sink in.

what i am looking forward to:

• time at the gym!
• yoga!
• days that i can both go to the gym AND do yoga
  
• sitting in front of my OTHER laptop - the one with my books on it
• writing my novel
• writing my children's book
• researching, investigating, and writing my nonfiction book
• sitting on the couch
  
• staring into space!
• reading
  
• time at home, not running from meeting-to-meeting or building-to-building
• time at home with my cat on my lap
  
• time in Tahoe!
• snowboarding on all the freshy-fresh powder!
• cold-water surfing, sunny spring afternoons in Pacifica
• making it to the farmer's market
• cooking! - breakfast, lunch, dinner... snacks... juices... smoothies...
  
• NOT being dependent on the Google gourmet cafes! but being healthy and balanced in my own kitchen

eh, i have a cat next to me on one side and a glass of wine on the other, and i think i am going to take both into the living room and watch the rest of the movie that was on t.v. (dave has rehearsal tonight, it's ok). and after the movie, yay for bed.

life is good - only i get really stressed and tired sometimes. hopefully that part will end very soon. less than two weeks to go - w00t!

xox

friday tidbits

• re: my upcoming sabbatical, a friend/coworker said to me yesterday, "you've got one foot up on the desk." i couldn't have said it better myself :-)
• i like reading books that are popular or bestsellers sometimes, even if i know i will *hate* the book, just to see what the general public seems to enjoy. it gives me some perspective on humanity and america. for example, i read "the rules," when it was popular several years ago, and "the celestine prophecy," and goddamn it, i even read forced myself through "a million little pieces." my most recent humanistic endeavor is listening to nora "when harry met sally" ephron's non-fiction "i feel bad about my neck, and other thoughts on being a woman," a horrible, self-indulgent, whiny piece of trash. but what makes me feel very good and happy and laugh-out-loud about it all, is that i have just run across this fantastic remix of the trailer for "when harry met sally" - the horror movie version. YAY!! for true creativity in the face of drivel.
• finally took a CSS class - whoa. i understood some of it before, but now i, like, get it. i am very much looking forward to my upcoming revamps of spacekitten and fire arts collective.
• according to the groundhog today, we've got an early spring coming. say it ain't so! come on, we need just ONE big snow dump. just ONE. that's all i'm asking. pleeeeease?
• kundalini yoga and chai kombucha (i never meant to become such a hippie.)
• making new friends is awesome.
  
• new friends with awesome outlooks on life is even better.
• steppenwolf rock.