Thanksgiving at home

Since we've been traveling so much this fall (what with the wedding and all), Chris and I decided to stay put for Thanksgiving and host Chris's little bro for dinner. The elements of our awesome day:

Flowers.

Apples.

More flowers.

Munchies.

Cat in a box.

Turkey.

Gravy.

Veggies (and homemade cranberry sauce contributed by my awesome co-worker!)

Vegetarian plate (thank you, Quorn!). Including regular beans and green bean casserole (because sometimes stuff baked with a can of soup and fried onions rocks).

Dishwashers.

Efficiency.

Beatles Rock Band.

And to top it off, tea, dessert (flourless chocolate cake), and an old movie: The Seven Year Itch.

Hope everyone had a terrific turkey day!

Running my days

During the early stages of wedding planning, I was talking with my mom about scheduling some time to meet with caterers. I whipped out my trusty Day Runner and she exclaimed "You still have that thing?"

Yes, I do. Mom bought it for me on a back-to-school Staples run one year, and I never looked back. This must have been after the ordinance enforcing mandatory use of school-issued "agendas" was lifted, but I can't pin down the exact year.

Long after they stopped selling 6-ring generic planner refills at our local Wal-Mart, I continued using this thing. I order refills every year online.

For one year after college, I stopped using it. I figured, "Hey, I don't have any homework, right?" I felt lost. I get so much more done if I write it down longhand. That makes it real. That means I will do it. And that means I get to scribble it into oblivion once it is done:

There are few things more satisfying than scribbling out to-dos. Now, my mom is right. This thing is old. This thing is so old that plaid has come back into fashion. The cat recently chewed on the little closure strap (check the close-up of his teeth marks below). And, I'll be honest, the cloth cover smells a little bit funny. (I've tried Febreeze.)

It's no secret that I love to keep stuff until I've run it into the ground. Sometimes I just get attached to things that make me feel like me. I've been considering getting a new planner, but they seem so slick and sterile. They scream "I am an organized professional!" This one...well, let's just say I've taken to calling this one my "serial killer notebook."

For if I got a new planner, would it take kindly to my cutting up and punching holes in prints of artwork that I like?

Or to my scribblings of sights I see or things I hear? (Recent favorite: Teenage girl describing a disliked schoolmate as having the look of "an angry snowball." I am so using that.)

Would a new planner sneer at the ridiculous way in which I do math?

This little book is home to all kinds of scraps of me. Nutty scribblings, big ideas, concert ticket stubs, business cards, bar recommendations, books to read, and a beautiful piece written for me by a poet friend years ago, which I whip out whenever I'm feeling down on myself.

Last year, one of my Christmas presents from Chris was a set of colorful monthly divider tabs featuring pictures of the cat and cute little notes.

I think I'll be hanging on to this book a little while yet...

5 coolest words in the English language

I am loving "desiderium" (an ardent desire or wish; a longing, properly for a thing once possessed and now missed; a sense of loss).

Check out the rest here!

Do you have any favorite words? I've always loved "ineffable".

Recent musings

"I'm trying to find me a better way
to get from the things I do to the things I should."
–Counting Crows

It's no mistake that I've been listening to the Counting Crows for about 15 years. I can always find something in their lyrics that speaks to me, no matter what I'm going through.

Blerg.

Do you guys ever overcommit yourselves?

I spent a lot of time this weekend seriously trying to nail down my priorities and get my focus back. I've never been one to shy away from extracurricular activities, and this is a problem. I had a really good balance going and threw it off about 6 months ago by adding another musical endeavor. It's been part of what's been making me feel sorta strung out these days. So I had to quit today. Well, not quit so much as begin to develop a plan to quit. I'm going to phase out my involvement over the next few months so as not to utterly screw over the other group members. I want to be prioritizing some personal, non-music creative projects.

On the one hand, I am glad I figured out that I needed to take this step, and that I mustered the courage to take it. I generally suck at backing out of anything. Usually, this is good. I'm not one to RSVP to every Facebook event or whatnot, but if I say I'll do something, I mean it and I'll do it. This can sometimes lead to doing things I don't really want to be doing because I can't say no once I've said yes. Perhaps this is also conflict avoidance. But on the other hand, does it ever suck to let people down. And I wind up feeling a little disappointed in myself for being a quitter...but hey, remember my tarot? I've got to make those difficult changes to keep my "wish" from slipping away.

Venki

Ever since I saw this photo of a girl wearing a venki, a Russian wildflower crown, I've been meaning to post it. Wish I were donning one of these today! 

Typography nerdery

For all you designers out there, or all you general typography nerds, this New York Times piece is just great.

“I think sometimes that being overly type-sensitive is like an allergy,” said Michael Bierut, a partner in the Pentagram design group in New York. “My font nerdiness makes me have bad reactions to things that spoil otherwise pleasant moments.”

One of my favorite proofreading marks is "wf" for "wrong font." You'd be surprised how many times a little something ends up in the wrong font. Usually this happens with quotation marks, and it's easy to tell because some are curvy and some are not. (Once, I proofed something for Chris and he read the "wf" mark as "wtf." I told my boss that we should introduce that mark ASAP.) Now I feel like re-watching Helvetica!

image via Flikr