Make It

7 Summer Photos

I recently got my first smartphone and it's opened up a whole new world. Especially since my laptop can no longer hold an Internet connection longer than 15 minutes.

I now check my Twitter and email primarily from my phone. Google Reader, too. Probably the most fun thing about my new phone (it's a Samsung Galaxy), is the camera. There's no Instagram for Android yet, so I'm using Vignette, the next best thing. What do I take photos of?

Homemade pizzas, made using a Mario Batali recipe from my newest cookbook.

Summer is festival season in Ann Arbor, which means Main Street is closed occasionally for Art Fair....

...Or a vintage car show.

We took advantage of a wine sale at our local grocery store to try something new. A rose with a label I liked.

Enjoyed some meals at new dining options in downtown, Mark's Carts....

...And Mani, probably my favorite restaurant in Ann Arbor right now.

And, of course, lots of quality cat time.

My Weight. My Age.

How to put this delicately?

I'm gaining weight.

It started when we moved here in 2008 from Boston. In Boston, not only did I have a commute that involved extensive walking and subway riding (which I call commuter's interval training: walk briskly to station, sprint down stairs and through closing doors of train, stand on train and tighten ab muscles to stabilize your core, sprint to an open seat, clench legs to avoid touching your neighbor, dart out of train and up stairs so you can cross the street without getting get stuck at the red light; repeat several times a day) but most other activities in our lives were accomplished without a car.

Grocery shopping - which, granted, is a GIANT pain when you have a half walk mile back to the house with cartons of milk and OJ, and who knew canned beans could be so heavy and why did I buy these again...? - dinners out, visiting friends, going shopping. All of these were accomplished without the use of a car on a regular basis. 

Then we moved to Southeast Michigan, the birthplace of the automobile, and while Ann Arbor is really transit-friendly as far as this part of the country goes, we still found ourselves using the car more and more, mostly because we had to. 

Now I have a traditional full time job, I take a 50 minute bus commute - which involves very little walking - or drive or catch a ride with Matt - which involves no walking - and sit on my butt for 8 - 10 hours a day. The end result is that I'm heavier that I've ever been. Not fat, but big for me, a 5'2" small-framed person who's never had to worry too much about diet but now given the rapidly approaching 3-0 and my sedentary lifestyle will have to make some changes.

High cholesterol and diabetes run in my family and that's something I've always been aware of but never made permanent lifestyle changes to address. Now, however, I'm feeling the urge. 

The reason? The wedding.

Basically, vanity is now forcing me to do what family health history could not. I need to start exercising and I need to stick with it because I want to look cute on my wedding day.

I don't want to spend money on a gym membership but I do own a bike and have large indoor spaces to jump rope, lift weights, etc. How do I start this exercise thing? Any tips?

Applying Skills from Writing and Querying a Book to the Workplace

The process of writing and querying a book has touched other aspects of my work life in ways I never predicted. For example, last year when I kicked my search for a new job into high gear, I used some of the techniques I'd utilized when writing query letters to craft a more effective cover letter.

This included tactics like:

• Keep the letter short and focused.
• Hone in on the key plotline of the book (focus only on the job experiences most relevant to this position).
• Include a paragraph on why this specific agent is the right agent for me (why is this specific job the right job for me).
• Tweak the letter to customize it for each agent/job.
• The letter should tell a story. In a cover letter, this should be the story of why I am the perfect person for a position.

The major lesson from writing a book that I've put to use my day to day activities as an employee is this: know your ending. When you're writing a book, you need to have an idea of how the story will end in order to make all the other decisions about how your story unfolds. The way the plot ends determines plot elements that come earlier, but also issues of theme and pacing and character development.

In the workplace, this means I'm always asking myself, what's the goal of this project. What does success look like? And then in the job, as in writing, once I have the ending in mind, I work backwards from there to craft the steps I need to get me to my goal.

So it was with a small sense of smug self-satisfaction that I read this (long but very interesting) Wired article on the development of Google+ and saw that the Google exec in charge of the project works in the same way (though as far as I know, he hasn't written a novel).

Gundotra’s philosophy of product design is to envision the demo he will eventually present at the launch event and work backwards from there...

Great minds think alike!

 

 

So That Happened

Sorry for the extended absence.

In May, Matt and I went through some incredibly turbulent stuff regarding our housing situation. I probably can't/shouldn't post about the details here, but all you really need to know is that we had to move really quickly, store most of our stuff in our friends' basement, and won't be fully settled into a new, permanent place until September.

It's been a really stressful spring, so dealing with our housing situation has taken priority over things like blogging, wedding planning and trying to write a book. A 4 day trip (including 20+ hours of driving) to the Catskills a few weeks ago probably caused more angst than it alleviated, but I think things are finally starting to settle down.

We got rid of so much stuff when we moved. This entire truckload went to the dump. Kind of a gratifying feeling to unload so much baggage in one fell swoop. Now that we're living with a fraction of our possessions while the bulk of our stuff is in storage, I'm realizing just how little stuff I actually need. As long as I've got the cats, the Matt and my laptop, I'm good.

 

When The Stuff You Own Owns You

Our current apartment has been riddled with issues and drama that began even before we moved in in the summer of 2009 (that should have been the first clue) and continues to this day. So when I tell you that I can't wait to move in September to a little ranch house on the West side of town that our friends are vacating because they're moving to Paris for a year, I mean I really, really, really can't wait (though I will be very sad to see these friends move away).

And even though I hate moving - in a general sense - I am eagerly looking forward to this moving day. In anticipation, I'm planning ahead and taking steps to clear out junk. Since we moved to this current apartment, I shuttered the RiffeRaff Etsy store and I have a lot of craft stuff I no longer need. We'll also probably be giving away one of our dining/craft tables, some rugs, shelving units, a freezer and much, much more. Some of these are items I'd been planning on giving away for some time now, but could never bring myself to do so. And then I saw this idea on SwissMiss and I'm actually eager to use it.

The idea is this: when you need to clear out some of your possessions but are feeling hesitant or anxious about saying goodbye, simply take a photo of the item, put it in a book, and write a eulogy about it. What will you eulogize first? I think I'll start with the six boxes of blank, printed cards I keep telling myself I'm going to do something with one day.

What's Inside My Purse (Confessions of a Bag Lady)

I have a problem: I'm a bag lady. Not in the sense of owning multiple purses, but as in, I live out of my handbag. Part of it is that I take the bus regularly and don't have the luxury of keeping certain items in my car like an umbrella or tupperware containing my lunch or an extra pair of shoes. But, let's face it, another part of it is that I'm a bit of my slob. It's a yellow leather purse from Rennes le Chateau that I received in May 2009 for my birthday (thanks, Matt!). I've used it literally everyday since then.

A few weeks ago - after realizing that my bag was getting ridiculously heavy - I decided to clean out, and photograph, the contents of my bag. Behold.

I know. Crazy.

From the looks of things, you may think that I've never cleaned it out during that time also. You'd be wrong, though I did find receipts from as late as April 2010. What else did I find?

An inventory, clockwise from top left:

• handmade zipper bag for personal items
• wallet
• printout of manuscript for editing on the bus
• bookmarks for Dogsled Dreams (no idea what that is)
• old, expired Go Pass (for the bus)
• Real Time Farms stickers (2) from our friends' startup
• umbrella
• two pairs of gloves (and I never wear gloves)
• one fork, three spoons
• a single cough drop 
• two bus schedules
• Detroit Lives flyer that I picked up at a craft fair because I thought it looked cool
• Metro schedule from our trip to DC for Thanksgiving
• Customs forms for post office
• postcards
• pickle scratch and sniff bookmark gifted to me by a children's librarian at my old job (it really smells like pickles)
• card I picked up at a winter craft fair of a woman who does pet portraits
• pin promoting the 2010 Homegrown Festival
• another piece of Detroit Lives collateral (it looks cool, doesn't it?)
• sticker for Tiny Expo, a winter craft fair I attended
• two discount coupons for Swirlberry froyo (after I found these, we immediately put them to use)
• giant pile of receipts, shopping lists, envelopes, pay stubs, and random papers
• eight pens, in colors including red, blue, green and black

Gross, right? You'll be happy to know that immediately after taking this photo, I recycled that entire pile of random papers, threw out all my stickers and business cards and post office forms and bookmarks (but not the pickle one). Tossed the bus schedules (now both out of date), washed and returned the silverware to their proper home, and cut my pen stash in half. Ultimately, though, I think the answer just may be a smaller bag.

What's in your bag? Will you take a photo and post it on the Internet? I dare you.

So Much Drama in the LBC...

...Except replace LBC with "my life," and you'll have an accurate picture of my 2010. Actually, lately it seems like alot of people around me have been dealing with various levels of suckitude as well. What gives, 2010?

From job rejections, to manuscript rejections, to housing-related woes, I'm pretty ready to say goodbye to this year. I got proposed to on January 5th. Lost the ring on January 8th, and it's been downhill ever since. Okay, that's not completely true. I did eventually find the ring (Matt found it, actually, two weeks later, in the street, on a thaw day after alot of snow had melted), and found a (second) part-time job. I did receive a few encouraging ms rejections that convinced me that my work wasn't utter shite and hooked up with two writing groups (one real life, one online) to help me start a new project and polish my work. And, of course, I am still happily engaged. But I definitely don't feel like planning a wedding while so many other aspects of my life are unsettled.

I'm a big fan of publicly broadcasting New Years resolutions, I mean, I'm kind of a big fan of publicly broadcasting my life (hello, blog readers!). But this year I'm keeping it simple:

     1.  Wear more dresses (This was a resolution last year but I actually don't think I wore a single dress in all of 2010. Isn't that weird and kind of sad? I will definitely rectify this - for real - in 2011)

     2.  Finish and query a novel (and, if I'm thinking big, get an agent and sell it for "pay off my student loans with a single check" kind of money)

    3.   Find an apartment where I wouldn't mind spending the next 4 years, approximately the time left in Matt's program. I haven't lived in any single residence for longer than 2 years since 2000. I'm getting to old for this.

    4.   Get my finances in order. This should probably be number 1, since it will affect both number 3 (Ann Arbor is expensive, remember?) and number 1 (who wants to wear boring old dresses?)

    5. Buy a car. This is the lowest priority of all, and is heavily dependent on number 4. But, as has been well documented here, the only thing I like less than driving is driving a stick shift. I desire an automatic car almost as much as I desire in-unit laundry. Maybe this is the year to make both of those dreams a reality.

Who else is making resolutions. What you got?

Another Update

So it occured to me that I left a few things out of that previous update post.

• In book-related news, I received another (!!) request for a full since writing Sunday's post. This was also a result of the queries I sent last week. So apparently that was a really good decision.

• In personal-related news, I haven't posted a wedding related update in a while. That's not for any particular reason. I'm still engaged, things are still good with Matt. Mostly it's due to a few factors: After the initial bout of excitement, I kinda got grossed out with all things wedding related. This includes everything from highly produced wedding magazines to the cutesy quirky wedding blogs. Everything started to look the same. I got bored. Also, while I like the idea of bringing together our widely scattered network of friends and family, I absolutely hate being the center of attention. See I bolded it to show you how much I despise this prospect. I like the idea of planning an event, designing invitations, and putting to use the incredible talents of our friends (exhibit A: that dessert table above, which some friends put together for a recent wedding), but not if it means that all eyes will be on my for 4 - 8 hours. Of course a smaller wedding is also an option, but then important choices about who is and is not invited would have to be made. So instead of making any meaningful decisions about the wedding, I have chosen not to think about it at all. Because that's how adults deal with important life events, right?

(Image: From The Kitchen of Olivia)

Waiting

This has been a summer of waiting. Waiting to hear about jobs, about literary agents, about housing-related stuff. Alot of this is due to money-related anxiety. Career-related angst about what I'm doing (what am I really doing) at 28 years old and comparing myself to peers in med school, law school, getting promotions, getting raises. Wondering where I would be if I didn't leave a good job in Boston four years ago. I left it because I didn't want to regret not trying new opportunities when I had the chance. Now I think I have other regrets. My priorities have shifted. Should I go to grad school?

I'm tired of waiting.

(top photo: 20x200, bottom photo: Hable Construction)

Stare-Down