Bear & Honey

Into the fuuuutuuuuure!

Ok, done singing now.

This week’s Girl Talk Thursday topic is “How Do You Save Time?”

Magazines sell us on it every day, HGTV and Food Network seduce us into believing it is possible, and Martha Stewart has made an entire career out of shaming us into it:    Easy, Quick Homemaking!    Just Five Minutes a Day!  Homemade Wreaths/Biscuits/Furniture at the Drop of a Hat!    Sister, I ain’t buyin’ it.

I manage to cram what some might see as a herculean number of tasks into my average day.  I work full time in an office, have a music career outside of that job, make appointments, write blogs, and try to have a social life.  I’m not home very much in a given day.  So how do I manage to keep a lovely home amid my busy schedule?

I don’t.

The way I make time for all of the things on my schedule is essentially to completely ignore any chores until they threaten my well-being.

When my allergies get so bad that I can’t walk into my house without sneezing?  Time to vacuum.

When I run out of clothes to wear?  Time for laundry.

When I…Jeez, what is that smell?  Time to take the trash out, clean the kitchen, clean the bathroom, etc. etc. etc.

Look, I know that these things are “so much easier” to do if I am maintaining them on a weekly basis, just a few minutes a day.  Believe me, I get that concept and I think it’s dandy.  I’m just not likely to be able to implement that kind of system any time soon.

Despite how I live right now, I don’t actually enjoy being messy.  A messy home is hell on my consciousness.  I get frustrated and agitated, I snap at Greg.    It’s not pretty.    Whenever I am home for more than a couple of hours, I actually do start to clean or work on some home improvement project.  I don’t mind cleaning, it’s just not how I want to spend my only free time during the week.  I’ve got priorities, and they usually include margaritas.

How do YOU save time?

Hey, kids! Today is Girl Talk Thursday!

Today’s topic is What’d you wanna be when YOU grew up?

A few years ago, as I was packing or unpacking or in some sort of possession-shuffling process between the many places I lived, I found a book.

It was Dr. Seuss’  My Book About Me.

This book is cool as heck.  

It’s basically a fill-in-the-blank autobiography for little kids, with pages to color and draw your family and pets, how many teeth you have (top and bottom rows), etc. …I had apparently filled it out when I was six.  I have zero memory of doing it, but the evidence was there.

When  I found the book, I had just started playing shows and getting more serious about writing and performing.   When I was a kid, I was interested in music but honestly had no intention of being a performer.   As far as I remember, I wanted to be  a witch or a zookeeper, possibly both.   So imagine my surprise when, after the page about how many teeth I had and what color my hair and eyes were, I noticed a page that asked “What are you going to be when you grow up?”

In my six-year-old scrawl I had written:

A writer or a singer

(I mean the “g” was backward but that’s basically what it said!)

This blew my mind.  I guess six-year-old me knew way more about 26-year-old me than I could have imagined. I’ve noticed that as I get older and more in touch with my authentic self, I have a lot more in common with that six year old girl than the person I was trying to be in my early twenties.

So I guess I’m still “growing up”, but I’m also growing in….growing into myself and learning to love that little weirdo who stuck her hands in the dirt, talked to animals, and did Elvis impersonations at family gatherings.

What did you want to be?  Who do you want to be now?

This week we’re talking about the stuff that irritates you, even though it’s irrational to let something so small get to you.

I’ve actually been doing a lot of work on myself to be less annoyed at the general population, so this list is shorter than it would have been a few years ago.  Despite that, there are still some things that get my panties in a wad.

1. Corporate-ese.

This is the big one, folks.  I work in a day job where I email back and forth with business types all the time, and have to see/hear tons of this made up, meaningless jargon on a regular basis. “Sphere of influence”?  “Leveraging multi-level infrastructures” ?  “Optimize cross-platform functionalities” ?   Give me a break and speak English, please.   You probably don’t even know what you’re saying, so I can guarantee the dozens of folks working below you won’t know how to “implement next-generation architecture strategies.”

2. Drivers

Just in general. I am convinced that most people have no clue what the traffic laws actually are, or don’t believe they apply to them.  They also forget they are operating a very heavy machine that could easily kill someone, themselves included.  I err on the side of caution, so I probably annoy other drivers myself, but I’d rather be annoying than dead.

3.  People who order food or check out at a store while talking on their cell phones.

When I was a barista, I would wait for someone to finish their conversation before acknowledging that they wanted to order something.  I think it’s too easy for us to forget that service people are just that — people.   They are not Food Robots, they are not lesser beings, they are humans with thoughts and emotions.  Tell the person on the line you will call them back.  If it’s an important call, don’t get in line until you’re finished.    If you stay on the phone and dismissively order with one ear facing the person at the register, don’t be surprised if your order is wrong or contains faint traces of human saliva.

Those are my main peeves.  What are yours?   Join us over at Girl Talk Thursday!

My ideal lunch date is an all-day affair.   It includes lots of friends, family, a few dogs, a giant grill, endless margaritas, and a backyard.

The ideal lunch in my head is a late Summer day when most of the renovations on the house are finished, at least to the point where we can throw a kickass party.   We’ve got our hot tub installed, the new deck looks awesome, and everyone is having a great time.

Nobody has to be anywhere in the next few hours, and no-one is worried that they are missing anything on Reality TV.    Oh, and someone else gets to clean up.

This week’s Girl Talk Thursday is all about vices.

If I have any vice that matches up with Dante’s Big Seven, it would have to be gluttony, and not just for food & drink.   I want to taste, feel, do, experience everything.

I love to eat and try all kinds of new foods.  I love to play.  I love to connect with as many people as possible in different ways (Hellooooo Twitter addiction) and to laugh, and talk, and eat and drink some more.

I am impatient.  I want to indulge in a lot of things, and when I decide what I want to try next, I want it now. 

While a little anticipation is nice ( I actually enjoy the wait for Christmas, for example) I do not handle long delays of gratification well.    When I don’t get what I want, I can  easily revert to behavior befitting a petulant six year old, or Veruca Salt from Charlie & The Chocolate Factory.

“I want the world, I want the whole world!”

So I guess there’s a little greed in there, too.  But it’s a greediness for information, sensations and experience, rather than for stuff.  I can spend all day on Google Reader checking out blogs, and design websites, and forums, and then run off to go try something I read about there.  Later, I’ll invite a friend over to try it out with me and share a glass of wine, so we can indulge together.    Is being an Enabler a vice, too?  Hmm…

*64 more days,  in case you were curious.

This is my very first post for Girl Talk Thursday! I’ve been reading the entries for awhile and really enjoying them, but didn’t feel like they had a place over at my other blog.   Since this new blog is all about my home and personal life, I finally feel justified having my Girl Talk.  This weeks’ topic is “Getting crafty. Yes? No? HELL no?”

There is a very real part of me that longs to be crafty, that desperately wishes to make clever and adorable things with my hands to give away as gifts, or to decorate my home.  I read all kinds of design blogs, I check out the clever DIY tips in Real Simple magazine, I even have some remnants of previously attempted craft hobbies sitting in boxes somewhere.

For awhile, I had some weird guilt associated with being decidedly UNcrafty.  I think I felt as though creative women have to be creative in all ways, and that if I were not making my own clothing and decoupaging my laptops I was only playing at being a creative person.

At the end of the day, though, I just don’t have the patience for stuff like that.   I can sing my ass off, cook an awesome meal, and throw a great party…but when it comes to crafting, I leave it to the other ladies.   This is where my addiction to Etsy comes in.  The artists I have encountered on this site are nothing short of incredible.  Here is a community where lots of creative, talented women can showcase their work and make a living doing something they love.   You can find almost anything on that site.  In fact, Greg and I are sourcing a lot of the accessories for our wedding from artists on Etsy!

I will gladly, heartily pay another person to make me something knitted, hand-sewn, crocheted, printed, drawn, sculpted, or otherwise craftacular if it means getting to have the lovely thing in my house without having invested the time or effort.   I have so many friends who are talented in these ways that it does my heart much better to support their art and work than to spend days fretting over something, and eventually cursing and giving up.

Ultimately, I would much rather look on a beautiful thing in my house and think fondly of its creator, than to have to face some misshapen attempt at a yarn pear every day and wonder why the heck I thought that was a good idea.

Ladies of Etsy, I salute you.