Made in Richmond

Ross and I are the proud owners of an Amazon Prime membership. We actually share it with Scott, who is listed as Ross’s “Unmarried Partner” on the account. Sounds about right.

Anyway, with Amazon Prime we pay some amount of money per year (you can tell I was very involved in the process of setting it up) and we get all the books we want without having to pay for standard shipping. Do you understand? It’s like going to the store WITHOUT HAVING TO GO TO THE STORE.

As I told my new book bff, Ross and I have to limit ourselves to one book a month because otherwise we’d be living in a house made of books, eating books, cleaning ourselves with books, etc. Today I realized it was time to make my order for the month. I decided to go with this:

Are you shocked?

First, I think the title is amazing. I mean, c’mon. God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. It’s like a twofer!

Second, I read in one review that he deals extensively with literature’s handling of religion. Perhaps all of those courses on Milton will FINALLY come in handy.

Third, my pastor spent considerable time talking about this book in his sermons over the course of the summer, so I thought it would be good to go straight to the source. I’ll be sure to let you all know what I thought of it.

Ok, your turn. What are you reading now?

I was so over the brown so I asked Ross to change it. And unfortunately for him, I now work with people who code all day long and I know such changes do not take that long at all. In fact, I think I specifically said, “Oh c’mon, I know it won’t take that long. YOU CAN’T FOOL ME ANYMORE.”

I’m such a treat.

My lips are chapped. My skin is dry. My nose is constantly running. I only want to eat pumpkin bread and wear sweaters.

I’m. So. Excited.

Friday: Home very crabby and tired. Ordered in from Mary Angela’s (kids’ portion spaghetti, more than enough food). To bed by 9:30.

Saturday: Up at 10:30 (yeah, that’s right). Ecstatic to get email from Jennifer Murphy. Gym for a good, long while. Home for lunch and to do some work. Finally showered at around 6. Went out to see if Target had anything to offer. Home for dinner and puttering until Ross got home from the game. To bed somewhat early.

Sunday: Loaves and Fishes until 1:30. Stopped to get lunch on the way home. Sat around for about an hour before going to church. Off to church at 3:30. Went to Susan’s engagement party. Home now. Waiting for toast to finish. Will go to bed soon. Hoping for a better week.

For someone who is expected to be creative upon command, writer’s block is about the worse thing that can come along. Few things are more paralyzing than a blank screen that you know must be filled because other people (and large amounts of money) are depending on it.

I’ve read a lot of posts on copywriting blogs about this exact issues lately, most likely because I’ve been dealing with a wicked case of writer’s block myself, due to not feeling well, ridiculous exhaustion, and a relentless schedule of a million things to get done every day.

These posts got me thinking about what I naturally do when I’m stuck. A lot of them are pretty funny.

For example, the first thing I do is go to the bathroom. Seriously. It’s like I’m expecting to find the elusive idea somewhere near the commode. And strangely enough, it usually works. I don’t feel at all weird about this because I know for a fact that Ross does the same thing.

If the bathroom doesn’t have the answer, I also try opening a blank Word document and typing whatever comes out. It usually looks something like this:

So we have these tshirts and they’re really great and they’re made of cotton and who doesn’t like cotton because I mean cotton is great and hmm let’s see what else yes tshirts are better than other shirts why should people buy this tshirt perhaps because they’re awesome…

And so on and so forth. The most important thing when using this method is not to delete anything you write. You’ll be surprised what can come out of it.

My last resort is perhaps the most ridiculous: I pluck my eyebrows. My eyebrows occupy much of mind and are usually the go-to part of my face that gets messed with when I’m stressed out (don’t you mess with your face?) So, if I eliminate the stray hairs to pick at, I’m left to just face the task at hand.

As I was thinking about all of this I came across one blog pointing out that Wordsworth used to take 20 mile walks and Einstein took naps in the middle of the afternoon to get their ideas flowing. While my boss is extremely understanding, I doubt he’ll be ok with me curling up on the couch and saying, “I’m just not feeling creative right now. Please excuse me for a couple hours.”

And with that, it’s back to work for me. Yes, I’m trying to get some work done on a Saturday. I was out for half a day on Thursday and I don’t want to get behind. Oh, and apparently one of the ways I deal with writer’s block is to post to my blog.

I’ve had one of those weeks where my mediocrity is just staring at me in the face. All day every day. Sigh.

Heavy heart tonight…

I have an entire list of blogs on my daily reads written by people I have never, ever met. But, I love them. Seriously, I do. I think they are some of the funniest, most wonderful people on the entire Internets. So, in the effort of being continually transparent (because I mean, c’mon, what’s the point of hiding anything) I thought I would share some of them with you in hope that you will stop by and give them a read.

It all started with Janet at Love is Blonde. I first came across this site here and here. I loved the name so immediately clicked on it. It was like finding heaven. The love & hate Fridays! The excessive information about her wedding! Love, love love.

While reading about Janet’s vacation this summer, I came across her post about her best friend Allison and her friend Kelly going into the labor, basically at the same time. And I mean, their names were linked. I *had* to follow the links.

When I read Allison’s blog, I learned about her scary (but eventually totally fine) experience giving birth to her seriously adorable little girl. And we all know how much I love babies and stories about giving birth (Did you not know that? Well I do.)

THEN, I went to Kelly’s blog and read *her* birth story about her equally adorable little boy. Kelly is also a former pageant girl AND a newscaster - two things that totally fascinate me. I’ve loved reading her accounts of new motherhood and her current struggles trying to balance a demanding career with a crazy-cute kid. Honestly, her post documenting the final hours of her maternity made me cry - I felt like my heart was breaking right along with hers.

After loving those two blogs, I decided to check out more of the blogs link on Love is Blonde. And alas I came across RA. I have no idea what RA’s name is, but she love words, just like I do. I was unreasonably happy for her when I found out she had finally gotten a new job. And her post about why she likes weddings made me think possibly she has been in my brain and stolen my thoughts.

There are lots more that I read, but those are my top four. Please take a minute to stop buy and see what they’re up to. And Janet, Allison, Kelly, and RA, thanks for writing.

I started getting a sore throat last Sunday. I assumed it was all the dust/sawdust from clearing out the house and putting down the hardwood floors. Well, not so much it seems.

I ended up having to leave work at around 11 today. In the three hours I was there, the slight soreness morphed into an inability to swallow accompanied by a headache and overall crippling sluggishness.

The best part was, all I had to do was go to my boss and say, “I need to go home. I don’t feel well at all.” Then he said, “Ok.” And then I got to go home. No frantic calls trying to find a substitute, no begging children to behave while I’m gone, no wondering if it was better for to just stick it out so I wouldn’t have to deal with the hassle of being out.

So I came home, had a quick bite to eat, and slept for about four hours. And when I say slept I mean SLEPT - like the waking up sweaty like a two year old taking a nap kind of slept. A pretty good sign that I was not feeling well.

I actually managed to get some work done after dinner. Not any major projects I’m working on, but some minor things that needed to get done.

I’ll be going back to bed soon. And I’m so looking forward to it.

Ross asked me earlier this week if I wanted to go to the Tech game with some friends this weekend. Normally I would have jumped at the chance to go to beautiful Blacksburg in September, but the last few weeks combined with the emotionally charged and exceedingly busy last few days made the prospect of getting up early on Saturday extremely unappealing.

So, I told Ross to bro it out and take someone else while I spend Saturday by myself. BY MY GLORIOUS GLORIOUS SELF. I’m so excited I can’t stand it. There will be sleeping in, going to the gym, perhaps some shopping, and most definitely a nap.

I. Cannot. Wait.

It is currently 83 degrees with 26%. You can walk outside and actually breathe. Glory, glory hallelujah.