i love iron and wine.

this weekend i did something i'd never done before. i met the child of one of my friends from high school.

a few others have had kids. but i haven't met them. this was a first. and it was really cool.

it also made me feel old while at the same time realizing that we are starting this kids stuff way later then our parents did. we're almost 31. and i'm just now meeting her first child.

when my parents were 31, i was, well, 7.

7.

other highlights this weekend included a date to WA in lawrence for our favorite sushi. if you go, get the downtown roll. a-mazing.

and yesterday, i made pesto. basil, walnut, cilantro, olive oil, 3 cloves of garlic and some pecorino romano. then, i lightly sauteed shitake mushrooms in some olive oil, boiled some noodles and then tossed it all together. it was heaven.

other than that, i've been trying to decide if i want to run the full or half marathon this october. but 6 miles in this heat kills me. so it's hard to imagine going much farther until it cools off. even just a bit.

and for the record, at work i always start my day listening to the iron and wine station on lastfm.

it's emergen-c time.

one time, i mixed emergen-c with vodka. because who doesn't need 100 percent of their daily value of vitamin c with a little buzz?

but today, i mixed it with water. because i'm at work. i've also lost my taste for vodka.

here's something i will never understand: cat strollers. it's totally an invention for the owner, not the cat. what cat wants to be strolled around the neighborhood, next to flying birds and squirrels and tall grass and field mice when all they can do is look behind a screened-in, zipped-tight cage on wheels.

okay, maybe no field mice. but still. the cat's got to hate it.

what i've been eating.

spinach
shredded carrots
grape tomatoes
raw goat cheddar
cauliflower, agave, walnut, fig, sea salt puree
cabbage leaves stuffed with the puree and lentils
kale
raw asparagus
garden of eatin' red hot blue corn chips
almond butter
sprouted bread and wraps
dark chocolate

and i feel marvelous.

seriously.

i remember when "NOW that's what i call music" CDs were in the single digits.

"NOW that's what i call music 34" just came out.

oh, i'm typing this on my new work-provided MacBook Pro. And in a few weeks, I'll be the proud user of a new iPhone 4G.

it feels good to have a job again.

where ideas come from.

i woke up at 2 a.m. with my best idea ever. okay, maybe not ever ever. but a really good one. for a concept i'm working on at work. i needed to write it down before it was gone.

so found all that was available. a box of claritin. and a pen.

i wrote the words: spoons. suicide. digging in.
i wrote them in the white space.
and then i drifted off. and imagined it as an entire campaign.

this idea had LEGS, people. long ones.

until i woke up four hours later and realized that i had written down the dumbest, most off-brand, off-strategy, off-brief idea ever.

hungry.

things i need to cook soon include:

macaroni and cheese. with blue cheese, lots of butter and bacon.

grilled polenta. on the actual grill. we're talking charcoal, people.

dirty rice. the dirtier the better.

tofu steaks marinated in homemade peanut sauce.

anything with asparagus. because i like the way it makes my pee smell.

are you laughing yet?

i hope so.

and whipped cream. i need an excuse to make homemade whipped cream.

maybe berries.

funk.

i wish this was about how crazy my outfits have been lately. or the style i'm after when decorating my house. but it's not.

it's about my mental state. i've been in a funk.

since last tuesday, really.

and this weekend, i couldn't get out of it.

friday i was so exhausted and stressed that a night filled with wine at extra virgin and sushi at domo couldn't quite make me better.

then saturday i did the unthinkable. i ran. with the stitches in. against my doctor's orders. four miles. to be fair, i set out to walk. but just. couldn't. keep my feet from. flying.

and then when i got home, my bandage had (big surprise) come off. and i had to clean the wound and worry about showering and replacing the bandage correctly and it became such a headache. then i ran errands in the pouring rain while B got to watch the soccer game with friends. (i chose to run errands instead of watching the game, but still.)

i was holding out for our evening activities. a movie at screenland crown center and wine and chicken fingers for dinner excpet when we go there, we realized the crown center screenland doesn't serve chicken fingers. or anything other than popcorn and candy.

i was starving.

and the movie, which i thought was going to be in english, was in sweedish. and subtitled.

all this complaining just to say, i'm in a funk.

little things are bugging me way more than they should.

and i'm ready to get out of it.

on second thought.

is hairnet one word?

when i was getting my out-patient surgery tuesday, the oncology surgeon asked me if advertising, was indeed, stressful.

really?

REALLY?

yes. in a good way. it is stressful, i told him.

for one, if you are on the "creative" side of the business, you have to be "on" all of the time. the challenge is to come up with new, innovative, creative, amazing concepts. with compelling, directive, on-brief copy. that goes with incredible, never-been-done-before, mind-blowing design. every day.

every day is a new project. a new brief. a new problem to solve. a new product to sell. a new way to connect consumers to the brand.

and it's beautiful.
but, indeed, can be stressful.

which my oncology surgeon was shocked at. and suggested that his career was much less stress-inducing. and that after work, he just goes home.

really?
because if i were him, i'd at least contemplate the fragility of life and cells and healthy ones and tumor ones and everything wrapped up in the blood pressure monitor, the consent form, the spouse in the waiting room, the hoping for good news, the anxiety, the fear of death, of the unknown, the reality that google, for once, does not have all of the answers.

if i were him, i think i'd go home with somewhat of a weight.

but he seemed to think that my line of business was much more stressful than his.

we're talking brands versus life or death.

you tell me who was right.

ouch.

i put on a hairnet. and some booties to cover my feet. and i walked into this sterile, stark room where a chair remained empty until i sat in it. my blood pressure was 110 over 60. from the running.

i got a shot. and then i felt pressure as the doctor sliced the shape of an eyelid out of my shoulder. that's how much space he needed to remove the mole completely. once it was out, he stitched me. stitches that will dissolve on the inside. and several that won't on the outside. i left with a prescription for Tylenol 3 and strict orders to do nothing strenuous including bending over for two weeks.

my blood pressure is 110 over 60. from the running. bending over is nowhere in my definition of strenuous activity.

this is going to be one of the longest two weeks of my life.

oh, and it hurts.

growing up.

i came to my blog this morning to see if i had written anything lately.

as we all know, i hadn't. and then while i had coffee with vanilla soy creamer, i had this internal debate about if i'm letting my readers or myself down when i don't write. and then i wondered if i have anything interesting to say anymore. and as i washed my hair with this shampoo that has carrots in it, i contemplated my voice on twitter, facebook and here. and if they are the same. or if they should be the same. i mean, you know, am i entertaining people here. am i offering something valuable. interesting. new. pensive. perfect. worth reading.

but then i remembered why i started this blog. it was for me.
me.
just for me.

it still is i guess. and i'm glad i have more than 140 characters with which to express myself.

i got a new car on thursday. i've never really loved a car before. but i love this one. i love it so much that i parked it in the farthest spot saturday at the grocery store. to avoid dings. i have now become one of 'those people.'

and sometimes while i'm at work, i look out the window to make sure it's still there. as if it has legs and is going to wander off into some other adoring-driver's hands. or driveway.

i realize there is something very sad about this, but having a new car that i actually have to take care of. that i actually want to keep clean - makes me feel like a grownup. as if turning 30 wasn't enough. or the house that i own. or being married. or paying taxes. or needing to go to bed by 9:30.

no, it took a car.

a white, shiny sport-wagon. with a panoramic sunroof. and leatherette. with heated seats, windshield wipers and mirrors. with hands-free bluetooth. that runs on clean diesel and gets 40 mpg.

that's what it took to make this pensive girl finally feel like an adult.

so keep reading if you want to hear about adult things.

like how we had made-from-scratch popcorn last night for dinner.

coming around.

i'm flipping through communication arts' advertising annual number 39. from december 1998. and there's an ad for the electric car.

maybe you've seen the documentary, "who killed the electric car."

if you have, you'll understand the heartache that hit me.

suddenly.

it's not even that great of an ad. even though it ended up in CA.

but the car was great.

so great.

tonight, i hope to pick up my new car. which is a clean diesel.

clean.

to the environment.

and gets 40mpg.

what goes around...