I'm not ignoring you, really.

Been buried up to my armpits of late. With what, I can't say, exactly. My brain is a bit fuzzy. I keep forgetting things. I'm procrastinating on things I don't like to do, spending way too much time on the things I do like to do. Problem is, some of the things I don't like to do are what pays the bills around Creative HQ.

My Chi is off.

But I'm training (alright, I bought sweatpants! that's got to count for something) for the tri. In between eating cake. See, I bought this evil little book with over 100 cupcake! recipes. There are 30 or so recipes for homemade frosting. Melt. Frosting. Me. Bad combo. Yet I still eat it. You should see my butter bill. I have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer that's been sitting lonely for several years. I'm just trying to make it happy. Fulfill its destiny. Yada yada. I did wog (run and walk) for over 1.5 miles yesterday. The dogs tuckered out after 1 mile. I'm beginning to think they are out of shape..? Today's my "off day" so no wogging for us.

Heather - I do need to forward this schedule. It is quite lovely.

This afternoon I'm going to turn off the network and work on projects that need working. Then I'll reward myself by doing something I enjoy. Like make another batch of chocolate frosting.

CMG IPO

At 7 am, the hubber and I were trying to get in touch with our broker to gets us some CMG stock. It was my fault, really, for not calling him sooner. Last week, we saw in the paper that Chipotle was going public today. They were supposed to open at $15 or so a share. A few days later, they changed it to $20 a share. Then yesterday, they announced their IPO at $22 a share. Normally financially apathetic, we wanted to get in on the CMG love. We kick ourselves daily when thinking about a certain telecom company that was once down to $0.25 a share a mere 6 months ago.

But it's not about the money with CMG. Oh, no, no. It's about love.

You see, way back in the pre-WWW 1990's, before hubby was Mr. and I, Mrs., we had our first date at the very first Chipotle, ever. It was romantic in a 1lb burrito sort of way. We were college students. I lived in the dorms where the lunch lady was trying to kill us with thumb tacks in our lasagne. A 1lb burrito was damn sexy.

Now they have 480 gogillion stores in 22 states. I like to think that it was our love that got them going.

So there I was, 7 am, trying to reach our broker. Shoulda called him last week, yes, yes, I KNOW. Instead I set up a brokerage account to learn that they actually want real money for transactions. Who do they think we are? We don't have real money! Who has real money?

I had to run out for a Drs appointment by 8:30. Never got the broker on the phone. When 11 am rolled around and I finally got back to my computer to see how the mid-day trading was going, my heart sank. CMG was trading at $47 a share. It opened at $45. Closed at $44. No CMG love for me. No. No.

Oh, and I'm a BAW super slacker. No morning pages this week or last week. No artist date. I kind of got overwhelmed by it all. I think there's something in chapter/week 2 about it. But I didn't read that far, so I don't really know. I'm lame. Hella-lame you guys.

Gotta go get me a burrito now.

dreamy

The seminar date is getting closer. My friend and I are wrapping up the details, sending out registration packets and practicing our schpeal. It's gunna be a good one. I can feel the energy.

To recap: the "How Much Joy Can You Stand" workshop is designed to re-ignite your creative spark and get you motivated to work on your dream. We'll give you the how, what, why and wherewithall to get moving. No matter your dream, or even if you don't have a dream but just need some motivation, this is a workshop for you.

Cost: $60 ($50 for my daphne readers)
Location: Tallyn's Reach Library at E-470 and Arapahoe in Aurora
Date: January 28
Time: 9:30 am - 12:30 pm
Email: howmuchjoy@gmail.com
Call: 303-484-7031
Mail: P.O. Box 283, Pine, CO 80470

Look at us, we're like, really facilitators and shite.

Hot damn.

goo

My brain is leaking out my ears right now, so this is going to be short. I'm a trainer for a national non-profit org (did I not mention this before? Well, there you go), and I was in Golden all weekend training college students. I'll do the same thing this coming weekend in the beautiful metropolis of Greeley. I had an early morning meeting today. Have 12 articles to write for a client's newsletter. What was I thinking? Dunno. The precious morning pages for the Artist's Way – left undone. The week 2 reading – left undone. My life – left undone.

More later in the week.

on floggings

The carbon monoxide detector started beeping this morning at 2 am. Someone forgot to change the batteries at daylight saving time. When ever it beeps like that, the noise drives the hounds c-r-a-z-y. Like batshit crazy psycho dogs from hell. For the next hour I tried to get them to not sit on my head in bed, and not pant like they just ran a 100 yard dash. And the drooooool. Ick.

Later, when it was time for me to get up, they slept their sweet little dawg dreams on their beds while I shuffled down the stairs to put on a gallon of tea. I had a early morning meeting so I was not pleased. But the meeting turned out delightful, we shared a lot of tips we'd gathered on doing business. It was at a funky, independent coffee house - yes, they still make those - full of positive energy.

On the way back to the office, I stopped for my Artist Date at Whole Foods. If you don't have a Whole Foods or a Wild Oats or some sort of natural food market, you are missing out. This place is amazing. Huge. Samples galore. Beautiful, bright colored fruit of all kinds. I ran my fingers over the plastic-like skin of a purple eggplant. Stood there in the middle of a crowd shaking a white coconut, listening for the milk sloshing around inside. Then I headed over to the meat department. Bright red beef, flavorful sausage and funky cuts of pork stared out at me from behind the glass. There were these tempting cheddar-stuffed beef rolls, salmon stuffed with crab and ready to cook meatballs with chunks of onions and peppers bursting out.

I made my way to the breads. The pumpernickle called out to me in its earthy darkness. But I had a better idea. As I turned around, 300 cheeses called my name. The young cheese monger was more than ready to let me sample the cheeses. He suggested I close my eyes and point to try something new. And that's just what I did. I bought $20 worth of cheese. Sage Derby, a marbled green cheese from Britain, Mezzo Seco and mild white cheese and my big splurge, Fleur de Marquis, weighing in at $27.99/lb. It's a sheeps milk cheese with rosemary, juniper and hot pepper in the rind. The smell reminds me of a warm summer afternoon.

Since my day started at 2 am, you would think I'd be ready for a nap. But I'm a good date. I left Whole Foods with a new bounce in my step. I'm eager to munch on the juicy fruit salad - boysenberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and pineapple - that I bought for lunch. Then I'll wake the dogs and drool on them for a change.

Blogging the Artist's Way

I had some high hopes of getting a decent post in about my feelings so far on Blogging the Artist's Way, then I got some news from a friend that took the wind out of me. It wasn't a surprise, really, but it still hit me hard. For this friend's sake, I'm not going to go into any details, except it has me doubled over with the pain that is floating around out there right now. Can you feel it? I'm having a hard time focusing on anything else. My need to comfort and help has kicked in and there really isn't anything I can do right now on either counts. Just hope that inner peace will find this person again soon.

I did start the morning pages on Saturday. It was difficult. Painful. Mostly because I was in the car, traveling to the mountain to ski. The Mr. was driving and I have vowed to never again do the morning pages 1) in the car, and 2) with him around. He's a supportive, loving, wonderful man, but he is also a distraction. I had to ask several times for him to not yell at the cars around us, nor bitch out loud about the traffic. I finally had to be like a parent and say, give me 5 more minutes and you can scream all you want. Which really did nothing, so I hurried, and I was mad about it. Then I realized it was my own fault and got over it. Never got around to the morning pages yesterday, so I did them before bed last night. This AM I waited til hubby had left for the day to get started. I know Julia Cameron says to get up a half hour early, but it's of no use when he's around. I love him. I really do.

Gah. I feel drained. I'll post more later when my wind returns.

P.S. Did you know that the Blogger spell check comes up with "flogging" as the correction for blogging? Funny. Heh.

leapin' lizards

Everyone should have a friend in their life that makes you do the things you said you'd do. My friend's name is Debi and she is either a curse or a goddess.

We met about 10 (holy crap, 10!) years ago at my first job out of college. She was the corporate trainer and about 10 years older than me. I was the new marketing wench and full of myself. We hit it off somehow. I don't even remember how, or why, but we've been friends ever since. We both left that company long before it was sold to some multi-national conglomerate. But we stayed friends, calling and emailing from time to time. She was in my wedding to Dear Hubby and I was in hers. I did the flower arrangements for her wedding, too. For a while there, we lost touch. Not for any reason, just the regular busy-ness of life.

Then about three years ago, we started back up like no time had elapsed. She had heard about this thing on Oprah about women who formed "goal groups." These were groups of women who got together monthly to... you guessed it... set goals and hold each other accountable to them. They'd offer help, suggestions and moral support. She asked if I wanted to join. I said why not and there it began.

We're the remaining members of that group that once numbered 8. She started a job with a school district a few years ago and they needed a graphic designer. She knew from the goals group that I wanted to start my own business. She needed some work done and called me. It was her idea to start when I did. If I hadn't started working for her school, I would probably left that dream sitting on the 'what if' shelf for a few more years.

One thing led to another, and I figured that if I was going to have a little 1099 income, I'd might as well have a lot of it. The taxes are a bitch and not worth the time when it's just a little 1099 income. Believe me. I'd done that before and we paid through the nose.

Now I'm turning the tables on her mischievous ways. She has this dream to be a motivational speaker. I'm not letting her not do it, either. Several (um, like 12) months ago, she became a licensed facilitator for Suzanne Falter-Barnes' "How Much Joy" workshops. The big binder came in the mail and there it sat, in her office, for months. Every now and then I'd ask her how it was going. Same as always, she'd reply. I'd finally had enough. The woman MADE me start my company. She deserved what she got.

A few months ago I told her, I'm really tired of hearing you talk about doing these workshops but never doing them. (We're the kind of friends that can say that and get away with it.) So here's what I'm going to do. We're going to team up and do them together. We'll set a date. We'll find a location. We'll market it. We'll do it together. How does that sound? (It wasn't really a question.)

That was what she needed. So here we are. On January 28, we'll present our first "How Much Joy Can You Stand?" workshop at the Tallyn's Reach Library in Aurora. It's for people who have a dream that's sitting on the 'what if' shelf, gathering dust. It's open to men and women from anywhere, with any dream they'd like to pursue but aren't. (like leading workshops)

We're charging $60 for a three-hour workshop. The marketeer in me is offering an "internet special" of $50 to anyone who mentions the code "daphne" in their registration. You can email me at howmuchjoy@gmail.com for specifics. There's a little homework involved before the workshop, but you'll thank me for it.

mondo, er, what?

I originally wrote this post with a modest list of things I wanted to do in 2006:

1. Make more money than I did last year. There is a quasi-plan in place for this.
2. Train for and actually complete a mini triathlon. Ironwoman I ain't but I'll give the short one a try.
3. Take a vacation to some place that involves a beach, endless margaritas and required sunset watching.
4. Be nice to my hubby. 'Cus you know, I'm sometimes a beeeatch. But a cute one.

But a visit to my girl Marilyn got me thinking about the BIG things in life. So screw being nice and asking for little things (although a vacation is pretty damn big to me right now). I'm going to go for broke.

My theme for 2006: Movement

That's right. I'm going somewhere. Doing something. Getting out. Getting active. Getting on with my crazy self.

My new list:
1. train and complete the mini tri (hey I'm asking for a lot here, people!)
2. inspire others as a creative motivational speaker for those who need that extra push
3. renew my passport (a girls gotta have one to go somewhere, you never know when British Airlines will have that Denver-London sale)
4. become a Adobe Certified Expert/Instructor
5. Take that vacation.

Oh, and still be nice to my hubby. Someone has to be around to rub the SPF 45 on my lily white back.

What's your theme?