It's been more than two years (TWO?!?) since my last public post. I still frequent Livejournal, though:
- In 2009, I posted a little more than 70 entries, all behind a filter of one sort or another.
- In 2010, I made about 65 friends-locked posts. There are another 20-30 under even tighter filtering.
- In 2011, I posted more than 75 friends-locked entries with 155 more that are under tighter filtering.
If I've been posting so much over here on Livejournal, why have I not been sharing it with the world? Livejournal has, once again, become a space for me to write rough material in longer form that I want to share with some but not all. So, yes, I am still here, after nearly 10 years.
Looking for more regular contact with me? Colleagues and coworkers can find me on LinkedIn. I become Facebook friends with (many but not all) people I have met face-to-face. I'm a bit more promiscuous with online interaction over on Twitter. And, I've just recently claimed an identity over on Google +, a space where I'd count myself as "experimenting but not yet committed."
( What else is going on with me?Collapse )
Odds are it will be another year or so before I post publicly here again. Ciao for now!
- In 2009, I posted a little more than 70 entries, all behind a filter of one sort or another.
- In 2010, I made about 65 friends-locked posts. There are another 20-30 under even tighter filtering.
- In 2011, I posted more than 75 friends-locked entries with 155 more that are under tighter filtering.
If I've been posting so much over here on Livejournal, why have I not been sharing it with the world? Livejournal has, once again, become a space for me to write rough material in longer form that I want to share with some but not all. So, yes, I am still here, after nearly 10 years.
Looking for more regular contact with me? Colleagues and coworkers can find me on LinkedIn. I become Facebook friends with (many but not all) people I have met face-to-face. I'm a bit more promiscuous with online interaction over on Twitter. And, I've just recently claimed an identity over on Google +, a space where I'd count myself as "experimenting but not yet committed."
( What else is going on with me?Collapse )
Odds are it will be another year or so before I post publicly here again. Ciao for now!
It's been a year since my last public post. Like so many others, I am spending time in other online social venues. If you are reading this, you may wonder how much I post that isn't public. The truth: Not nearly as much as I used to.
Work:
I work two jobs (at least). I'm still a sommelier working for a well known restaurant in Seattle. I still own a business which has one employee: me. My freelance work through my own company has gone through a rather major slump in the past two years. So much so that I was very seriously considering shutting it down until early fall this year when I landed another contract. And, well, that contract is keeping me very busy indeed!
Social:
I'm fortunate to live with my best friend (also my husband) and right next door to some really good friends. This helps me have a little social life even when working six days a week, like now. I have a pretty close knit group of good friends who like to drink good wine and eat good food. We manage to get together about once a month. And I have a fairly large network of friends and acquaintances here in Seattle I don't get to see in person nearly often enough.
Travel:
This year, the travel budget has mostly gone to getting me places to celebrate major events in the lives of family members: major birthdays for my parents and my husband's first marathon have taken me to Ohio and to New York.
A nesting year:
Thanks in part to the financial crisis and in part to continuing to work a hospitality job, I'm more of a "nester" than I once was. I still go out on occasion, not that I was ever much of a barfly. I used to go out to movies and concerts more. I definitely have had periods of trying to squeeze in appearances to three parties on the same night on an ongoing basis. For me, I've found that's only really fun when it happens once in a while instead of as a matter of course.
The future?
I've got plans. I even have predictions and desires. I'll only say with a modicum of certainty that I hope to be a bit more social in 2010 than I was in 2008-09. Perhaps I'll see more movies and concerts. Maybe I'll manage to get to more art openings and a party or two. Oh, and if I post about anything dramatic or deep, it's still likely to be a Friends Only post. So, yes, even though it may look like I've disappeared, I'm still around these LiveJournal parts on occasion.
Work:
I work two jobs (at least). I'm still a sommelier working for a well known restaurant in Seattle. I still own a business which has one employee: me. My freelance work through my own company has gone through a rather major slump in the past two years. So much so that I was very seriously considering shutting it down until early fall this year when I landed another contract. And, well, that contract is keeping me very busy indeed!
Social:
I'm fortunate to live with my best friend (also my husband) and right next door to some really good friends. This helps me have a little social life even when working six days a week, like now. I have a pretty close knit group of good friends who like to drink good wine and eat good food. We manage to get together about once a month. And I have a fairly large network of friends and acquaintances here in Seattle I don't get to see in person nearly often enough.
Travel:
This year, the travel budget has mostly gone to getting me places to celebrate major events in the lives of family members: major birthdays for my parents and my husband's first marathon have taken me to Ohio and to New York.
A nesting year:
Thanks in part to the financial crisis and in part to continuing to work a hospitality job, I'm more of a "nester" than I once was. I still go out on occasion, not that I was ever much of a barfly. I used to go out to movies and concerts more. I definitely have had periods of trying to squeeze in appearances to three parties on the same night on an ongoing basis. For me, I've found that's only really fun when it happens once in a while instead of as a matter of course.
The future?
I've got plans. I even have predictions and desires. I'll only say with a modicum of certainty that I hope to be a bit more social in 2010 than I was in 2008-09. Perhaps I'll see more movies and concerts. Maybe I'll manage to get to more art openings and a party or two. Oh, and if I post about anything dramatic or deep, it's still likely to be a Friends Only post. So, yes, even though it may look like I've disappeared, I'm still around these LiveJournal parts on occasion.
Excerpted from Tim Wise's blog post on Racilicious:
"But now for the other side of things.
First and foremost, please know that none of these victories will amount to much unless we do that which needs to be done so as to turn a singular event about one man, into a true social movement (which, despite what some claim, it is not yet and has never been).
And so it is back to work. Oh yes, we can savor the moment for a while, for a few days, perhaps a week. But well before inauguration day we will need to be back on the job, in the community, in the streets, where democracy is made, demanding equity and justice in places where it hasn’t been seen in decades, if ever. Because for all the talk of hope and change, there is nothing–absolutely, positively nothing–about real change that is inevitable. And hope, absent real pressure and forward motion to actualize one’s dreams, is sterile and even dangerous. Hope, absent commitment is the enemy of change, capable of translating to a giving away of one’s agency, to a relinquishing of the need to do more than just show up every few years and push a button or pull a lever.
This means hooking up now with the grass roots organizations in the communities where we live, prioritizing their struggles, joining and serving with their constituents, following leaders grounded in the community who are accountable not to Barack Obama, but the people who helped elect him. Let Obama follow, while the people lead, in other words.
For we who are white it means going back into our white spaces and challenging our brothers and sisters, parents, neighbors, colleagues and friends–and ourselves–on the racial biases that still too often permeate their and our lives, and making sure they know that the success of one man of color does not equate to the eradication of systemic racial inequity.
So are we ready for the heavy lifting? This was, after all, merely the warmup exercise, somewhat akin to stretching before a really long run. Or perhaps it was the first lap, but either way, now the baton has been handed to you, to us. We must not, cannot, afford to drop it. There is too much at stake.
The worst thing that could happen now would be for us to go back to sleep; to allow the cool poise of Obama’s prose to lull us into slumber like the cool on the underside of the pillow. For in the light of day, when fully awake, it becomes impossible not to see the incompleteness of the task so far.
So let us begin."
"But now for the other side of things.
First and foremost, please know that none of these victories will amount to much unless we do that which needs to be done so as to turn a singular event about one man, into a true social movement (which, despite what some claim, it is not yet and has never been).
And so it is back to work. Oh yes, we can savor the moment for a while, for a few days, perhaps a week. But well before inauguration day we will need to be back on the job, in the community, in the streets, where democracy is made, demanding equity and justice in places where it hasn’t been seen in decades, if ever. Because for all the talk of hope and change, there is nothing–absolutely, positively nothing–about real change that is inevitable. And hope, absent real pressure and forward motion to actualize one’s dreams, is sterile and even dangerous. Hope, absent commitment is the enemy of change, capable of translating to a giving away of one’s agency, to a relinquishing of the need to do more than just show up every few years and push a button or pull a lever.
This means hooking up now with the grass roots organizations in the communities where we live, prioritizing their struggles, joining and serving with their constituents, following leaders grounded in the community who are accountable not to Barack Obama, but the people who helped elect him. Let Obama follow, while the people lead, in other words.
For we who are white it means going back into our white spaces and challenging our brothers and sisters, parents, neighbors, colleagues and friends–and ourselves–on the racial biases that still too often permeate their and our lives, and making sure they know that the success of one man of color does not equate to the eradication of systemic racial inequity.
So are we ready for the heavy lifting? This was, after all, merely the warmup exercise, somewhat akin to stretching before a really long run. Or perhaps it was the first lap, but either way, now the baton has been handed to you, to us. We must not, cannot, afford to drop it. There is too much at stake.
The worst thing that could happen now would be for us to go back to sleep; to allow the cool poise of Obama’s prose to lull us into slumber like the cool on the underside of the pillow. For in the light of day, when fully awake, it becomes impossible not to see the incompleteness of the task so far.
So let us begin."
Interesting what posting a To Do list does for me. I'm just enough of a contrarian procrastinator that the action of posting that list immediately leads me to ignore almost everything on that list and turn to other long-neglected tasks. For example, instead of gardening I deep-cleaned the bathrooms. Instead of going to the gym, I went for a walk with Mike. I studied a little wine, drank a cocktail, oh, and I did stalk 
beatnikside.
Mike and I also went out ostensibly to shop for a couch. (We did, but only at one store.) We ended up taking home a Bali sample book from Lowe's. The next morning, instead of ordering a couch, we ordered blinds. Ah well...'tis something we've been wanting to do for a year...time to check that one off the long Home Projects mental list.
beatnikside. Mike and I also went out ostensibly to shop for a couch. (We did, but only at one store.) We ended up taking home a Bali sample book from Lowe's. The next morning, instead of ordering a couch, we ordered blinds. Ah well...'tis something we've been wanting to do for a year...time to check that one off the long Home Projects mental list.
In no particular order, really...
Buy compost
Buy flowers/seeds
Do some writing contract work
Get to the gym at least twice more this week
Study wine
Study wine some more
Drink some wine
Write content for my web site
Pick clients/testimonials for my web site
Mull how to include portfolio pieces on my web site
Stalkbeatnikside until a dinner-for-photos exchange gets scheduled
Call some other folks I want to see in person to arrange play dates
Buy compost
Buy flowers/seeds
Do some writing contract work
Get to the gym at least twice more this week
Study wine
Study wine some more
Drink some wine
Write content for my web site
Pick clients/testimonials for my web site
Mull how to include portfolio pieces on my web site
Stalk
beatnikside until a dinner-for-photos exchange gets scheduled Call some other folks I want to see in person to arrange play dates
I have a few days off in a row. I'm not sure what I'll do with them other than the usual stuff (laundry, clean house, etc.).
Lately, I crave alone time until I'm alone. This is a pattern I started noticing a lot more after working in the hospitality biz for a while. I'm just introverted enough that 4-5 days a week of being "on" for coworkers and customers uses up my socializing energy allotment for a day or two. But give me more than a day of being lazy and away from everyone (hubby excluded) and I start to get cabin fever something awful.
Today, I suspect, will be a mostly lazy day. Beyond that, who knows? There are lots of people I've not seen a lot of in the past year or so I'd love to catch up with.
What's going on in your life?
Lately, I crave alone time until I'm alone. This is a pattern I started noticing a lot more after working in the hospitality biz for a while. I'm just introverted enough that 4-5 days a week of being "on" for coworkers and customers uses up my socializing energy allotment for a day or two. But give me more than a day of being lazy and away from everyone (hubby excluded) and I start to get cabin fever something awful.
Today, I suspect, will be a mostly lazy day. Beyond that, who knows? There are lots of people I've not seen a lot of in the past year or so I'd love to catch up with.
What's going on in your life?
- Current Mood:
relaxed
Since I make a lot of Friends Only posts, I decided I wanted to hone my Friends list down a bit more. If you got cut, don't take it personally...we just don't correspond much anymore. I wish you the best. Ciao ciao.
Semiannual note on friending:
I'm definitely still open to new connections through LJ. Making few public posts makes it hard to get to know me, I know. And, honestly, I'm not spending as much time blogging here as I used to. If you are curious to get to know me better, leave me a comment. Otherwise, you may now return to your normally scheduled web surfing.
Semiannual note on friending:
I'm definitely still open to new connections through LJ. Making few public posts makes it hard to get to know me, I know. And, honestly, I'm not spending as much time blogging here as I used to. If you are curious to get to know me better, leave me a comment. Otherwise, you may now return to your normally scheduled web surfing.
Work
I'm moving in to more of a wine buyer role at work. I'm also hosting more, which means I get tips again.
Tech writing gig got delayed (or maybe not that delayed...we shall see).
Picked up a little copywriting work that fits nicely around my other obligations...so far.
We saw friends from Italy, the guy who introduced us way back when, and our pal from Portland,
oddangel, this month.One friend was in a bad accident, another has been battling cancer, and yet another is about to have outpatient brain surgery (you read that right). And there was some other worrisome news about friends and family and family of friends that just isn't my bidness to be posting about.
We've seen lots of our wine tasting buddies this month, but not seen many other folks we like and miss (waves to many).
Yesterday was a record breaker out here. It's interesting to me how the various major news sites are or aren't reporting it.
A few statistics:
3.77 inches recorded at SeaTac which is s little more than double the previous record for Dec. 3.
Only (only?) 3.70 inches were recorded at the Beach Drive weather station in West Seattle.
4.13 inches recorded at the West Seattle station
4.57 inches recorded at the Highland Park station in West Seattle.
Someone in the old neighborhood posted photos of the flooding that happened down near the steel mill and the gym. This one shows the top of a car. I hope my former neighbors' homes managed to stay dry!
There is a sign we have made it through the worst of it: a rainbow just appeared to the north of our house.
A few statistics:
3.77 inches recorded at SeaTac which is s little more than double the previous record for Dec. 3.
Only (only?) 3.70 inches were recorded at the Beach Drive weather station in West Seattle.
4.13 inches recorded at the West Seattle station
4.57 inches recorded at the Highland Park station in West Seattle.
Someone in the old neighborhood posted photos of the flooding that happened down near the steel mill and the gym. This one shows the top of a car. I hope my former neighbors' homes managed to stay dry!
There is a sign we have made it through the worst of it: a rainbow just appeared to the north of our house.
I spent approximately 2.5-3 hours bailing again today. The sump drain alarm went off twice and everything seemed fine. And then, the sump drain pump stopped working and very quickly we were at near flood stages again.
Mike helped for much of the bailing, but also braved the crowds of various hardware stores to get extra extension cords and another pump to put in place. I also called on a friend to see if he was still around. Garrett came by and helped bail for about a half hour when I was about at my wit's end. Whether it was Mike or Garrett, having another set of hands bailing made a HUGE difference. We could actually make a little progress and prevent flooding from happening. Had it been only me, at least 2-3 of our units would have flooded for sure.
The rain has picked up again, so it looks like we're going to be able to test the new pump. Oh joy.
Mike helped for much of the bailing, but also braved the crowds of various hardware stores to get extra extension cords and another pump to put in place. I also called on a friend to see if he was still around. Garrett came by and helped bail for about a half hour when I was about at my wit's end. Whether it was Mike or Garrett, having another set of hands bailing made a HUGE difference. We could actually make a little progress and prevent flooding from happening. Had it been only me, at least 2-3 of our units would have flooded for sure.
The rain has picked up again, so it looks like we're going to be able to test the new pump. Oh joy.
