Sunday, October 24, 2010

brain dump that starts with a miracle

Both my Mom and Alicia have instructed me to quit feeling the pressure of "a first blog back" and just start. (That's been one of the major road blocks I'll confess -- where to dive back in after so much time and so many crazy events?)

Tonight, I give you a secular miracle. Spiritual miracles over yonder.


An orange Starburst to me is worthless. So check out this miracle bag I drew yesterday. Target really is a holy house.

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Can you believe it's nearly November? I sure can't, but this Halloween-New Year's stretch is my favorite time of the year, so who am I to complain? We leave for Panama four weeks from today--marking the third time in three years I'll be in a foreign country for Thanksgiving. Nothing like saying thanks to those early pilgrims by evacuating the country that gave them freedom and cornbread.

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I have church at 11:00. There's something about the 11AM block that sucks the entire day away. Today, I left for church at 10:30 and didn't leave the building until 4:30. Sure extended meetings kept me at church longer than normal, but what happened to the in and out in just over 3 hours? 11AM church is a time vortex, I'm telling you what.

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I finally caught up on my last DVR'd episodes of the shows I've been missing since I went on the road the first week of September. Today, I enjoyed four episodes of The Vampire Diaries and didn't feel one bit of bad about it. Sure, the town of Mystic Falls might be a titch dangerous, but if the menfolk all looked like they do on that show, it might just be worth the risk.

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I did a three week tour out west for work and a bit of play. 10 days Utah, 7 days Portland, 4 days Detroit. It was exhausting and exhausting. While there, I spoke at a work conference on the parallels between catering cupcakes and managing successful web projects (the playback audio also confirms I speak with a lisp. >). High profile, high stress. Somehow I also thought it wise for cupcakes to accompany my presentation, so I found my self baking 180 cupcakes the same week I was freaking out about a host of other things that needed to be done allwithin24hours.

I learned some new stuffs this go round -- chocolate raspberry is the new black, bacon cooked in a microwave cooks flat and beautifully, and lemon cupcake with cream cheese frosting and coconut on top might still be my all time favorite.

Annnnnnnnnnnd now I want a cupcake.
The good news is this is the view I got to watch from my parents' kitchen while also baking, frosting, cleaning up, practicing my talk, or trying not to dry heave from nerves.
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This will be my eleventh winter with snow and I've still yet to figure out the whole winter shoe issue. Please someone, anyone, anyone, give me some pointers?

Also? It's good to be back. It was stressing me out missing so much of my personal history.

13 comments:

Erica Layne | Let Why Lead said...

Aaaand welcome back! So happy you are.

YES! The winter shoe dilemma gets me every year. We desert girls just cannot crack it!

Those cupcakes look fabulous.

Shauna said...

We would make a good starburst team because the orange are my favorites. Orange and Yellow. i have thing for citrus.

NatAttack said...

Thanks Eck! Now it's time to get crackin' let 2010 pass without some of the highlights.

WINTER SHOES ARE THE WORST.

Shauna -- we're half of a great team. Yellow is my other favorite. If you could learn to love the red ones, then we'd be MFEO.

Jody said...

Winter shoes, winter clothes, winter everything. I'm going on about 10 years out of the last 11 in snow, and am not doing too much better!

Do you read hyperbole and a half? I could see you loving it. If you don't, here's one of my favorites to get you started:

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/09/party.html

NatAttack said...

Oh man -- added to my list! Looks to be some hilariousness going on over there. YES PLEASE!

Jody said...

Have tissues ready because you'll be either peeing yourself or crying from laughing so hard. :)

Kendall said...

I think you have to get Uggs. They're the worst, but also the best because they're WARM and STURDY. The off-brand of Target ugg boots has worked out well.

stephanielynn said...

i've been waiting for this day.

Sylvia said...

Red are my favorite. And I like the orange ones too. Sorry, Shauna, but I'm stealing your woman!

And let me put in an additional plug for Hyperbole and a Half. I don't think I've laughed so much at a weblog - EVER. The text is hilarious but the drawings... oh, the drawings!

And: I fully support spending Thanksgiving by giving thanks for the freedom to travel to other countries (such as France [2004], Kenya [2005], and Brazil-Argentina-Uruguay [2010]) who don't have the same holiday so there aren't as many tourists and you get to see the natives in their natural habitat. (Run-on sentences served here!)

Welcome back!

NatAttack said...

Ken - good Uggs suggestion. The good news I'm no longer a commuter, so things get a *bit* easier, but not too much.

Steph -- me too!

Sylvia --- let's get together and eat Starbursts soon. And YAY for your T-day trip! I was in Argentina last year. It's nice and warm that way too.

The Carlson Family said...

Sooo just so you know, I always read...and I've been missing your posts so much! Glad to see you back! And your cupcakes are breathtaking! I need frosting help I think.

K. Marie Criddle said...

Fi-nuh-lee! Welcome back to blogging. Love, s devoted stalker.

Angie said...

I do NOT know how we weren't better friends before because I also would move to Mystic Falls if all the men were that good looking. I love that show and I'm not ashamed of it!

Definitely, maybe, probaby related posts:

If NatA! posted a photo with this blog, here it is!