Call Me Self-Indulgent

No, really. I think you should. I submit to you the following facts to substantiate my claim:

I don't just like to travel. I like to travel a lot and try to go somewhere every month (or so, as schedule permits).

I don't just like ice cream. I like the GOOD ice cream. And I eat it almost every day.

I don't just like shoes. I LOVE shoes. And I allow myself to buy ridiculous shoes that no one could ever need and yet I could never do without.

I could go on, but that could be a little TMI. And I think you get the idea. Ironically, while there are a lot of words that have been used to describe me over the years, we all seem to have missed this one. At least I can't recall anyone making such an accusation. And I don't know how we did as it seems so obvious now. In regards to the things I love, I put almost no limits on how much I am allowed to consume of them. And it turns out I'm capable of consuming A LOT of the things I love. Furthermore, I haven't found a good reason not to. And I feel absolutely no remorse or guilt for said consumption.

Is there a support group for this? Hello. I'm self-indulgent. And I see no reason to stop. Would you like a bit of my ice cream?

Our Trip to Washington DC

Ben and I just got back from a FABULOUS trip to Washington DC. It was a little spur of the moment, in that we left for DC on Sunday morning and we hadn't even thought about going to DC until Saturday morning the day before. That being said, we DID schedule vacation time for ourselves beforehand, so it was not 100% spontaneous. But it was as spontaneous as two people with commitments to their jobs can manage. :) And, for whatever reason, that made it all just a little more fun.

We flew in Sunday afternoon, checked into our hotel, and then we found a place to grab some food -- The Thaitanic. It was a great little hole-in-the-wall near our hotel and it was delicious. Then we went to the West Lawn at the Capital for the National Memorial Day Concert. It was lovely. At least it was until they told us they were ending the concert due to inclement weather. We enjoyed a good 40 minutes of it and then we hitched a taxi ride home to get out of the rain that inevitably came. We'd complain, but the concert was free, so... it really wouldn't be right.

Ben at the concert

On Monday, we slept in and then left our hotel to find some yummy eats. This led us to what I consider to be the best eats of the trip -- Founding Farmers. If you ever go to DC, make sure you eat here. Trust me. You'll LOVE IT. After food, we took a very needed walk over to the area where they were going to be having the National Memorial Day Parade As luck would have it, that brought us by the White House, and we got to see snipers (up to 4 at at time, but usually 2) on the roof as there was a motorcade of vehicles preparing to leave the estate for some event. This ended up being pretty awesome to watch. And the parade was great fun. I would get a little emotional every time I saw an older veteran walking down the road. I also saw lots of marching bands and wondered why almost every high school thought it would be a good idea to put their students in hot, wool, mummy-coverage-style uniforms in black and march them down a road carrying heavy instruments in 90 degree weather. Anyone care to explain this?

The White House

Snipers at the White House

After the parade we disappeared into the Smithsonian Museum of American History -- fun, but I wasn't feeling so hot, so we only stayed a little while and then we tried to find dinner. Finding dinner was a bit difficult because most restaurants were actually closed on Memorial Day. But we lucked out and found The Grist Mill at one of the hotels near where we were staying. Comfort food. It was very comforting, indeed. This was our 2nd best find of the trip. And the executive chef & waiter were insistent on giving us a free piece of red velvet cake to take back with us to our hotel (we were too stuffed to eat dessert there). And, how could we refuse them?

On Tuesday, I went up to the pool (it was on the roof of the hotel), finished reading my book, King Peggy, (I highly recommend said book) and got a little bit more sun than I had been hoping for. After Ben & I both cooled off in the pool, we ventured out for lunch again, this time at a restaurant called Chop't. It's a chain there ( we don't have it here in Ohio) and it was awesome. We especially were delighted to see that they offer Boylan Soda for fountain drinks. The Cherry flavor was SO GOOD. Can you tell food is an important part of traveling for me? I think it's my favorite way of experiencing places. I know you may not guess to look at me, but it's true.

After lunch, we stumbled upon the Smithsonian National Portraits Museum. We got lost in there for a good several hours. It was awesome. While I enjoyed the American History Museum, I have to say I absolutely LOVED the Portraits Museum.

Dinner that night was ruined because I got the address for the intended restaurant mixed up and we ended up on the wrong side of town, so we went to a forgettable tapas restaurant for dinner. But the eating experience was saved when I called room service back at the hotel and ordered chocolate cake. Mmmmm. By the taste of the cake and ice cream, I would say we should have just dined in. Oh well.

We came home Wednesday morning and stopped at the outlets on our way back from the airport to do some shopping. I am now wearing a new pair of lovely steely-grey-blue capri pants that I got for 20 bucks.

Here's to great vacations that let us forget about everything at home and focus on enjoying our time and our family. It was a great way to celebrate Memorial Day. I feel quite refreshed. Thank you DC. I needed that.

Holding My Breath

I've been silent for so long! Sorry about that. I don't know that I have a lot I want to blog about, but at this point I think I'd better just suck it up and give an update or, who knows. I could never blog again.

I know what you're thinking. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! What would I do without your rambling, random, sometimes incoherent and at-other-times overly personal and awkward posts?" Have no fear. I won't let it happen. I'm here for you. Ok, so I'm here for me mostly and you a little. But you get the idea.

My lack of posting is not for lack of life happenings or activity. Why, Ben and I just took a delightful trip to Minnesota for Easter to hang out with Jon & Anne and their kids. Jeff & Erika came up as well, so we had a really good time doing what we do -- eating, chatting, playing games and otherwise making merry with family while doing nothing particularly productive. It's one of my favorite ways to spend time.

Actually, I can't say I did nothing productive. I did help Anne stuff envelopes for the Republican candidate she is caucusing for in the race for US Senate. This is very nice of me since I don't normally make a practice of helping Republican candidates. But I do help sisters-in-law. So, he got lucky due to a caveat. Just like a politician.

I mostly haven't blogged because there is news and happenings I would LIKE to share with you, but I can't because the particular news and happenings I'd like to tell you about have yet to transpire. I'm just waiting for them. And they're taking so long. I get frustrated a lot these days, waiting for things to come together.

It's not all bad news though. The dress business is a bright spot in my dull canvas called life. I will have two styles of dresses available for purchase for the Summer 2012 season -- just weeks away. Crazy huh?! I'm really excited about that (when I'm not overcome with anxiety about it. You can read more about that here if you desire.) So, I should have more good news on that front soon. Rest assured, you will hear about it EVERYWHERE when the dresses are available. I will mercilessly self-promote once they're on sale. You've been forewarned.

But that's really the only big thing going on right now. Granted, it's big, but I'm a demanding sort of person and I was hoping for more. So, stay tuned. There could be more on the way. I certainly hope so. Aand please don't take this to mean that an announcement that we're having a baby is impending. I hate to dampen your spirits by telling you this is not what we are waiting for, but, well, .... it's not what we're waiting for.

January Update

It has been about 2 months since I finished classes. I have yet to receive my certificate in the mail that officially declares I graduated with my MBA, but the lack of anxiety from looming tests and projects seems to be good enough evidence to convince me. It's really over.

And life without homework and finals is just as lovely as I remember it. It's also still just as busy! I knew there were things I had been neglecting! Now that I am back to EVERYTHING ELSE, Ben has finally realized the truth about me -- I like to stay busy. What can you do?

But this year comes with lots of things to look forward to. I hope. First, I am hoping it brings a new job. I have had a few interviews already and hope there will be more, one of which will HOPEFULLY turn into a lovely new job. And I'm even more hopeful that said lovely new job will be in another state, within close proximity to someone we're related to. Because the truth is, we get lonely down here in Cincinnati sometimes. And we think 3 years of missing out on spending time with family is sufficient. But, we could always end up staying. So, we'll see what happens. I'll let you know if any big developments come up.

Along with that, I like to daydream about buying a house. Finally. A fixer-upper, actually, because I'm just so picky. And I figure, if I know I'm going to have to redo it anyway, why not start with something that desperately needs redoing? How awesome would THAT be?! I daydreamed about it for the entire car-ride home yesterday. I had 3/4's of the floor plan on the 1st level worked out by the time I rolled into the parking lot.

I am all aglow with the prospects of traveling to Europe as well. Either France or England. Or both. I don't know yet. But we're going sometime this summer. And I always love crossing the pond.

These are a few of my dreams for this year. I have more. But I think this list is good enough for sharing for now. Sometimes, I think my life is good just because I like to look forward to things so much. I'm a dreamer, for better or worse. And whether or not they come true, my dreams make me happy all the same.

Has it Really Been That Long?

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. My, how time flies. I am all sorts of nervous right now. This is for a variety of reasons.

1) I have a final due in two days. And, as usual, I have procrastinated working on it. But I anticiipate I will get it done, as I usually do.

2) I had a job interview last week and I am waiting to hear back about it. I'm not sure if I want the job, but I still want them to want me. I'm a bit of a tease that way. Always have been.

3) The dress samples for the dress business are on their way to me and I can't wait to see how they turned out. Hopefully, good!

That's a lot to be nervous about, I think. My GPA, my livelihood and the potential for my little business are all significantly affected. How is a girl supposed to get anything done!?!?

But get things done, I must. I will fill you in on recent happenings, aside from anxiety, later. I gotta get back to my actual job that pays my bills.

I Don't Think I'm Ready

I read an article from the Washington Post today that was linked on Facebook by one of my friends. It was about Mormons. I am, of course, always curious about what kind of attention we're getting. We've been in the news a lot over the last year or so, and it's a cumbersome thing to keep up with our media attention, but I like to try. It's not really a dutiful act. I am just curious. What are people saying about us now?

Well, I think this article was an eerie foreboding of things to come with the ramping up of the presidential race. And I remember a recent NPR interview with Joanna Brookes a week ago Sunday that predicted as much. For the record, I liked the interview. I thought it was very objective and informative. The link to that interview is here.

The Washington Post article, however, wasn't very representative of my experience with the faith or its teachings, which is why I'm not linking to it. It also wasn't flattering in any way -- which is why I didn't like it. It's not so much because the article wasn't true. On the contrary, I'm totally fine with journalists lying about my faith in print. But the general rule about lying is, if you're going to tell a lie, it should be a nice lie. This article was decidedly neither honest nor nice.

It's all probably going to start getting very ugly. And, to be honest, I'm not sure I'm ready for it. I suppose I'll just have to brace myself, as I don't really have an option. Here it comes....

Fasting

I am waiting on some things.

#1 -- for a job interview call
#2 -- that I hope may result in a new job
#3 -- to finish my classes & degree (one month to go. I can do it)
#4 -- to move

And for some reason, this has resulted in fasting. Not food fasting. No, no. I am definitely an eater. Fasting these days includes:

#1 -- shopping fasting. Since July, believe it or not. And I think I will hold out till one of the above things I'm waiting for happens before I break said fast. I even returned my birthday presents, so not even that was given an exception.

#2 -- working out. For some reason, I can't get myself there. It's only been about a week. But even the few weeks before that I only got there once each. I think I'm just too mentally overwhelmed and full of anticipation.

Fast #1 is definitely deliberate. Ben was pretty unpleased when I took birthday items back to the store. But I just don't really want anything. And I want the satisfaction of shopping when I really have some exciting news to shop for. Weird? Perhaps. But it should benefit our bank account. I could do worse.

I'm hoping my end to fast #2 comes sooner than my end to fast #1, since I don't anticipate any of the items I'm waiting for will bring an end to fast #1 within the next few days. But I'll get there. Whatever funk I'm ever in eventually goes away.

Shew, funk. Shew.

Clothing Conversations

Over the past weekend, Ben and I have had a few comic exchanges in regards to wardrobes. They were too amusing not to share. J

Friday morning, before I am about to leave for work:

Ben: Sharon, you look really nice today.

Sharon: Aw. Thank you.

Ben: Yeah, really nice. Kind of like Christmas.

Sharon: It's September. I'm not supposed to look like Christmas. Maybe I should go change.

Ben: No, no. Really I like it.

(memo: if you want to compliment someone's outfit, steer clear of telling them they remind you of a holiday – especially if it's not that holiday)

Sunday, while watching general conference and the speaker is giving men tips on how to raise daughters:

Sharon: I think we're only going to have girls.

Ben: No, we're only going to have boys. And they're all going to have red boots.

Sharon: Why would we give our boys red boots?

Ben: I don't know.

Sharon: Well, if our sons are getting red boots, I have to have a pair of red boots too.

Ben: **audible groan

(Admittedly, I'm still trying to figure out what possessed Ben to say boys need red boots. Where does he come up with this stuff!?!)

Sunday, when I bring the 3 loads of laundry that I washed last Sunday, but never put away, out to the living room to fold:

Ben: Holy Cow! You have so many clothes!

Sharon: Ah, and yet not enough. It's such a paradox.

(Too true. Too True.)