spt - Q.E.D.

i've never really been a fan of any sort of mathematics (well, except for geometry, because that was more like puzzle-solving to me. and i LOVE puzzles!) math and i really parted ways during the "pre-calculus" era, and we have never been able to reconcile our differences.

numbers don't "click" in my head. it doesn't matter if i am adding them, squaring them, forecasting them, plotting them on an axis or budgeting them (a-hem.) anything involving numbers tends to stress me out. i am most easily distracted when i am working on a numbers project. therefore, anything involving math takes three times as long for me to complete as it should.

something is out of whack with my month-to-date occupancy numbers at the hotel. it's a fairly small number. 25. or 26. (well, truthfully, one time i added it up and it was 28, so there you go...) regardless, it has to be fixed, and it has to be fixed before midnight on the 30th. it seems as if three days is plenty of time to figure it all out. but these 25 (or 26, or 28) "mystery rooms" have plagued me for four days already!!

and, yet, here i am. blogging. distracted. hoping someone else will figure it out for me.

are you a numbers person? are you easily distracted from accomplishing things that don't come naturally to you? is your stress level ever reflected in your hairstyle???

today, i...

drank three (or four) cups of pumpkin spice coffee,
baked a loaf of banana bread,

did the weekly shopping,
washed, folded and PUT AWAY all of the laundry,
spent 45 minutes at the playground with jack,

made a roast turkey dinner (pesto turkey, rosemary polenta and squash),
took a plate of dinner to my grandfather,
remembered to help jack print out his homework,
baked a second loaf of banana bread,
made tomorrow night's dinner,
wrote good mail cards.

today, i feel amazing.

so bananas

and so, i will bake...

wordless wednesday

spt

i am wearing shoes with socks today, willing Mother Earth to make it *feel* like Autumn.

wordless wednesday

inspiration here

self portrait tuesday

i've been doing the things that make me feel better:
creating,
nesting,
singing and acting,
prioritizing.

(and listening to the new Sarah Bareilles.)



thank you all for your kind comments. what i wouldn't give for one afternoon in a coffeeshop with all of you!

wishful thinking

i wish i was inspired to create new things from my old things.

i wish i felt like i was on top of this mother/corporate life.

i wish it was 15 degrees cooler.

i wish the dog hadn't slipped out this morning.

i wish i felt excited for something. anything.

i wish i had a girls trip on the horizon.

i wish i could love the things i have.

i wish i knew what to make for dinner tonight.

i wish "the homework hour" wasn't so painful.

i wish i wasn't plagued by OCD'isms.

i wish i didn't suffer from depression.

i wish i could sleep.

i wish i had new music on my MP3 player.

i wish it was easier.

Where We Live is looking for a new project, and here's where i talk about it.

a near miss

fortunately, that monster of a hurricane will miss us. we will have some wind and rain, but it looks like that will be about it. (see that spec of blue near the NC/SC border? the southernmost tip of that blue line is Southport, in Brunswick County. the Tropical Storm watch does not technically include us.)

it'll most likely be a soggy night, but i'm thinking a certain fourth grader better prepare for his spelling test tomorrow...

pumpkin spice candle day

ahhh...
it is september first, and all is right with the world.

tales of a fourth grade EVERYTHING!!

we are back to school. this little man, my constant companion this summer (innkeeper in the making!) hurried off to a new school year with more confidence than i ever remember having at that age. i absolutely love the ohmygoshyouaretakingANOTHERpicture expression on his face!

i remember feeling pretty old when i was in the fourth grade. i can't imagine he is that age. i also remember that my fourth grade teacher was an unmarried 300-year-old woman who wore polyester pansuits and disliked my "bubbly" cursive handwriting. so, there you go.

Happy School Year, everyone!

Pop-pop, Grabbie and family, 2005

"Old Dan Tucker" is 99 today...

Happy birthday, Pop-pop!!

august has a hold of me

i've been thinking a lot about apples.

which is to say, i'm ready for Fall. i'm ready for school buses and sharpened pencils. i'm ready for pots of soup and pumpkin spice candles. college football and knitting needles.

i am ready.

i am an Autumn soul who lives in a Summer town. i live in a constant state of flux with the rhythm of the beach goers and the sun worshippers. i work when others are at their leisure. it is the way of life here on the coast.

in my business, July is the longest month. from about the 24th or 25th of the month, i wake up every morning and think, "how can it possibly still be July?!?" i stare at the calendar with half-lidded eyes over a cup of reheated coffee, willing the pages to turn to August. to September. just NOT july. anything but july. then i prepare myself for another nine or ten hour work day, armed with my Julie McCoy mentality (a bit of false bravado on a clipboard). just ask me what to do with yourselves when it's raining at the beach and your kids are literally climbing the walls of your hotel room. go ahead and ask me. i dare you...)

but on august first, i breathe deeply and know that a sense of normalcy is right around the corner. the sunlight casts longer shadows (if i squint my eyes just right) and it's not as humid when i take the dog for a walk (if we're out before 7 a.m.) but still.

in the past week, this first week of august, i have roasted chicken and enjoyed a pot of chili and planned a getaway for Fall Break. i have gotten stirred up by talk of SEC football, and started browsing patterns to cast on my knitting needles.

there are still weeks of "summer" yet to come. i am making the most of every single day with jack (another post to come on how-jack-and-i-spent-our-summer in this, the year he refused to go to day camp.) i'm still wearing sandals and staying up way too late watching ridiculous reality television. heck, i'm still sitting in "beach traffic" every afternoon. but this too, shall pass.

i haven't lit the pumpkin spice candle.

yet...

extra, extra

take a peek inside my journals

words

i've been working on a project. not quite ready to share (but trust me, when i do, it will be on a pretty big scale...) but it's had me reading words. lots and lots of words. twenty-seven years worth of words.

if you've read my blog at all, you know how i love words. i could eat them for dinner, a savory fritatta of expressions and emotions. yum-O! for this project, however, i've had to let someone else choose most of the words for me. and *this* has made me incredibly nervous.

oh words,don't fail me now...

whirlwind of good, part 4

(july 20, 2010)

my whirlwind updates are hopelessly out of order, but this news was just too good to pass up!!

today was our bi-annual Quality Assurance inspection at the hotel. we scored an Outstanding, which is our 13th Outstanding in a row!! (For those of you keeping track, that equals 13 inspections since I've been the General Manager, and ALL of thoe inspections have scored Outstandings). (I'm definitely keeping track!)

there is no way i could share this great news with the blogosphere without thanking my AMAZING team - the folks who get it done day after day after day.

and thanks to all of you who have continued to travel, even as the pursestrings cinched tighter and tighter. you make every day worth it!

whirlwind of good, part 3

(june 29 and july 5, 2010)

on june 29, Hampton Inn Southport celebrated her 10th anniversary. and less than a week later, i celebrated my own 10 year anniversary of employment. it's hard to believe i've been at one company for a decade. (there was a period of time shortly after college when i truly believed that a 2 year tenure at any job would be my max.)

wasn't i cute? the summer of 2000 was such a great time - i was newly married, new in town, working at a new hotel and about to find out there was a new baby on the way...



that "new baby" has since spent a lot of time at the Hampton Inn!



i've worked my way up from "guest service representative" to General Manager, and i've learned a lot about myself along the way. i've made reservations and made beds. i've hired many and have had to fire a few. i've crawled through a dumpster in the middle of the night, and climbed up on stage in front of thousands.

i can't help but wonder what's in store for the next ten!

whirlwind of good, part 2

(june 9, 2010)

jack's godfather is my best friend from college. chris lives in Maryland, which unfortunately makes it hard to get together. in fact, the last time he was able to get down to see us, jack was still young enough to appreciate a gift of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle underpants. (i should mention the underpants came with an action figure. as i recall, he appreciated the action figure a bit more than the underpants.)

last month, Chris had a quick trip that brought him to Raleigh, about 2 1/2 hours away from Southport. there is a long stretch of highway 40 that runs from Wilmington (just north of here) through Raleigh. along that strip of highway lies the Mad Boar restaurant. i end up eating at this restaurant more than i care to admit (mostly because a lot of Rotary District functions happen here.) it's a run of the mill sort of eating joint, with a bizarre mixture of Old English and Irish artifacts, smack dab in the middle of tobacco country, USA. on this night,it ended up being the perfect place to meet up with an old friend.


(chris and i, circa 1990)


(chris and i, 2010)


(chris and jack, who has now been dubbed "Elwood" by his godfather)

it was a Wednesday night. school was still in session. i was exhausted. we wouldn't have a lot of time to spend together. there were so many reasons to back out. but jack and i braved an hour long, white-knuckled drive through torrential downpours for a two hour dinner with one of my dearest friends in the world.

i can't think of a better way to spend Wednesday night.

can we talk?

it's been what, a month since my last post? over a month? i don't even know any more (although, thanks to the person from somewhere in Asia who keeps spamming my comments box. i have no idea what you are saying, but at least i know someone is stopping by!)

this summer seems crazier than most. i think i say that every summer. i BELIEVE that every summer. june was the month of incredible busy-ness, and i really, really wanted to sit down and tell you all about it.

but then July came, in a whirlwind of funnel cake and fireworks. and now July is half over (but not really, because July is the longest month of the year.) (is it the longest month of the year for you?)

i refuse to believe that i have let Facebook and Twitter squash my love of blogging, but i gotta tell ya, when i only have a few moments to travel through the internet, i tend to go where i can get in and out pretty effortlessly. for now, Facebook and Twitter are filling that need for me.

but i promise, they have not replaced my love of blogging.

or my love for you, my blogging friends.

so bear with me, as i set my sights on labor day and blaze a trail right through the rest of this summer!! hope to see you soon!