A week or so in review

As you may or may not know, I recently accepted a new job. The good news is I am loving it so far. It feels great to be creative again, and to be appreciated by my coworkers - who seem to be a great group of people. The bad news is that I don't get as many blog posts up because I am not on the internet during work hours! However, I'm starting to adjust to the new routine, so maybe I'll be better about it from here on out (the laptop and/or iPhone I plan to buy with my tax refund may help the situation as well..)

Anyway, here's what I've been up to this week:

Gardening


The seedlings have sprouted, and the cucumber half of the greenhouse is out of control! The pepper half was slow to sprout, but now everything is pretty much ready to be transplanted. Now I just have to talk Noe into going to Home Depot or Lowe's and buying some of those little pots and some soil...

Whale-Watching (well, playing)


I just had my second session on the Whale Enrichment Team at the aquarium. I think if I were retired or unemployed I would be at the aquarium every day. I still can't believe that I get to be this close to beluga whales and sea lions.

Hangin' Out at the Coffee House

Up until now I've been more partial to Muddy Waters than I have to the Bean & Leaf here in New London, but I haven't been frequenting coffee houses like I used to in Michigan, either. And while I still prefer Muddy's for a cup of morning joe, the Bean is a fantastic evening spot. For one thing, they're open (Muddy closes in the afternoon); two, they have an amazing selection of loose-leaf tea (I don't like coffee after 11:30 AM) and three, they have a jazz quintet on Wednesday nights. It's like the best elements of the Food Co-op and the Firefly Club in Ann Arbor combined - you can even BYOB to jazz night at the Bean. There aren't many places where you can enjoy a cup of tangerine-ginger followed by a finger of Lagavulin. (The crowd reminds me of Ann Arbor, too - thanks, Loree!)

Snake-Wrangling


You may remember a November post about a snake in my house. Well, we had another. Only this time we didn't find it in the house; Noe found it outside and chose to bring it in. I let the Bun chronicle this one on her blog, The Buns-Eye View.

Being a Local Celebrity

Just kidding. Sort of. Read the New London Main Street newsletter if you want more details about that.

In addition to all this, I've been working on my mysterious writing project, which I hope to make some real progress on in the near future (once again, the laptop/iPhone will probably help). There's some good stuff going on over the next few weeks, though, and we're supposed to be getting a new bar and a new restaurant here in New London pretty soon, so check back - I promise I'll post more regularly!

Let's Give 'Em Something to Blog About

I had to give up a lot of things when I came to Connecticut - indoor soccer team, my best friend, Sidetrack burgers, and Bell's Oberon all come to mind.

I also had to give up my tennis lessons. In Ypsilanti, I was extremely spoiled in the sense that the township had hired Ryan Rooney and Gary DeGuzman to teach the six week tennis courses, and they subsequently decided to independently host pay-as-you-go, $15-per-session Tuesday night and Saturday morning clinics all summer.

Here in Connecticut, I guess the only people who actually need tennis lessons are middle-aged housewives, because the clubs only teach them on WEEKDAY MORNINGS. And they definitely do NOT cost fifteen bucks.

I complain all the time that I have nothing to do here (meaning Connnecticut). While this is somewhat true, it's not entirely true. I recently realized that I have inexplicably given up hobbies that I could very easily be doing here - even more easily since I have no friends now.

Take running, for example. Yeah, I never LIKED it, but I DID it. I ran three half-marathons between October 2006 and June 2007 (Detroit, Nashville, Indianapolis). Why am I not going out for a run every night? It's not like I have a soccer game or tennis lesson to go to.

Or knitting. I had my movers move an entire Rubbermaid storage tub of yarn and knitting needles from Michigan to Connecticut, and what have I completed since we've gotten here? Nothing. Not even a scarf. Not even a potholder. So much for this being the winter I learned to knit socks.

See the writing blog below. I should have written a freakin' novel by now. I have no excuse not to bang out a few pages every night - it's not like I'm going out. At the very least, I should be a prolific blogger.

Pretty much the only hobby I have kept up with since I have moved is wine tasting, and I am pretty sure that when you are doing that by yourself in your own home a bottle at a time that they just call it "drinking too much."

(I don't actually drink a bottle of wine a night, just for the record.)

I have decided that it is time to change some of these things. Yet instead of checking things off one thing at a time like a normal person, I signed up for a half-marathon, knit three feet of a scarf, and blogged two rather lengthy entries all in one evening...and drank half a bottle of Australian Chardonnay (NO, it was not Yellow Tail, and YES, I have an excuse - it's Valentine's Day).

At least this should give me something to blog about, right? (Y'all better read it!)

Selling Out?

Something happened today that hasn't happened to me in over a year and a half - I did not read one single online news publication while at work. I did not even scan the New York Times headlines while at work, because I did not check my personal email at work.

That's right - I was busy. All day. What a change of pace from the last 18 months!

To be fair, when I was an in-house pharmaceutical journalist (you know which company) I scanned the headlines every day as part of my job - I was looking for stories relevant to the company or the pharmaceutical industry that I might be able to use in my own line of work, which was writing and editing an internal company newsletter. I have no excuse for every other job since then except for the fact that I have not been busy - or happy - in any other job.

At least I have busy covered now. However, I still feel like I am moving farther and farther from my skill set and what I intended to do.

For instance, I haven't written a feature story since I left pharma. I wrote some lame press releases in my nonprofit life, but let's face it - my psychotic boss wasn't letting me do a lot of work, and after awhile I lost the will to try.

Now I'm not writing at all. I'm kind of sad about this. I really enjoy researching,writing, and editing a piece. I get immense satisfaction in seeing something through from start to finish. I know I said I never wanted to be a reporter, but to not be writing at all just seems a little odd. A bit disheartning. It kind of makes me wonder why I did all those unpaid internships and wrote for our crappy student newspaper. Why I worked my ass off for eight bucks an hour in Advancement Communications at EMU (OK, THAT I actually did because I loved it. I did not love making eight bucks an hour when freelancers got paid $0.50 - $1.00 per word, but I loved the work itself).

Can I really not find another writing gig or am I not looking hard enough? I suppose I could find freelance work, but I feel like I'd have to start at the beginning again - unpaid assignments for little-read publications. Do I want to spend my nights drafting promotional copy for tourist rags? Provided they even want my copy, that is.

Maybe I do. Maybe I don't. I haven't decided yet. But until I do, I guess blogging can fill the void.