Wednesday, March 30, 2016

Follow the signs

I have been feeling a bit frazzled lately. Time poor and rushed and sometimes a wee bit overwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, I've brought this on myself. And I know it. And I'm working on it.

But wow, I'm really learning a lot. Warp-speed style. And I'm more-often-than-not super energized and excited about life. It sure is uber full right now.

Luckily for me, in the midst of my self-created over-extension and moments of doubt, I've been getting the most amazing (aka, amasing) messages from my kids.

This one cuts right to the chase.


This might be a tiny bit of a stretch, but coming home to this late night one night recently was quite the treat. (Yes, you know the pun was intended.)


Translation: Life is amazing do you know how lucky you are? (Not sure where she was going with the last line.)


Handed to my by youngest while working on my computer. No translation needed.

Monday, March 28, 2016

Da Moms

Mistah took a million photos yesterday.

A million.

Sadly none of them were with our camera.

Sigh.

But we got ol' camera girl to grab mom's phone and take a couple for us, in the meantime . . .

. . . and the results were spectacular.

. . . or at least pretty good, for a coupla white-legged, white-faced broads.

My uncles say "broads". I secretly love it. Because it's so weirdly awesome. I mean, how is a woman a broad? I do not know. I hope it's not derogatory. Because I'm sticking with it.

Anyway.

Our lovely hosts put out such a gorgeous spread and we were so delighted and honored to be a part of it.

Ol' camera girl has millions of photos of all 13 of us on her camera, smiling maniacally for many many self-timers.

But we have the moms.

The Moms!

Aren't we lucky, to have our Moms?

Whoopsie!

We are. We are the luckiest.

Friday, March 25, 2016

so anyway, there I was

Ok, where was I

Oh yeah...


But let's back it up a little, shall we? A few years ago, we littles decided that we weren't seeing enough of each other, and that Something Must be Done. We talked about the conference I go to every year that it usually held somewhere awesome, and we looked at the line up for the next several years. First up was Austin, then Chicago. I was lucky and thrilled to see Jane in both of those fine cities, but Julie couldn't make those dates work, so we did this. That was fun. Next on the block was Hilton Head, an oceanfront hotel in the spring within driving distance of Julie? Oh yes please.

Julie sent a helpful packing list:


and I made some arrangements:

bye Cynthia
and then, like magic, we were back in bid'niz



The terrible, awful, no good, very bad thing about coordinating our littles' reunions with my conference is that I keep having to be all like:


while those bitches be like:

when is cheese a question?
But I'd join them on my breaks and act like:

zzzzzzzzzzz
That was a great spot, although quiet was not necessarily the strong point of this particular hotel, they made up for it somehow


loved that spot
And of course, we had our evenings to venture out unto the land and sea, fulfilling ourselves with good(ish) food and lovely bevs and my God, the gorgeous faces on those sisters of mine. 

we were so bad at taking a selfie that a woman marched over with her palm extended, demanding that we hand over the phone.

that shrimp.

hottie
I think it was our first night out when we walked along the marina to find a nightcap and stumbled into this funny bar with the most surreal musicians. It really was an SNL skit. They opened with Down in Africa, intended without irony. When someone requested Feelings they obliged. They obliged! As did we. 

whoooaaa whoaaa whooaaa
Then we successfully did not get murdered in our $5 uber ride back home to our happy place. 


This looks like a new day! We changed clothes. It all runs together, really. It was a great conference with my fun professional friends, and an amazing time with my sisters, my lovely loves. We had great talks and big laughs and ... I don't know how to describe what it is that we have when we are just existing in the same space, but it's really really good. Sustaining. 

please note that I'm not even FLEXing.  

room of dreams

I don't know what's better, the hat, the gut, or the deoderant swipe. Let's focus on Jane's mad moves, shall we?

One day we went for mexican food, because when am I ever going to get good mexican food if not on the coast of South Carolina? Pro tip: if you are anemic and craving a big pile of meat, order a small salad. Afterwards we decided to stay active and take our best-idea-ever rented beach cruisers for a spin that went weirdly inland before landing us back on the beach toward homeaway.

I tried so hard to imbed this 2 second video. Give a girl a break and click here


Thank you.

That night we opted to stay in and order what was really and truly the world's best pizza while watching an indulgent chick flick. That might also have been the night we visited the jacuzzi in our giant fluffy robes and fell into a vortex that defied both time and space when trying to get back to our room. We definitely traumatized the woman in the wheelchair, didn't we? Especially Jane. 

This was either before or after all of that? I was feeling a bit puny. 
Our last day was just a half, but we eeked a lot of joy by biking back down to the waterfront for boozy brunch. Then we had to say goodbye to Julie which was so mean and dumb. Jane and I had about an hour before it would be time to call the cab for our shared island hopper flight to the mainland. I didn't feel well, it wasn't the end of the world but kinda sucked as far as happy endings are concerned. When Jand said that an uber was available 20 minutes before the time we'd agreed to leave, I told her to hail he sumanabeech. I said, and I quote, these dramatic and foreboding words: "I don't have the fortitude to deal with any travel problems right now." 

We went up to retrieve our bags and were momentarily separated while we went to change. That's when our phones rang. Oh HI American Airlines! I bet this is good news!

I didn't get in the cab with Jane, she hurried off just in time to meet our flight, which finally took off about 4 hours later. As for me? I was on my way to Savannah with Teh Hun

He was lovely, and made everything less awful. But he played Adele the whole time, as if I wasn't sick enough.
I had a minor detour on my way to San Diego


a delicious detour
But finally found myself

halfway home. 

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

Yogitate

One of last weekends many, many highlights - Saturday pre-sunset at Law Street Beach.

 Last weekend was super packed. Here's a glimpse of Saturday pre-sunset at Law Street Beach.

Gratitude to yogini Arielle Rabier (http://ariellerabier.com) + The Moves Collective + The House of Yogi + KIND Bars + Tara Brach dharma love --- epic night!
Posted by kevala on Saturday, March 19, 2016



Monday, March 21, 2016

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring!

Happy cool new lighting the the River.

Happy -- well, the River is always Happy.

Happy Tin Man, who brings Springtime to the deck all winter long.

Whoa, Tin Man. Be careful.

Happy College Hoops at the lovely home of two of our favorite peeps in all the land.

(How does she look like a movie star while still in her jammies???)

(And you're welcome for turning my left side away from the camera. Seriously. You're welcome.)

Happy Touch of Pink . . .

Happy Croci . . .

. . . and Happy Daffs . . .

. . . Don't you just love Daffs? Nothing says Spring like Daffodils . . .

Happy Spring!

Friday, March 18, 2016

Hilton Heeeeeeeed

I took a trip last week! The day I left San Diego was like this:

bye baby girl
I got to the airport at 10pm and had a little warm milk to help me sleep on the flight


Somewhere in the weirdly abbreviated version of night that is the redeye, the sun came up and I ran to catch this little guy


which brought me to this little guy on Hilton Head

Baggage claim, island style. The guy just handed you your bag. 
I was sleeeeepy and psyched, and the hotel had been lovely enough to accomodate my early arrival so I checked in at 10am and opened the window to my balcony and saw this:

Good morning, Hilton Head!
I got right out of my overtired travel togs and into a big fluffy white robe and onto a giant cloud of a bed and let the sound of the crashing atlantic ocean sing me to sleep. I've done the redeye thing enough to know that a solid nap is crucial to one's survival, but I had to be careful not to let my body claim the full night's sleep it so desperately craved or I'd be lost in a desolate wasteland of jetlag for the duration of my 5 day stay. I set my alarm for 3 hours, and when Bob Marley broke into song at the appointed hour, I got up and got dressed and set out to meet the joint. I was hungry, but antsy from having sat and laid and lounged for so many hours in a row (I got used to that eventually), so I thought I'd hit the fitness center for a minute before finding food. I wandered down the wrong staircase and ended up outside, saw how close the beach was and went to take a gander:


It was so vast! The sand was packed like a highway, and there was pedestrian and bicycle traffic travelling hither and yon, and I formulated a fantastic plan for my pre-meal movement:

even though the hotel rental was way overpriced, an hour on this rig still cost less than that beer I had at the airport
That was a high point. And then, I rewarded myself thusly:


That evening, I went to the welcome reception for the conference that had brought me to Hilton Head. I visited with vendors and sipped the nice wine and mingled with the fine folks, but none of my homies were there yet so it was hard not to be here:


But then my people did start to arrive, and we parked ourselves at a table in the terrible hotel bar and expanded into two, then three tables as everyone arrived and somehow knew exactly where to find me. Take that, jetlag. We made it an early night, but not nearly as early as any of us had promised myself, and no one knows who was responsible for the veritable frat house pyramid of empty wine bottles. Oy.

There's something really cool about the east coast, you guys

sunrise
I always order room service for breakfast on the first day. It's a great way to ease in to the day's work and shake off the weird sleep while slowly revealing whatever nonsense I ended up throwing into my suitcase.

and you get silver and glassware to keep for the duration
After a full day of workshops and keynotes and hotel food and flourescent lights in a windowless room 50 feet from the ocean, a group of us headed out for drinks and dinner


photo credit, Amy from Georgia




me and my peeps, and my fire shooting breasts
After a delicious and decadent dinner, we went back to the hotel and some of us ended up at the godawful bar for more delicious decadence while I waited for the Next Big Thing to happen....



to be continued...... here's a hint: