brain-break meets productivity police.

Sometimes when I’m bored and needing a brain-break I peruse blogs. I start with the one’s specifically related to Young Professionals or Leadership-esque stuff, such as myself (ha), then I slip over to the ones that brighten my day with an obscure story or update on close friends life. I feel guilty. I have an overactive conscience. Even if I truly believe I am more productive when I take a few minutes to breathe and “shift gears” I still feel guilty like the productivity police are going to come around the computer and shut me down. True confession.

heart heavy.

I've contemplated writing about my trip home for the past few weeks. I am still wrestling with some of what occupied my thoughts while home. The light, laughter-infused moments were plentiful - dinner parties, sister time, watching ruby (now 2 yrs old!) play with the month-old pups in the back yard, live music with the Hillbilly Potentates and Aaron's new band, embraces from people that know my soul without knowing my life.

The heavy stuff came as I heard about marriages and relationships that are such a burden that some have lost hope. My friend Devi wrote (her blog is great) of a wedding day in which she looked at the bride, and though beautiful as she was, Devi saw hope capturing the bride's expression."There is a swelling expectancy inside for a better, sweeter life that is literally just an hour or two away. " I am a hopeful romantic and I hate to see that hope chipped away in the eyes of people I love. Some seemed weary, others bitter and some simply discouraged. I don't have the answers but it made my heart heavy to see what I am often reminded of - we are fallible and the union of two people is only worth hoping for when God is given room to redeem us, as individuals, but even more miraculously, as he brings us together. More thoughts on this, but this is the most succinct I can make these thoughts as of today.

On a lighter note, here are pics from the fun stuff...

From Spring Breakish Homeland

Myself, Megan and Keely Rae from our unplanned-twinky run/jog session

From Spring Breakish Homeland

My little Ruby - what a beautiful little person.

From Spring Breakish Homeland

Big brother Arthur, Kristi and nephew Parker's 1st bday cake!

From Spring Breakish Homeland

Ruby and my little bro - she screamed "roooowwwwlin! rollin!"

From Dinner/Game Night at Megs

Dinner Party with good people... smattering of new and old friends.

From Dinner/Game Night at Megs

chopper buttfart (megs dog) with booty in the face.

From Dinner/Game Night at Megs

Surprise Leah! The magazine was good... I was just reading.

From Dinner/Game Night at Megs

Megan and her following.

blow. check for color & consistency. breathe and repeat if necessary

Does anyone else blow their nose then promptly open the tissue to see what just came out of their stuffed nostrils? For the past couple weeks I’ve had a head-cold, the most long-lasting, isolated and literal HEAD COLD I think I’ve ever had. Therefore, this is common routine, much to the chagrin of my coworker a few cubes over, I’m sure. I remember my mom was able to gauge the progress of my recovery by the color and consistency of my hard work so now its just second nature for me. Is it for you? Pray tell… everything you ever wanted to know about phlegm.

Sidenote: After closer examination and discussion with my coworkers (not about the boogers, but the head-cold-ness of the situation) I have kinda come to the conclusion that I have allergies. I am not sold on this yet bc I've never had nor want to have allergies.

filtered info... feast your eyes on this beauty

For a visual explanation of why this is better than google see here. I like Dan Roam so this is just a fun visual either way.

Not sure if I'm the last to find out about this site, but Guy Kawasaki and a couple other information superheroes have created this great resource to help you find your little nuggets of goodness (all the news/resources for whatever topic you're searching for).

Enjoy and tell me if you've seen this already...

x L

I was in Spain this week...

I get bored at work sometimes. I need a little spice in my life and oftentimes my cube doesn't suffice. I go places. Each week I pick a different picture from my adventures, change my background pic on my computer, close all the windows and pretend I am there.

From Spain '07

This week was Spain. In the fall of '07, while living in England, I was fortunate to visit my friend Jason in Granada for a week. Since finishing up college, I made a decision to visit him every year he lived in Spain, so I did. This was my 3rd and final trip to see Jason since he just moved back to the states before heading south for the winter. Back to my escape... we were standing on a ledge in order to look out over the tourists at the captivating sunset. To the east was the Alhambra, sitting in front of the snowcapped Sierra Nevada's, and the west were rich orange, violet, coral hues spreading across the sky. These were the colors that inspired me to get pastels when I was in elementary school (I have yet to come close to recreating a good sunset, but I still try). We had hiked up the cobblestone streets, bought a couple Alhambra beers, chatted with the gypsies until the cops ran them off and then we watched. We stood and soaked it all in.

missin the music

Martin Sexton is playing tonight at the Boulder Theater. He's one of my favorite people to see live. Dang it I wish I was going to be there but I'm heading to the homeland... piss. Go if you can or make it to another show he's doing around colorado these next few days. Love him.

did you swallow a balloon, ms. miller?

an excerpt from an email i sent to my dear friend and former boss, aaron:

I spent all day till 4 with a bunch of kids who crack me up and tell me things like “ms. Miller what happened to the big bump on your belly… it looks like you swallowed a balloon” to which I responded, “well, Akolda, I didn’t actually swallow a balloon.” And I jumped to catch the football (recess duty for 2 hrs:) as one kid exclaims, “You can jump and catch the football?!... You’re not just a normal teacher?!” Yes, my days are full and it reminds me to take it all a little less seriously. I cook a lot and tried a chianti the other day that was yummy – I think I emailed it to you. I don’t have a lot of spare cash but its oddly freeing to be so frugal. I probably, no definitely, needed to learn something in that area of my life.

No good man stories of late. I had a boy drunkenly express his infatuation, while sharing his insecurities about his relationship with current girlfriend. Kinda over that whole genre of man... i get that they struggle with what to do but i am over attracting them. I know i have some responsibility in there since this is becoming a trend so I need to evaluate my interactions. I have been trying to get my work/money situation squared away so I haven’t had a ton of time to invest in finding a mate or anything but I know if I took too much time to sit still I might be a little lonely for a life partner. I went on a walk around my neighborhood (super sweet/freakin awesome) with a friend from home that was in town for meg’s bday and I had forgotten how nice it is just to have someone of the opposite sex to share life with like that, wandering down the streets talking nonsense or serious stuff. I look forward to that. In the meantime I’m meeting some cool people, and hearing new thoughts on life/love/Jesus, which is usually a good thing for me.

I miss the house parties and leisure mornings of tea and hippie flakes at Sacred Grounds… I never thought of Ruidoso as a mountain town, probably because I hadn’t spent much time in any others, but now that I’m in the land of plenty in that genre, I appreciate the intimacy of our circle of local love – the fact that you can email my mom something and the whole town knows, and that Landlocked has become a staple for our local and tourist economy. I do miss the homeland, in a way I haven’t before… when I think of home my heart is warmed at the thought of people I know and fellowship with friends who might not hang out in a big city but have found camaraderie in each other, all coming in sync in an unusually attractive town.

x Miller

EDIT: I realize that for some people the paragraph about "the type of men I'm attracting" may have been vague... I have not been dating or entertaining these types of men, but have been discouraged by a trend of attracting them for reasons which I am exploring.