Onward, ho!

Lately, this City Girl has been tossing around the idea of moving. Again. This time to destination unknown, but possibly further north. As of now, I have no plans. I had no plans even when I moved to The Lake. I've been without a plan and goalless for some time now. Very, very unlike me.

My blood pressure has dropped, too. Also, very unlike me. Ha ha!

I wouldn't say that I dislike life in The Country, but I'm not overly excited to go back to it either. I'm...in transition. So for now, the house buying shenanigans are still a possibility as is the prospect of moving to a city (a city!!!) and starting a new life there.

Stay tuned...

This horsey needs room to gallup!

Today I was determined to find fun things to do at The Lake. So far, I'm still a little stumped. I did find fun things to do for a few girls nights out.

Fondue anyone? 

And I did find a couple of cool tours that involve kayaks and wine tastings. I'm sure there's probably some clause about these two things being separate.

Some people just don't know how to have a good time!

But other than that, I've found nothing that's an every week/weekend sort of thing. So, now I'm revisiting an idea I had awhile ago: join the local co-ed softball team.

Little known fact about me: I love sports. In fact, there was a phase in my life where all I would watch was Sports Center and Sex and The City. I know. It's practically a split personality. And for anyone who really knows me and is reading this, you probably feel like I just threw you a real curve ball! (No pun intended.)

My days in SB weren't always spent shopping, going to parties and sleeping in. (Well, maybe the sleeping in part.) There were 3 to 4 solid years spent chasing waves with my surfboard, boogie board or anything that could float and let me ride on the crest of curled salt water. Then there were the years spent doing yoga. Although, I can't remember a time when I haven't kept that practice up. And then there were the last couple of years where I was the captain of an adult kickball team. That's right. I said kickball.

When I'm not on the road, I've spent almost every single day at the gym. It's not my first place to go to for fun, but it's been something to do. And now it's taken me 30 days to become completely restless to the point of going out on a field and hoping someone throws a piece of sports equipment at me. There's just something about running around outside and yelling and screaming in an umpire's face that just makes a girl feel alive!

Brace yourselves. My inner sports nut just might emerge once again.

But wait! There's more!

Ever have one of those weeks that's so crazy, so inconceivable that if you were to tell someone about it they would just think you're nuts? That you're off your rocker? You made it all up.

This has been my week.

As I told a friend a couple days ago, everything keeps changing. I wish it would stop, but I know it won't. Change is so unpredictable. So unwieldy. And so it was for that girl who's car spun around and tipped over in front of mine.

On a completely different note, when I'm away I really do miss my friends, but all I could think about this week was how much longer I had to be in SB before I could go home. In my version of the immortalized words of Frank, I left my heart at The Lake.

Sing on, Ol' Blue Eyes!

Aside from feeling like a fish out of water, my time down here has been good. It seems like everywhere I go and everyone I talk to has purpose in the meeting. I still don't know what possessed me to come down here for the week just to hang out when it was only a month ago that I moved away, but I can say without a doubt that this has not been a wasted trip. In fact, had I been looking for signs to tell me that where I'm going and what I'm doing is right I wouldn't have had to look very far. They've been all around me.

Just two more days...

Lessons in Learning How to Rest, Part Two.

Lesson 2: Trim the Fat

For the longest time I've been a champ at balancing my crazy life.

Crazy that I brought on myself, but let's not argue semantics!

That is until recently, when I decided to take a break from my life. And since then it's all boiled down to just the numbers. Kind of like taking stock of everything that defines who you are. Or in my case, why I haven't slowed down long enough to catch my breath. It started with all the things I had accomplished or put up with in the last 10 years and now it's come down to the details. The mundane stuff that just seemed to add up all on its own:

516 friends on Facebook
373 people in my address book
600 text messages per month
500 minutes worth of phone calls
42 people to follow on Twitter
49 people following me on Twitter
At least 35 emails per day


I've inadvertently started to master lesson number two while trying to learn lesson number one. And while I still suck at slowing down, I am rocking the trimming of the fat! I've literally been in awe of myself. My personality is almost unrecognizable. I not only stay in every night, I've stopped returning phone calls. I avoid people at all costs. I've become a cave person!

Or maybe my inner-country girl has finally emerged?

It's weird. I've had a few friends who on occasion would lock themselves in their houses and take a break from everything-all at once. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. Why in the world would you want to stop going with the flow of a seemingly fabulous life?! And now I get it. While my life is still pretty great (I had a massage at my new office last week), I not only need to slow down, but stop all together. And putting everything on hold has felt so great. I've never been this relaxed. I've not been this rested since kindergarten. I eat better. I breathe deeper. Life is good. And I have to attribute all this euphoria to the trimming of the fat. The cutting out of the white noise, slipping into my favorite yoga pants, sipping a glass of wine and just enjoying the sunset on The Lake.

I honestly don't know why it took me this long to get here.

Mutiny on my bounty!

Do you ever have a recurring day dream? I do.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Multiplicity featuring Michael Keaton, Andie McDowell and Andie's adorable Southern accent. Keaton plays a guy with a laundry list so big he finds it impossible to keep up with his life. So, what does he do to resolve this problem? He clones himself. And then the clone clones himself, etc etc etc. Then the obvious slapstick hilarity ensues....yadayadayada...he realizes that letting some of those juggled balls drop is OK after all. Life doesn't stop just because you let go of a few things on your to-do list.

Holy pandemonium, Batman!


My recurring day dream is that I get to clone myself. I imagine all of the possibilities: things I could accomplish, tasks I could finish and places I could go. I might actually get a chance to relax. Or at least one of me would! Most mornings my head is already reeling by 10 'o clock with all the things I need to do. And by lunchtime the walls might as well be closing in on me. So much to do. So little time. I've been told a thousand times to get an assistant, but I always find reasons why I don't need one or want one. Although, maybe now that I'm going to be on the road more I should think about hiring someone who doesn't move around as much as me to take care of the day to day stuff.

ANYWAY, all this to say that my move to the country has turned out to be a good thing. During the commute to my new office I noticed that the slow driving wasn't sending me into fits of panic and rage like it usually does. In fact, I was actually enjoying being stuck behind a 92 year old driver who was slowly weaving his way down the road and around The Lake.

As you may have noticed, I'm a big fan of making lists, setting goals and giving myself deadlines. But I have this new theory (as of this morning) that maybe I like putting all this pressure on myself just to see it not work out like I had planned. It's like those kids who build a huge tower of blocks just to knock them down.

Life's mutiny on my bounty.

And in light of this morning's epiphany I eased up on the plans and list making for at least another day. Life isn't going to stop just because some things (or everything!) isn't going as planned.

We're definitely not in Kansas anymore, Toto.

Ok. So, it's been a few days since I officially set foot on The Lake. And so far, it has been a whirlwind of changes!

Talk about hitting the ground running!

The first day was just a veritable scramble of making appointments, taking phone calls, answering emails, and trying to set up shop in my new office. Then there was dinner with my girls that I've been friends with since the dawn of time. And I guess I sort of forgot what my best friend looked like the last time she was pregnant. I walked in and saw her across the dinner table and could tell she was about ready go into labor. And the very next day she did!

Just getting to be here for the birth of her second kiddo, Lucie Joy, was such an enormous blessing and such a sweet time to get to bask in the glow of her being a mommy. At one point I forgot what day it was and the fact that I no longer live in SB. I kept thinking, "OK, don't forget you have to leave in a couple days." But I live here now. I kept saying those four words to all our friends in the delivery room whenever the word "babysitting" came up and I got the weirdest stares in return. If I could have I would have cloned my body and given myself the same look. It just sounded so weird and "out of body" to admit to anyone that I live here now.

I've always had mixed feelings about my hometown. On the one hand, it's a great place to grow up. Fresh air, good clean country living, sweet people that are always around (and know ALL your business) who have known you since birth. On the other hand, it's one of the tiniest towns in California. At times you feel like no one, besides the residents, has ever heard of this place and that no one ever will. As I like to say, it's one of those places that you "can't get there from here."  For now, I'm undecided about how I feel about this place.

And on that note, let me just conclude with this little dramatic scene that took place at KMart tonight:

I went into the store to get a rather large list of things (things you would think KMart might sell) for my new office and came out with 3 envelopes. I would get into the details of my wandering around the home decor section for about 15 minutes only to get frustrated with the fact that there are 5 aisles of towels and no aisles of anything that is actually useful in a home, but I won't. It's sad to admit, but I almost cried because of the lack of...well, everything!

Among many, many things, I wish this place had a Target.