This is My Brain Before Vacation

Patti Digh posted on her Facebook status that she is hosting a Blog Tour for her new book. She gave directions how to sign up and I DID IT!! I was really nervous and I came up with all these reasons why it wouldn't be a good idea for me to do it - I've never done anything like that before. I don't know what I need to do. Not very many people read my little blog. There are so many better blogs out there...ad nauseum. At this point, I'm so happy that I did it that I'm okay whether I get selected for the tour or not.

I'm wishing for some new music, but I'm not very good at finding new stuff on my own. I've been listening to the radio, but talking heads, not music. When I listen to music, it is usually Broadway shows, but I don't even have any new shows that I want to explore. I guess I should start listening to this year's season...Maybe I will do that after vacation.

There are some gorgeous photos of the solar flares and the affect on the Northern Lights on Flickr via Yahoo.com. Check them out.

I seriously could not bear one of the meetings I was in today. I typed the following in an AIM to a co-worker who promptly told me he shot coffee out his nose, "Is it bad to wish I had a gun in my desk drawer? For myself...no one else." A few minutes later, "BANG. AAARGGHH. Thump." It was pretty funny, even though I felt guilty for even saying I wished I had a gun. I don't. I wouldn't know what to do with a gun if I had one and I kind of like it that way. It was just one of those moments when I could feel the hysteria rising and I had to get it out.

Be sure to check out the new issue of Harper's Bazaar - Jennifer Aniston is paying homage to Barbra Streisand. She looks stunning and I love Barbra, of course.

Ah. That is a much better picture to have pop up in the LinkWithin photos over and over.

I need to start taking photos again. I haven't done any of my creative stuff in a long time. I want to. I think about it a lot (all the creative stuff AND taking photos). I really need to get my act together.

Last year I did the "The Next Chapter: Wreck This Journal" with Jamie Ridler Studios. I had a great time and I have been hoping for a new "TNC" book, but it hasn't happened. I think her work has really taken off this year, so it may be put off for a while. I am thinking that I might go ahead and buy the book they did for the last "TNC" group - it was a mail around. I wanted to do it, but I know myself well enough to know that I would have all the good intentions in the world and then I would never mail it and be the lame one in the group. I just couldn't put myself through that. The book they read was called "The Happy Book".  I'm thinking that I might buy it, take a look at it and then I will use my own journals for the same purpose. I want to bring "The Happy Book" to work and have it be something that people can do while they are there.

It is hard to boost the happiness level in other people when they are not vested in boosting their own happiness level. I know that times are tough right now - for everyone. Our industry, our state, our country, the world. But we can still choose to find joy. To be joyful. To try to find the happy moments and share them with each other. It may sound silly, but I really do believe that. If I focus on all the bad things in my life, I would be so incapacitated by grief and depression and hopelessness, I wouldn't be able to get out of bed. But my bad things are no worse or better than someone else's. All the good things and bad things will still be there whether I choose to acknowledge them or focus on them or ignore them or deal with them. I guess I am choosing to grab HAPPY and then all the other stuff, I just deal with as I can.

Ooh. A little too philosophical for the Thursday before my vacation...see what happens when I just let go and type?