Give up the funk / G+N gets scatter-brained

I'm in a funk.

I am certainly not the first, or last, blogger to experience a funk. Recently my favorite mother-daughter blogging duo Pam and Diane experienced a creative dry spell and some burn-out.  Hell, just last week, my own sister lamented a lack of blogging mojo. 

It's pretty hard to come to this space feeling inspired when lately New England looks like this...ALL THE TIME...

...and I spend 4+ hours in my car every day with broken wiper blades and, as of two days ago, a broken car stereo. Nothing like four hours of commuting in soul-sucking weather in complete silence to make one want to rush home and cheerily tappety tap some witty bits of brilliance on the keyboard...

NOT. 

Not at all. This is brooding weather. This is some serious introspective Wuthering Heights shit. 

So in that frame of mind today, brooding at my desk that I felt the urge to map out my whole life. 

Remember my two-thirds theory? I started there. 

Home/Self-care Highlights/Stream of conscience: What is happening with these things NOW? What do I WANT to happen? HOW will I get there? APARTMENT: Love my place but the following things need to be done: bedroom paint, tub drain needs snaking, cleaning is great when I STAY ON SCHEDULE, need to purge some clutter and crap. HEALTH (physical, financial, mental): GET DIVORCED - seriously, find time to figure that shit out. Debt AHHHHHHH - assess and kick ass, running, stay on schedule, buy some shoes, no excuses. Strength training - NEED. Yoga - NEED MORE. Need to get a local doctor and dentist and let's get real, probably a therapist (<---clearly I'm cuckoo, who else does this?!) HOBBIES: Blog feels directionless and blah, blog break? Planning posts? Craft - MAJOR slumps. Tackle more projects for myself, apartment, etc. Food! Drink! Yay! Cook more for self - feeling really happy about entertaining. Reading - been loving reading more. Garden. Interwebs - I spend entirely too much time here. CUT BACK. Community? Performing? 

WORK - MAJOR QUESTIONS - Where do I want to be in one year? Five years? Ten years? I used to know and suddenly I have no idea. What's up with that? 

Thoughts on SOCIAL life: OMG dating...socializing with friends outside of the home is necessary to keep sanity, but realistically a money/time suck. Much spend mental and monetary resources wisely. Entertaining at home, on the flip side is cheaper and makes me feel like an awesome hostess goddess, however getting people to drive to my home (which is really not that far from where most of my friends live) is like herding cats sometimes. 

Oh yeah, and FAMILY, FAMILY, FAMILY. I need to spend more time with them too. 

I've got to find a balance. 

Anyone still here after that clusterfluff of thoughts and scribbles?  Here are my conclusions...It's not ALL bad. I've got a lot of great stuff going on - so I've got to give up the funk. And in order to give up the funk, I've got to re-assess, set some personal goals, make some freaking lists. (I've come to find that I pretty much need to put my whole life on a to-do list to keep myself accountable). 

That said...I think I need a mini-blog vacation. I think I'm going to allow myself the month of May to peace out and figure out what's what. If I come up with anything that would be useful to you, dear readers, perhaps I'll pop my head back in to report. (This does happen to you guys too, right)? 

Like Pam said, "This lack of passion has an expiration date!" 

Parting food for thought...a little pertinent Rilke: 

"I would like to beg you dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

Time to recalibrate. 

Travel Dreams

My BFF, Allison, bought these beautiful, dangly earrings for me in Chile. Ally is quite the world traveler. In addition to Chile, she's been to Spain, Greece, most recently India - and a myriad of other places that I cannot remember.

I've been to Canada - woo-hoo!

I long to travel more, but financially, it's never been in the cards. I have not left the eastern seaboard six years! SIX! I am hoping that that will change soon. There are just so many places I want to go!

One of my "bucket list" goals is that I would like to spend a little time getting to know all 50 states. I've been to 15 out of 50, 17 counting being in an airport in Michigan and Georgia. Much of the time spent in each of these states has been little more than a stop at a rest area while road-tripping from point A to point B. What I would really like to do instead, is to spend a few days in each state, and get to know the essence of each place, the food, the culture, etc.

Beyond that lofty goal, there are many places that I would like to go to abroad, principally France (AHHHH-MOTHERLAND!), England, Spain, Italy, Australia...and so on and so forth.

A girl can dream!

Sigh. Until then, I live vicariously through the little treasures that Allison brings to me. A lace fan from Spain, a scarf from India, and my delightful dangly earrings from Chile.

P.S. This post was inspired by May Photo a Day. The earrings are "something I wore today."

Good Libations and Good Vibrations: Citrus Night

Last Saturday evening, I threw my second Good Libations Good Vibrations cocktail party. This time around, I was working on a shoestring budget, so instead of stocking my bar with anything new I had to work with what I already had. There was a huge bottle of Absolut Ruby Red vodka in my cabinet, so the theme of the evening became "Citrus Night."

 

I'm discovering that one of my favorite things about prepping for a GLGV night, is carefully setting up the libations, glassware and garnishes in a manner that is easily accessible for my guests and pleasing to my eye. Yes...years of retail have turned me into a neurotic display snob - but what a handy trait for hostessing!  

I offered three drinks. First - a citrusy martini made with the Ruby Red vodka, homemade limoncello, lime juice and thyme. I found it to be a bit tart for my tastes, but the boys in our crew enjoyed it. (I'm going back to the drawing board before offering the recipe here). Second, the Mon Petit Miel, a favorite cocktail of mine, was a HUGE hit with the guests. We thoroughly killed a bottle of St. Germain!

The last recipe, The Morocco via Jen Altman on Design*Sponge, was new to me and quite delicious. One of the reasons behind embarking on this series of cocktail nights was to challenge myself to make cocktails that require some extra preparation and care. For the Morocco - I prepared a coriander honey simple syrup, to be used as a sweetener in the drink. Isn't it pretty?



The final beverage is orange-y with herbal overtones from the coriander syrup and the bitters. Though enjoyable as is, I found that doubling the amount of syrup per cocktail was more to my taste. I also think the Morocco would be delicious served heated, like a spiked cider. I look forward to trying that out sometime in the future (and reporting back, of course)!

As for the "vibrations" part of the evening my guests and spinned a little Saturday Night Fever, Billy Joel, Kingston Trio, and Paul Simon (Graceland) as we enjoyed our drinks. Round two was successful, I love that I am making a point of entertaining more (#13 on 29before30) and I can't wait to set a date for May!

So readers...two questions for you:

1) What are some of your favorite citrusy drink recipes? I would love it if you would write them down or link to them in the comments!

2) I'm thinking of making May's theme "Margarita Night" as a late ode to Cinco de Mayo. Any tequila drinkers out there? What are your favorite brands?