the ramble

8:30AM: Up! Luna rolls around on the bed looking snuggly while I don a red tank top and some black pants and turn on my computer to find an email newsletter from a lady who I gave my card to the other day. Dear everyone: giving you my business card does NOT mean I want to be on your e-newsletter. Ask. Seriously.

8:59AM: It’s so much cooler this morning–a nice breeze hitting me on the patio as I enjoy my Chai and my book.

“He wanted your merely instinctive love for your child (tigresses share that, you know!) to turn into something better. He wanted you to love Michael as He understands love. You cannot love a fellow creature fully till you love God.” - The Great Divorce

9:08AM: “When your own heart’s been broken it will be time for you to think of talking. But someone must say in general what’s been unsaid among you this many a year: that love, as mortals understand the word, isn’t enough.” – The Great Divorce

9:41AM: “That [pity] sounds very merciful: but see what lurks behind it…The demand of the loveless and the self-imprisoned that they should be allowed to blackmail the universe: that till they consent to be happy (on their own terms) no one else shall taste joy: that theirs should be the final power; that Hell should be able to veto Heaven.” – The Great Divorce

I finish the little book and move inside, thinking about love, as I often do.

10:12AM: Time for proposals and content worksheets.

12:25PM: I take a very short break and enjoy some leftover pasta. Then it’s off to the library to drop off a giant pile of returns and pick up two new books.

1:33PM: Back home and tired as can be. I need to start sleeping through the whole night.

2:20PM: After a bit more work, I consider getting a free seven day pass to the nearby gym. I decide that this is a good idea and head out the door. At the gym, I hit the bike machine and start in on the next Dexter book.

4:30PM: Home for dinner of a pretzel roll with roast beef and provolone cheese and a side of chips and salsa.

5:01PM: Back to strategy revisions, lengthy proposals and an inbox full of emails. Feeling revived by my time at the gym.

8:39PM: Researching Boulder restaurants for our late-week excursion to the Boulder Shakespeare Fest.

8:59PM: Time to relax, take a bubble bath and read some more Dexter.

10:13AM: Showered, dressed in a short black skirt and reddish silk top and boiling water for my Chai.

11:00AM: Relaxing in the backyard. It’s unfortunately going to be a scorcher. Yuck.

12:00PM: BonBon calls to tell me that it’s too hot and she’s going to come to the Cherry Creek Arts fest naked. I reply that she’d probably get a lot of free stuff, but would probably also get arrested. Also, Pookie the Raven might feel uncomfortable.

12:05PM: My conversation with BonBon turns to the Crazy People who live in Florida and think it’s okay to import Anacondas and Pythons as pets. Obviously, illegally importing predators from Africa and South America is a FANTASTIC idea. I’m moving to Europe.

3:35PM:
Gigi – I think I’m going to put on the sprinkler and just run around in it like a little kid.
Pookie the Raven – Or we could have a cold beer on the back patio.
BonBon – I’m wearing a g-string.
[Long pause.]
Gigi – And, what does that have to do with beer on the patio?

6:45PM: I boil some round pasta in chicken broth, water and spices, heat up garlic tomato pasta sauce, add artichoke hearts and red onions, saute some chicken in truffle oil and mix it all together. Served with a baked piece of sourdough brushed with truffle oil and a little Gouda on top…and viola! There’s your dinner.

10:30PM: BonBon heads for home while Luna and I get ready for bed, reading just a little of C.S. Lewis’ Great Divorce before drifting off.

10:04AM: Bed made, hair looking surprisingly good (love that new hairdresser!) and now I’m folding blankets.

10:18AM: Baking two whole grain waffles and boiling water for my chai…

10:37AM: Work time! No rest for the weary, people.

11:11AM: I finish tweaking the strategy document I’ve been working on and decide to let it sit for another hour or so before running over it once more and sending.

12:13PM: In an attempt to show off my amazing new haircut while simultaneously reading the next Dexter book, I head over to Barnes and Noble. I get distracted by the travel magazines…and learn that Laikipia in northern Kenya has just as many of my favorite animals as the Masai Mara…but it’s half as crowded.

1:31PM: Home, I catch up on emails and send off my strategy document.

1:41PM: Lunch time! I toss oil-marinated artichokes, black beans, mushrooms, provolone and some tart vinaigrette sauce in a wrap. I would have added chicken, except the chicken smelled funny. A bad sign.

2:30PM: I’m in bed contemplating a nap, but really too hot to sleep.

4:19PM: I head up to Whole Foods for some salsa and end up with a loaf of fresh Sourdough bread, fresh strawberry preserves, Ginger Ale and truffle sauce.

5:34PM: On goes The Social Network in the background while I research what it would take to live in Switzerland for a summer. Mostly because it’s SO HOT right now. Yuck.

8:19PM: I do a light house cleaning that mostly focuses on the bathroom. Gross. Things I wish I had the money for: a maid. Oh my gosh, I wish.

9:15PM: My mentally challenged neighbors start sending off fireworks over my house and yard. I run outside and yell at them to aim for their own stupid house. Their fireworks stop (probably scared that I’ll call the cops on them, which I admit crossed my mind), but several more go off around the neighborhood.

10:31PM: Oh my gosh, it’s hot.

4:03AM: Did I mention that it’s hot? Wait, why the hell am I awake?

8:59AM: A very snuggly Luna keeps me in bed just a bit longer.

9:23AM: Ready for the day in my small black skirt, pink tank top and black, somewhat-see-through t-shirt overtop, I head out to the patio with Chai and Darkly Dreaming Dexter in tow.

10:59AM: I attempt to drag myself away from Dexter, as I have things to do, you know. Then again…I could read just a little longer.

11:31AM: I drag myself away just long enough to chop up some red onions and toss them–along with black beans, provalone cheese, strong pesto sauce and red-pepper-marinated chicken–into a spinach wrap, which I then paint with truffle oil and bake on top of the stove. The tasty, crunchy wrap and my Dexter book compete for my focus.

11:49AM: Truffle oil, as it were, is my favorite smell in the world.

12:11PM: I finally pry the Dexter book from my fingers and sit down to work. A good book is very much like an addiction.

2:38PM: Draft one of my strategy document is finally complete. My normal process now is to let it sit for about 24 hours before revisiting, polishing and sending tomorrow. I find this produces the highest quality of work and lowest number of I’ve-been-staring-at-this-so-long-that-I-no-longer-notice-them typos.

2:42PM: I obsessively begin checking the library website to see if maybe the second Dexter book is at the hold shelf for me. Unfortunately, it seems not to be. And I’m certain that I’ll need it before the library re-opens after the holiday.

4:00PM: BonBon arrives at my house and we have some more yummy spinach wraps, go dress shopping at the local cheap clothing store and then get ready to head over to Beloved Roommate’s 4th of July BBQ all the way out in the suburbs of Denver.

6:45PM: We hang out in the backyard while people consume large quantities of hot dog, sausage and chips. I opt for cantalope and half a turkey burger. I ate beforehand because BBQ food is often so greasy it makes me sick. I was happy to discover the turkey burgers.

7:35PM: I participate (indeed, lead) in a conversation about douchebag haircuts. I can’t get past them and thus don’t think anyone is cute when they have one. The others try to convince me that one of the guys at the party is attractive. I just can’t see it.

9:50PM: Finally home, I sink into a warm bath with scented bubbles to get rid of the BBQ smoke smell. Then it’s into bed with the Dexter book, which I finish before drifting into sleep.

8:25AM: Bed made, water boiling…I toss on a black top and cute black and blue skirt, grab my book and head for the kitchen.

8:35AM: Tea is officially seeped, so out I go for my morning tea and reading on the patio. Luna, afraid of trucks in the alley, declines to join me.

9:16AM: I finish the second part of the BTK serial killer book and move inside to put together my June social media reports before diving back into my keyword/site map project.

11:23AM: Lunch time! The final third of my burrito leftovers (those big burritos from Chipotle or Qdoba are a good three meals for me…I have no idea how Americans have gotten to the point where they can eat the whole thing in one sitting) is calling my name.

12:01PM: I realize it’s time to leave and drive down to my therapy appointment…scramble around grabbing keys and directions and my book, and head out the door a few minutes late.

12:50PM: My therapist (who just happens to be the Best Therapist in the World) and I discuss dealing with emotionally chaotic people and intrusive, boundary-less people. She’s always so insightful.

2:38PM: Feeling like I’m constantly on the go this week (and realizing that there’s no way this strategy document is going to be finished today anyway), I return home and retreat again to my back patio. My sanctuary. I’ll just spend some more time reading and give myself permission not to be a workaholic overachiever.

3:30PM: I finish Inside the Mind of BTK, which was mostly intriguing and fascinating (with some interspersed boring parts about the author being up in the middle of the night and imagining corpses). It’s time to move on to my next serial killer book (I’m sensing a theme in July’s reading schedule): Darkly Dreaming Dexter.

5:01PM: A call from my graphic designer/developer partner interrupts my Dexter bliss and we go over estimates for our lengthy non-profit proposal, which I’ll be somehow finding time for this weekend. Yikes.

6:45PM: BonBon arrives for a night of white wine, then cold beer on the back patio (until the spiders and wasps drive us inside). We talk about all the usual things:
The road they’re talking about building through the Serengeti (can you believe that? Giving poachers direct access to the animals, cutting off migration patterns…all for what? Easy access to the mines…?),
The ways childhood trauma affect people in their adult lives (particularly in relationships)
How sad it is to see so many people settling for less than they want from life…
Etc.

8:44PM: BonBon, in a fit of passion, exclaims (about men who have nothing going for them and thus are hiring prostitutes): “Go to the gym. Lay off the weed. Quit drinking so much. Quit smoking. And try to be something a woman might actually want to touch!”

11:35PM: I’m alone in my house again (except for a very sleepy Luna). As I climb into bed, I make sure all noise-making devices in my house (phone, alarm) are set to silent. It’s a Saturday tomorrow and I’m going to sleep in. Well, maybe.