monday morning ugh-pdate: digested.

my childhood (and collegehood and adulthood, and, well, general lifehood) friend erin’s mom used to have reader’s digest around all the time, which i loved. i loved the idea of getting little stories that traveled to all corners of life and reported back in succinct form.

so, in that spirit and because i’ve been too busy to write, here’s the reader’s-digest-condensed-version-of-things-happening-right-now.  catchy title, eh?  you can see why people pay me money to communicate for them.

1. here’s the answer to the question i’ve gotten about 8 times in the last month as school has returned to session: no, i am not teaching this year.  i may not teach next year.  at this point, teaching (as i’ve known it in the public school classroom) is going on a high bookshelf — still accessible and visible, but not going to be pulled down anytime soon.

2. here’s the answer to the second question i’ve gotten about 8 times in the last month immediately following question # 1: what am i doing now?  i am copywriting.  the boy’s graphic design business, fixer design, has expanded to include me full-time since january.  he’s art; i’m copy.  i copywrite (which is writing primarily for advertising pieces, marketing campaigns, website marketing, etc.), copyedit (wherein i make what other people write sound all nice and pretty (or angry and disturbed or whatever it is they are going for), proofread/edit (wherein i get to fully embrace my anal-retentive and annoyingly nit-picky fastidious and detail-oriented side and make sure all the commas are not spliced and semi-colons used appropriately), grant write (wherein i…um…write grants), write (articles, websites, tweets, letters, etc.) and then generally collaborate with our art director on various other things like naming companies, editing the design work, making dinner, paying bills, and riding bikes.

note: the art director is my husband, otherwise things just got weird for you.

this week: we’re naming a company and i’m copyediting a few different things.  funsies!

3. i love my job.  i love that i’ve been able to do it since january and hope that it continues to be so by the supreme grace of god.  i love working from home in my office, i love being able to change my schedule around, i love being able to walk to the gym, i love working with the husband.  it should be said, however, that work love is not all that dissimilar from relationship love, in that it comes with all the signature issues: i don’t FEEL happy/joyful/amazing towards/about my job every minute of the day.  the job makes me doubt, wonder, fret about my ability to do my job well.  it’s challenging on a consistent basis.  i often feel as though i don’t know what i’m doing or if the job will stop. (now, tell me this doesn’t look exactly like a typical love-relationship?)  good and bad, it’s what i’m doing now and i’m quite contented with it.

and if you need a writer/editor and/or a graphic designer, or just someone to help you transfer your music files from your hard drive to your computer (hi meg!) — you know who to call.

4. football camp.  i work out twice a day, 5-6 days a week, and have been since the 4th of july.  it’s going well, in the sense that i’ve learned to take the middle path (what some might call balance and not beating yourself up terribly because you had two cupcakes at the baby shower you went to because they went well with the cookies you had on your plate).  it also means recognizing those actions as exceptions, and not rules.  explaining, not excusing.  being merciful to yourself.  and much healthier.  and i have a very cute running buddy, so that helps.

note: the running buddy is my husband, otherwise things just got weird for you again.

in order to not get bored, my workouts consist of the following: walking, jogging (increasing my endurance as my ankle is STILL recovering from the puffyfoot ankle incident in april), spinning (or bicycling-nowhere as my friend calls it), weights, elliptical machines, zumba, kickboxing, yoga, and annoying workout videos from people on television.

eating-wise, since that is such an interest of everyone (including me, i suppose), it’s probably about 85% paleo, and 15% let me have a freaking tortilla, kashi and a bit of raw-milk cheese for the love.

and, the occasional cupcake and frozen yogurt.

5. whatever marketing-trend-force that made frozen yogurt come back into vogue, prompting about 6 frozen yogurt places in town to open up: THANK  YOU.  i will totally give you my first born child.

6. i’m not pregnant.  don’t even ask.

7. the current book i’m reading for my virtual book club is this one.

8. we just threw a baby shower for my friend Sarah who is having identical twin boys in another few months, and it was so much fun.  i left all the details/planning/food organization to my friend Ashlee of Smash Events, and got to do what I love best: design & decor.  and lots of cleaning of the house to host 16 people.  more on that when i get pictures from ash, because of course i didn’t take any.  what gives?

9. we aren’t really buying anything we don’t need right now in an effort to pay some things off, so i refuse to buy clothes until they are in a smaller size right now and can be justified as a need.  it should be noted that shoes, accessories and jewelry DO NOT fit in this category, because i am the queen of loopholes.

10. i feel very adult because we actually have and are in the process of sorting things out like our IRA, savings, emergency fund, paying off debt, selling the jeep, looking into health insurance.  these things feel very satisfying to do, but also make me uneasy.  i’m still figuring out why the uneasiness…any thoughts?

11. we borrowed a monstrous fan from my parents to blow the a/c air from my office into the giant living room to cool it off and it worked AMAZINGLY.  why didn’t we do this before?  downside: it sounds like my office is a runway for jet airplanes.

12. speaking of adult things, we actually got excited when we came upon a new furniture layout for our living room which we will implement in winter when we don’t store our bikes by the front door.  seriously, that’s the lamest sentence i think i’ve ever written.

13. the boy hates costco, but can be begrudginly convinced to come with me only on sample weekends when he can eat his way through the store.  this is good for him (and me), because it lets him gain back 1/2 pound from the ridiculous amounts he seems to be losing by participating in 1/2 of my football camp regimen.  i’d hate him for that, but he’s so cute and tall and gets excited about new furniture layouts.

14. my cousin lauren just moved to town and she’s opening up a lululemon athletica showroom downtown.  you should have her explain what it is, because it’s all sorts of awesome.  if you are into nice people, changing the average into extraordinary, yoga, being healthy, other healthy activities, awesome athletic wear…you will love it.  and my cousin is just the nicest person you’ll ever meet, too.

15. i have been really enjoying spending time with my family, and i miss my sister who has moved even further away than my parents are (although still in the same town).

happy monday, all.  tell me something nice.