Making Room

Yesterday was Therapy Thursday. My therapist once tried to move it to Wednesday and it just didn't work because Therapy Wednesday doesn't sound as good.

I was telling her about how I finally moved almost all of the clothes out of my closet from the 90's that my mom bought me. To which she asked, "What are you trying to make room for?"

"New clothes."

"But what are you trying to make room for?"

"New clothes." Seriously. The black blazer I had - shoulder pads, was so long that it went past my butt, and it had big gold logo patch. I needed a new black blazer and some other staples.

But, also, I realized this after my mom being gone for 10 years: She's more a part of me than ever. I don't need the things to see her in my son, to feel her beside me when I am happy, and to feel her hand when I am sad. And she would want me to have a new blazer.

The Games Ann Taylor Plays

I don't know about where you live but here the only thing between Target and Tory for true office wear is Ann Taylor. Sure, I can get away with JCrew and Banana (on the odd occasion I can find something that fits at the Banana - I always leave there questioning whether I have a peculiar sized torso). But if I need an outfit for a business presentation, it's Ann Taylor.

At this point in my life, I could be wearing Milly or Stella or DVF on a regular basis. However, maybe I am just still too close to that time in my life that I lived paycheck to paycheck, or maybe I just read too many stories about unemployed people. I can't justify a wardrobe full of that. People are hungry.

So I am quite familiar with Ann Taylor. And here is what I quickly realized after I was back in the business of having to look like a business person . . . you never should pay full price for anything at Ann Taylor. Wait a week and whatever you have had your eye on will be 40 to 50% off. This past weekend I set out to replace the black blazer wardrobe staple and I got one that had been over $250 for $97. The next day, that promotion was over and it was $100 off suits. Now, this morning, it's buy one get one 50% off.

Which begets the question - why would anybody pay full price for anything at Ann Taylor? And is that the marketing strategy you want? It tells me, "these clothes are not worth their full price." However, I guess it does work because, for work, I have more Ann Taylor than anything else.

Modified Splitz

Sauteed bananas, chocolate chips, and Talenti Sea Salt Caramel gelato. My new obsession. Given that when I find a food I love it's all I eat day and night for weeks until I no longer want it ever, I am due to grow as big as a house.

Most excellent modification - grilled banana splits! Cut slit in banana peel, shove chocolate chips around banana in peel, wrap in foil and grill. When chocolate chips are melted, take off grill and add gelato. Considering I don't grill, and it's about to get cold and snow in the next month, I picture my husband spending a lot of time outside grilling banana splits in the snow.

Spoiler Alert

I took The Boy to see Dolphin Tale this weekend. I cried through the whole second half. Damn if they didn't get that dolphin a new tail.

Also, The Boy wanted a new outfit. From Nordstrom. Where did this kid come from? But I love it because my mom and I spent a considerable amount of time at Nordstrom. After I had The Boy and she passed away, I assumed I would be going solo at the Nordstrom. Not so.

If Not Coffee, What?

Do you remember Winona Ryder in Reality Bites explaining to Ben Stiller that all her sustenance for the day came from her Big Gulp? (Also, I had that haircut! It was really cute.) I am the same way but substitute coffee.

Yet I no longer want coffee. But I don't know where to turn then. I live on coffee and coffee type beverages. I don't really eat. If I quit the coffee, I'll gain a million pounds. I need something to fill the space that will be left if I cut back on the coffee, but what. Nothing appeals. I just want to get clean. Why is this so hard?

Take my husband, for example. He doesn't drink coffee or tea. Instead for breakfast he has orange juice and cereal. Ewww. And then for lunch he has a sandwich. Ewww. I can't be healthy. Last night I had all these bad dreams and all I can imagine is it is my body saying, "could we get a salad in here?" And no, we can't. Because I LOATHE lettuce. Argh. I need rehab. If they tried to make me go to rehab I would say yes yes yes.

Forced to Write

Let me state for the record - that is, before the rant - that my ex-husband is a good father. He's present, he participates and he and our son have a great relationship. We were fairly much a disaster together, but I have so much gratitude for his fathering our son.

However.

My son has trouble with the actual act of writing. His brain just can't get his hands to work in conjunction with all that is going on his brain. I'm not making this up. He was actually doing some tests for school and they figured this out. Anyway, one of the things you can do for this is to practice the physical act of writing.

So my ex makes him write for half an hour a night. I looked at my son's journal and I saw that what he was writing was a countdown until his writing time was over. Numbers. And last night when I called him over there he was pissed off because he was having to write. Ouch.

This is a kid who, not being forced to write, will, on his own accord, write short stories about being in hell and having to listen to the Dead Matthews Band. My personal favorite is about the cookie that rolled through town. I'm not sure forced writing is going to do us any favors. Then again, at my house I ask him to write in his journal and he takes five minutes to write two haikus and although we now have two lovely haikus, we have very little writing practice.

Consumers

Even though I no longer live in Texas, my best friends here are from Texas. No, they are nothing like the women on Big Rich Texas or Most Eligible Dallas (which I suspect is the more awkward Most Eligible Dallas rather than Dallas' Most Eligible because someone at Bravo wouldn't commit to Dallas' versus Dallas's).

However. They are consumers.

To wit: My best friend told me today that she goes to Starbucks twice before lunch. That's hard core.

Smells Like . . .

The other day I was wasting time in Sephora (I can waste a lot of time in Sephora), and I tried a spritz of Tocca Giulietta.

It immediately struck me that Tocca Giulietta smells exactly like something else. It smells like something from the early 90's. Teen spirit?

I kept smelling my arm all day long, but I couldn't place it. The mystery of the smell was nagging at me so much that I went back the next day and tried it again.

After smelling my arm again for the better part of that day, it finally hit me. Tocca Giulietta smells exactly like that pear shaped, peach colored Caress bar soap. Exactly.

I went back the third day and bought some because pear shaped, peach colored Careess bar soap reminds me of '93 when I spent the summer in Whittier, California, and that really was one of the best summers of my life. Then I would come back to Texas and have one of the worst years of my life. Anyway, to kick it up a notch to dramatic, Tocca Giulietta reminds me of innocence and happiness and being really fit. I spent a large part of that summer running around the track at Whittier University. It really is amazing how a bottle of perfume can be like a time machine.

Tocca Giullietta - 1993 Whittier, California
Fendi - 1987 -Vienna, Austria
Chanel No. 5 - 1990 Dallas, Texas
Gap Grass - 2006 My bedroom at my mom's house, Dallas, Texas
Chanel Allure - 2003 Denver, Colorado
Vera Wang Princess - 2005 Keystone, Colorado
Lilly Pulitzer Beachy - 2009 Las Vegas and Aspen
Tocca Giullietta - 2011 Back in Whittier

Color Blocked

After my margarita on Friday, I decided to head to J.Crew wherein I purchase things that tend to look very J.Crew.

Here I am in my new fall outfit embracing the color blocking trend. Plus, hot pink capris go with everything, no?


This was an outfit for fall, but also my reward to myself for the good presentation on Friday. Halfway through my presentation I remembered I have these new speech therapy skills and I started to end all my sentences on a down note rather than an upswing. This is also why I cannot watch The Rachel Zoe Project this season; she ends all her sentences on an upswing and we are trying to break that habit. Anyway, with my new public speaking skills making me sound more commanding, I figure I can pull off the hot pink capris at work.

Hurt So Good

This week has hurt so good. The festival . . . that was a hard success. We just last night finished cleaning the last of the pots and pans and containers. Today I have three (3) career defining meetings at the lawyer job. I'll admit it . . .there were days this week I hit the Starbucks twice.

Tonight's margarita is going to taste so damn fine.

Mad Art Deco Love

I do not need more costume jewelry. My two closest friends both do jewelry trunk shows (for the same company).


And then I find this. Sold out at jcrew.com, but the store still had quite a few.

My favorite (and the only) thing I've bought for fall so far.

jcrew.com

Alex P. Keaton and Koi

My 10 year old son is the second coming of Alex P. Keaton. One of the reasons that our booth at the festival had a line rather than the other two selling a similar product was because my son went into the crowd handing out samples. Nobody told him to. And certainly nobody told him to do so while wearing a blazer and a tie.

As a thank you I told him that I would take him out to dinner wherever he wanted. From time to time my son wants McDonald's. This is fine with me because from time to time I like a semi-soggy, salty french fry dipped in sweet and sour sauce and some soft serve ice cream.

True to this town's health nut reputation, I have to drive past two Whole Foods before I get to our closest McDonald's.

They had remodeled the McDonald's since the last time we had been there. This is all good because the former theme was peach and aqua. However. Now - and there's no way this could have been approved by corporate - the theme is goldfish. There are live goldfish on every table.

Do you know what? I cannot stand goldfish or koi. Just thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies. Ewwww. This is my nails on a chalkboard thing, only I would rather listen to an hour of nails on a chalkboard than be near a goldfish or koi. It's just goldfish and koi. I can be around the great big fish tank at the Vietnamese restaurant, or dine near the big tank at the aquarium. But I cannot be anywhere near, let alone eat near, goldfish or koi.

Is that odd? I thought I was the only one who had the extreme annoyance for chewing sounds, but just last week there was a piece on the news about others like me. It's a real phobia or disorder or whatever, but it's a real thing. I wonder if there is a support group for people who are extremely creeped out by koi.

Success(ish)!

The festival was a huge success for us. The first day we sold out early, so the other Franchise a few cities over made us some extra product and dropped it off the next day. Despite the increase in inventory, we still sold out two hours early the second day. People loved it. We were the only booth selling our product that had a line!

We learned a lot - even if you clear the extra food products that you intend to sell with the county health department, if you forget to tell the festival organizer you will not be allowed to sell them.

Standing for two days straight is hard.

Your family will get very grumpy with each other when working on no sleep.

This is a tough gig - despite selling out, despite the lines, we barely broke even. Also, I didn't keep up with all the cash I personally spent in research in supplies for the products that the festival organizer told us we couldn't sell (which was a shame because people were buying them before we were told to put them away).

However, its very hard to place a value on the marketing and name recognition we got from having approximately 80,000 walk in front of our booth, and getting to tell a great many of them we were coming soon.

Okay . . . I'm off to put my very tired body in a hot shower and then head off to be a lawyer.

Almost Time . . .

For the past three nights I have been driving one-third of the way across this state (thank goodness this isn't Texas) to pick up supplies from the other Franchise for the festival this weekend. For some reason, still unknown, this had to be done in three shifts.

Now I floss and go to sleep because tomorrow is a very big day of (after working at my real job) collecting signage and coinage and baking and cooking into the late night hours -

Then . . . we introduce The Franchise to an estimated 80,000 people.

Then . . . next month . . . construction begins on our very own store.

Also, Attorney at Large - in response to my comment that pumpkin spice lattes seem a little more cloying this year than usual - suggests that I ask for half the syrup which I think is brilliant because I will want coffee in the cool mornings this weekend standing at our booth. While coffee treats are, ultimately, one of the things we will sell, we have not yet purchased the espresso machine that is worth more than all the cars in this family put together. And I think that over the next (24X3 . . . 48 + 24 which is 2 carry the 1 and add to 6. 72) 72 hours I am going to need lots of coffee. And a calculator. Because lets not forget the state wants their tax, the county wants their tax, the city wants its tax and then there are the special taxing districts. Note to self . . . get calculator at next Office Depot run.

Honestly . . .

A bit overwhelmed
1. Full time lawyer
2. Running a retail food booth at a festival before we have opened our store
3. Finding a new school for son
4. Not quite cold enough yet that we can forgo the leg shaving. Sigh.

And is it just me, or do pumpkin spice lattes seem a bit more cloying than normal this year? I've had two from two different stores, and I might just be done for the season.

So Much Fun

We worked all Labor Day weekend and since getting ready for the festival that The Franchise is participating in. (ended sentence in preposition, too tired to care) Although we have the exclusive for our product at this outdoor mall, we didn't think to secure an exclusive for the event. Accordingly, I have been busy perfecting additional products.

Wait, you say, doesn't the Mother Ship tell you how to make your products. Well, yes. But their product selection is just the one product. Accordingly, we had to come up with a plan to make our booth the best of its kind there, selling related but different products in addition to the one.

I'm sorry to be all sly - but if I mentioned the product here, the Mother Ship would find themselves on a Google word search. All I can tell you is that it is not turkey legs.

Anyway, I'm up to my eyeballs in recipes and having a blast. I've perfected two that are crowd and critic ready.

That worked? That worked!

For over a year I have had daily headaches. I woke up with a headache and another one crept in during the afternoon. I have tried all kinds of stuff: aspirin, Advil, no pain medication, no coffee, extra coffee, an MRI, more water, more sleep, different pillows. Finally my doctor suggested a massage.

Done.

I walked into the spa on Saturday morning and the lady asked, "Would you like a glass of wine?"
And I said, "It's 9:00 a.m.! Brilliant!"

I have been headache free for three days. A twenty-five minute neck and shoulder massage. It was that simple. Horray for self-indulgence.

Headache

My doctor found two big muscle knots in the back of my neck to be the source of my daily headaches and he ordered my to get massages until they are worked out. Uh. Okay. I'm a once a year, if that, kind of massage person; normally I find them to be quite self-indulgent. But, you know, if it's doctors orders. Also, with a therapeutic message, I don't have to get in the robe and get all relaxed - God forbid. I just go in, stay clothed, and they work on my neck for 25 minutes. Sounds heavenly.

Also, he believes my more frequent migraine clusters may be a result of us living on the crossroads of two very busy streets. You know I love the location of my house. However, the grime that coats the outside our house from the cars and buses is a little frightening. Anyway, we have a Franchise to build, so moving isn't even in the cards. But it does make you think - is it healthy to live right in the city?