Okay, so if you've been reading you know my sister is going through a crappy breakup. We talked today, a bad day for her. She's sad and a little bit lost and thinks she's all alone and there is nothing to do. I can't do anything from here but listen. And then I thought about the things that kept me from being too lonely when I was in Virginia away from Steph and all our friends. Blogs. I know it might seem lame to some, but I really love blogs. Duke City Fix is on my links because it is a blog dedicated to all the happenings and people in Albuquerque. The minute I knew Steph would be relocating temporarily to Minneapolis I found a list of Minneapolis blogs. It's such a great way to keep up with everything that might be happening in your area, music and other entertainment, hobbies, other groovy people who lead interesting and fun lives.
I get great ideas from them, recipes, heads up about a concert, local grower's markets, you name it, someone is blogging about it. Most of all it's a reminder that we aren't all alone, and there are tons of things to do. I typically don't do lists, but since Steph is going to be in Minneapolis for approximately 9 months I am going to make a plan to do the following in her absence:

1. Write a novel. (I'm serious about this. I've made enough excuses. I've done enough playing around with writing. I have a start. Most importantly, it's time to stop being a chicken shit.)

2. Practice my guitar/take lessons. (I love the idea of playing music. I love listening to music, particularly guitar driven music...and I will have plenty of TIME.)

3. Cook at home as much as possible. (Once she's bringing in the bucks it's going to be too easy to eat out all the time and I live in walking distance of most of my fav. places to nosh. That said, I would like to cook from scratch more, choose fresh ingredients, and develop my own recipes.)

4. Continue to play some kind of sport or recreate in some way. (I like playing softball. I'm not good, nor do I pretend to be, but I've gotten better and it feels good to be out there and part of a team.)

5. See live music more often. (Albuquerque has a ton of opportunites to see live music.)

6. Urban Hikes. (I must do this, maybe take Chloe (our intrepid basset/retriever mix) and the camera. I love this city so much, every glorious inch and I would like to capture and experience as much as I can before we have to move on.)

7. Continue gardening prowess. (I'd like to get creative this fall and winter, try and keep some greens growing, maybe make a small cold frame.)

8. Do some kind of art. (Anything using my hands. I haven't really done anything for awhile. It's too expensive a hobby for poor students. But since this next year will be us raising our heads out of that doom and gloom of perpetually broke ass student life, maybe this would be a good time to revisit this.)

9. Train Chloe. (It's true that she's seven. It's also true that she does not have good boundaries, and is still acting out when we leave. So Chloe and I will work on this by increasing daily walks and firmly establishing who is the pack leader and who needs to be calm and submissive.)

10. Read. (Reading is one of my most favorite things to do. If I could get paid for reading stuff I would be so happy. The next new book will probably be Annie Dillard's new book.)

I will, of course be roaming the internet in search of anything of interest.

That's it for now. Now I play dominoes with friends and kicks some booty. ta da!