Suburban Island:

Coffee is a sweet addiction and on the weekends going up to the coffee shop takes on a special significance because I get to get my coffee without rushing, in a t-shirt and jeans, and not on my way back or forth from work. I also get to stop in to see my daughter who works near the coffee shop at this very cool gift boutique. While there a man comes into the shop with his wife. They are about my age. He makes a comment about my t-shirt that says Rock Boat Alumni from the Rock Boat cruise I took this winter. He links it up with some crazy scandal about football - already he is losing me. His wife is shopping away so here I am trying to explain why they are two different things and I was not advertising my participation in this wacky event to which he is alluding. It's about music, my friend. JUST MUSIC.

Okay, that's cleared up.

Then that sets him on another track. He asks me if I was a hippy. I hated to break it to him but in the day I was a sorority girl. It is clear to me that his wife is the standard for how a woman "of a certain age" ought to look. Tailored shirt, nice pants, big jewelry, hair above the shoulder. Perfect southern belle. She's gorgeous but it's not my style. I don't want to be perfectly put together just to hang out on the weekend.

Evidently, there's a price for such fashion rebellion. And the line you have to cross to be considered as having committing such a crime is easier to skip obliviously over when you are 50 than when you are 20. Here's the thing. I'm cooler now than I was at 20. Trust me on this point. And, shocking as it may be, I still like t-shirts and jeans. I don't want to be tailored and coifed seven days a week. Furthermore, If I want to wear a damn t-shirt to get an expensive cup of coffee, I'm going to do it.

Luckily Clinton and Stacey didn't jump out from the back of the store to start my fashion intervention. However, I got an impromptu one without any credit cards of tv show appearance from this guy. I guess old guys in baseball caps with pretty wives that you have never meet before think that they should feel free to tell you in so many words that you are blowing it if Clinton and Stacey aren't available. This seems rather unfair when you think about it.

Oh well.

So there I stood in jeans and nice comfy t-shirt, long blond hair way falling down my back in curls I had to pay for, dangle earring that cost more than the more generic stuff she was wearing (I'm just saying), and silver shoes (my nod to dressing up when I shouldn't have to do it). I guess the silver shoes were not enough to override the other aspects of my outfit and he doesn't know enough about jewelry to realize I was holding my own and better in that area (I love nice jewelry).

Evidently it is a given that at my age you must switch from dressing however you want to being uncomfortable all day in the name of fashion sense so men you don't even know can give you the nod of approval - even though you didn't ask for it and don't care one way or another.

Can't a girl just relax?

No?

Excuse me, I'm going to go put on my Nickelback t-shirt and go shopping. If you are a guy wearing a baseball cap don't say a word unless you are a Nickelback fan.

And by the way, I'm not cutting my hair either.

Like lots of other people, my job sometimes heats up so much that there is little time to focus on anything else at all if I am going accomplish everything that is expected of me. The last few weeks have been especially tough. I am in charge of putting together a big client event every year and no matter how much of a head start I get on it, it always winds up taking up so much of my energy and attention that there is time for little else except other work stuff and absolutely must do personal tasks - picking up a few groceries (to stave off starvation), recording American Idol for later viewing (I'm betting on one of the Davids), laundry (to avoid laundry wars), paying bills (to keep the house), dishes (no one seems to know how to take dishes from sink and put them into dishwasher but me), etc. The event is a big deal and it is held at the National Press Club. So, it was pretty cool even though it was tons of work. When it was all done and all the pressure rolled off my shoulders, it was even cooler. I've gotten some really good feedback from some of the program attendees and that's the icing on the cake. It's a great feeling to be done with a huge project and feel all your work was worth it.

I also like to stay active in professional associations and that always mean extra work. It's been heating up lately too with a big deadline on a really interesting (but time-consuming) project. It's a good way to keep learning and share what I know but it means more work too - darn! I finally have my part done. It took a lot longer than I had imagined it would but I think my sections look pretty good.

This weekend is the first time in I don't know how long that I have been able to even breathe. The sad part is that it's Sunday afternoon and my weekend is almost done with me before I am done with it. My weekends tend to be a mixture of personal and professional tasks (and some stolen moments of relaxation and fun) and there's never enough time to actually do all the things I mean to do. I long for a weekend where I can just totally turn off every single chore (work and home) and dive into a few things that I find relaxing and rewarding: writing, reading, playing around on the web, maybe having a dinner out with a friend, and just relaxing a little with my family.

Today, I did a mix of chores but it was kind of fun because I did not feel super rushed - my natural state. I got a coffee, had 1/2 a bagel with cream cheese and bacon for lunch (alright that was on the run), and then hit the stores. First off, my daughter wanted to get Dead Like Me for us to watch but came home with Six Feet Under by accident. Not the same thing. I exchanged them. I also indulged in a wicked pleasure - the bookstore. I hit Barnes and Nobles and bought a couple books and some DVDs: a double disc set with Bram Stoker's Dracula (the version with Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder) and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (with De Niro). I also found the Dark Shadows Revival series that was based on the original soap opera (to which I was addicted as a kid). I really liked the remake and was sorry to see it go off the air. But through the magic of DVDs, here it is again, ready for me to watch at my leisure. I'm really in the mood for this stuff right now for some reason. Having gotten my B&N fix, I went grocery shopping. In between, I bought a new shower curtain and an iPod adapter for my car - I go through those iPod adapter things like crazy.

So, that is the excitement of my weekend: shower curtains, laundry, a few DVDs and books, loading the dishwasher, doing professional association stuff, and in between doing those work tasks that must be done or else.

And it's raining...