whatever is lovely

I've already told you about the community I've found within the For the Love Launch Team. Part of the reason we've clicked so well is that a lot of us are naturally inclined to writing. All the feelings, all the thoughts, all the words. Some of these women link up every Friday for "Friday Five," in which a topic is predetermined and they share five thoughts. I am joining the fun for the first time this week! The topic is "Five Open Tabs." My little writer brain almost ran off with over-interpreting this and writing about five deep things that are always on my mind.  An Open Tab= something unfinished and left accessible to resume. An article. A video. A night of drinking. A thought or concept. Open yet for repeat enjoyment or torture, or maybe with the intention to return and avoided thus far.   I'm joining this link up for practice and for fun, so it's time to switch up my MO!!  Here are my five open tabs: 1. TripAdvisor ...

I've done some surprising things of late.  I got my hair dyed pink this summer.  I got a small heart tattooed on my wrist.  I walked into a party of 220 people I had only met online. And bunked with 20 of them on a strange property with Buddha figurines.  They're all kind of related, really.  When the Facebook page for the For the Love book launch team was very first created I remember being so proud of myself for being among the first on the scene with a witty comment, or so I thought at least.  We were timid at the outset, but a community quickly started to form. I told 500 strangers, from 10 miles away to Saudi Arabia about my new job first, before it was ever official.  When I started work, I drew back, because the information and the feelings on the page were kind of a lot. It was beautiful, but I did not have the bandwidth to take on the testimonies of infertility, abuse, financial ruin, and more. I watched quietly as hurts we...

It's been a day. Really every day this week has been a day, but "it's been a week" just doesn't sound as dramatic and I've never heard a witty person say it. So, a day it has been.  I have been adequately warned about the pure joy that is joining the ranks of employed adults, by just about everyone ever. "The first year sucks," they said. "It's lonely and confusing," they told me. "Don't do it," I ignored.  In December, at the ripe old age of twenty three and nearly one half year, I finished grad school. I did wait until after graduation and the holidays to start looking for work, so I guess I held out for a few extra months, what with applications and interviews and the black hole named HR. In April I started work with Arlington Independent School District.  But it was fake work. It was the things I kind of actually knew how to do. Like providing speech and language therapy to kids.  Then I played at the beach int...