I’ve really been slacking on this whole blogging thing lately. Every now and then, it feels like my life is better as my own, no sharing necessary. It’s nice to be able to keep things close to the vest, though frankly, things have been a bit boring.

Let’s see:

I spent last Sunday running up and down Main Street like a crazy person during Second Sunday in OTR. After taking hundreds of pictures, chatting up vendors and shop owners, and trying to eat as much as possible (a favorite pastime), I was sweaty and exhausted.

Then I had a meeting.

I’m working on another magazine project, and we met at a cafe to discuss the mock-up I’d created and a bunch of other logistical issues. I was pleased to discover that I know stuff! Have you ever been surprised/impressed at how much you know concerning a particular issue or skill? I’m really getting into this custom publishing thing…

After the meeting, I walked outside to hop on my bike and finally go home, and my bike was…gone. The cable lock was still there, dangling innocently from the meter. The combination was fully locked, yet no bike in sight.

I was pissed.

The bike wasn’t one of those cutesy riding-around-in-a-full-skirt-with-a-basket-of-flowers-while-the-Sartorialist-takes-your-picture deals, either. It was a full-on Schwinn man’s mountain bike, all rough and tough and perfect for riding around the ‘hood.

I walked my tired self home, abandoned bike lock in hand, ready to start swingin’ and take out whoever might’ve taken my bike.  Trust, I was ready to do serious damage to somebody’s cranium. Now I just feel silly for not locking it more securely, though that still doesn’t give anyone the right to steal. Lesson learned.

For my fellow ride or die biznitches, here’s how you should lock your bike:

The more you know *sweeps arm in rainbow motion*

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Let’s see…

Last weekend I was headed to a class at Media Bridges (I’m hoping to learn about video production) when I noticed a commotion at Washington Park.

You should’ve seen everybody groovin’ to “Da Butt!”

It was one of Go Cincinnati‘s service projects, Go Grub. Washington Park was packed to the brim with ‘hood regulars, neighborly urbanites, and suburban families eating, dancing, and playing together. It was friggin’ awesome, and I hope the “revitalization” plans take into account include the people who currently call the park a second (and sometimes first) home. Improvement does not equal displacement.

Later that day, Fountain Square was hoppin’ prior to the Reds’ Civil Rights game.

It was such a beautiful day.

I finally had a chance to sit down and flip through my print copy of the latest issue of Style Sample magazine–it looks so good!

Flipping through pages of issue #7

You can order print copies at MagCloud. FriendBoy read through it and promptly told me I should be a millionaire…and generously volunteered to be my sugar baby. Thanks, babe.

Speaking of FriendBoy, he was in a grillin’ mood all weekend. On Sunday, he made some pretty fantastic barbecue ribs.

Technically, I’m transitioning to vegetarianism (very slooowly and gradually, you see), but I couldn’t resist a rib or six. Add southern-style potato salad and baked beans, and I was in a food coma for a good hour.

Later, I went to Venue 222 to watch Casablanca, and ate even more food (how? why?) since I wasn’t able to resist the sweet potato fries and mini key lime pie from Cafe de Wheels.

I left singing my own completely off-key rendition of “As Time Goes By” and wondering if it’s worth it to don a white tuxedo and matching fedora just to sit on the couch and watch TV.

How was your weekend?

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I’m finally taking the time to post some of the images from the Stop Traffick Fashion photo shoot last month. This time, they’re all of meeeeee!

It’s kind of weird seeing my ta-tas all up in the camera, and the last image is maddeningly similar to a photo of my mother from the 70′s. However, I loved the t-shirt I wore–very soft material, well cut, and everything is 100% fair trade. Definitely a must-have.

Here, kitty kitty

This cat literally followed me home one day, and he’s so sweet and eager I just want to cuddle him! He only has about two inches of tail, so I’ve been calling him Stubby.

I’m trying to resist, but y’all know as soon as he sticks around long enough for me to get him tested and neutered, I’ll have another cat. Plus, he’d make a great playmate for Beau.

Darn the kitty cuteness!

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I’ve always loved magazines.

I remember one summer at day camp, maybe between 4th and 5th grade, my friend Nicole and I thought it would be cool if we made our own fashion magazine.

Inspired by the stacks of old Teen and Vogue and Mademoiselle magazines the college-aged counselors would bring in for us to cut up during craft time, we decided to publish a collection of our favorite images of fluorescent biker shorts and push-down socks, with some hair and makeup tips (turquoise eyeshadow and puff-painted scrunchies, woo hoo!) for good measure.

Now remember, this was before the interwebs took over MY LIFE, and desktop publishing was just a glimmer in the eye of some ambitious geek who is probably counting their millions as I type. I’m pretty sure I still had my Commodore 64 at this point.

Our job as magazine “editors” basically consisted of cutting pictures out of the old magazines and gluing them onto pages of lined notebook paper before stapling everything together in a glossy, sticky, slightly crumpled bundle. We weren’t all that worried about presentation, so we were thrilled with the results! Our ideas about what was cool and important were right there in a collection for all to see! The magazine I publish now is slightly more sophisticated than that, but the thrill is the same.

My point is, you usually know what you like to do at a young age, even if you don’t realize it or haven’t yet figured out a way to make it work for you as an adult. I tend to be a little slow on the uptake when it comes to things like this, but I think I get it now.

What do you enjoy doing? Have you figured out how to make it work?

PS. Nicole showed our magazine to her mom, who suggested that we forego frivolous topics like fashion and create something geared towards helping young girls increase their self-esteem. We entertained the thought for approximately 47 seconds before promptly abandoning the whole magazine idea altogether. Don’t squash your kids’ dreams.

PPS: The title of this post always reminds me of Vanessa Bell Calloway’s turn as Prince Akeem’s Stepford-esque Queen to Be, so here’s the scene from Coming to America. Just for giggles.

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Last weekend was the first relatively nice one (read: no snow, temperatures above freezing) in a while, and even though I wasn’t feeling too hot, I was determined to enjoy it. I might have overdone it a bit…

On Friday, I headed further down Main Street after work to check out the mayhem that is the Bockfest Parade. It didn’t disappoint: goats and kilts and general drunken craziness proved to be pretty darn entertaining! Afterwards, I pointed out the Shepard Fairey mural on the corner of 13th and Main to FriendBoy, and we headed over to Lavomatic for a bite to eat.

Saturday morning, I headed down to a still very cold Fountain Square to kick off the Cinciditarod, a race (loosely) based on the similarly-named Iditarod. I volunteered to be a judge for the food and drink part of the challenge, which entailed each team consuming 5 burritos and 5 drinks from a roving Senor Roy’s Taco Patrol as quickly as possible.

I am only slightly ashamed to say that I got a  huge, slightly perverse kick out of seeing everyone from the Oompa Loompas to the Super Mario Brothers to streakers to Devo chasing down a taco truck in the middle of downtown!

On Saturday night I stopped by the Cincinnati Fashion Week logo launch party at Mynt to check out the scene and say hello to event founder Nathan (top left) and his crew of organizers (bottom left). I also ran into Ashley, a designer and model I recognized from Lookbook.nu, of all places. The internets lead to some weird connections, no?

Unfortunately, my relatively new camera literally slipped off the strap and crashed to the cement as I was walking to the bar, leaving the lens damaged and nearly reducing me to tears in the middle of a parking lot. So my pictures turned out blurry and I have to shell out $200 for another lens. Great.

What did you do last weekend? Any plans for the upcoming one?

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Hope everyone had a happy new year! Mine was spent in seclusion save a few sanity-preserving outings:

NYE

New Year’s Eve was spent hunkered down on the couch, swathed in a Smurf-blue Snuggie with my computer on my lap. There was a very klassy orange juice and beer toast with FriendBoy at midnight before I got back to work and finally nodded off around 3am. How exciting!
Quick tip: Do not try to use the bathroom while wearing a Snuggie–it won’t turn out well. Don’t say I never taught you anything.

Friday

On Friday, FriendBoy and I went to see his sister (who lives in Florida and was visiting for the holidays) and his new niece. The baby is only two months old and is such a cute little dollbaby! No, really, she’s a ringer for a Cabbage Patch doll. I almost turned her over to look for the Xavier Roberts signature on her butt.

Saturday

On Saturday, I had to drop foster kitty Beauregard off at PetSmart, where he will remain for two weeks or until adopted, whichever comes first. I have to admit, I teared up when they put him in the kitty crate in the adoption area–he looked so confused. FriendBoy had to practically drag me away, and it was hard not to cry at the idea that he might think I abandoned him. He’s just such a sweet little guy.

Both of those outings took longer than intended, so I really had to sequester myself from the rest of the world in order to get the new issue of Style Sample together in time. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of the blogging community (I really love y’all), a new cover girl and emergency writer came through and we’re ready to roll! Thanks Andy and Anna!

How was your New Year’s weekend?

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I don’t do resolutions anymore. After years of failing to stick to the same ones (Exercise! Eat healthier! Save money! Travel!) I haven’t given up per se, but let’s just say I’ve moved on.

However, this post from Chris Guillebeau prompted me to start looking seriously at setting–and planning to achieve–some goals. The first step is looking back at what happened this year–2009 was weird for a lot of people. I started Style Sample magazine, my childhood pet died, I hit the dirty thirty and realized I ain’t gettin’ any younger–all of which has prompted me to get serious and focus.

Setting goals and developing detailed action plans is the fun part (well, it is for me because I’m kind of a nerd that way). The hard part is actually doing everything and sticking to the plan, which is difficult because I’m not exactly what you would call disciplined. I’m willing to work my butt off, but only if it’s something I enjoy–apparently this makes me kind of a flake. I prefer to think of myself as an ambitious slacker, if you will.

Still, I decided I have to do something. So:

Creating the plan

To start, I created a Google Docs document with three sections. One for 2009 review, one for 2010 goals, and one for infinity and beyond, which basically includes wish-list items I’d like to do someday and will be ready to do if the opportunity arises in the next year.

In the 2009 review, I listed all the major life events of the past year. Honestly, this took up less than three lines–my life is not that exciting and I prefer not to dwell on the past. From that list, I picked items I want to stick with–namely blogging, the magazine, and making a name for myself in the marketing & social media space.

Then, I created headers for each item, and started listing goals. SMART goals, with quantities and dates and such.

Under each header, I worked backwards (beginning with the end in mind) to determine the real live physical actions needed to achieve each goal.

Shoe sacrifice*

The part I was missing before was sacrifice–I wanted to do more and get more but not give anything up. You can’t get something for nothing though, so unless my sugar daddy/winning lottery ticket/miracle financial windfall comes through, it’s on me.

Sacrifice for me means working on page layouts instead of taking a nap, learning new software instead of cruising Net-a-Porter for stuff I can’t afford (though I still need to do research–you know, for the blog), substituting what I already have for things I think I “need”, and limiting myself to three cookies at a time instead of the usual eight. What? I have to start somewhere!

Do you have any goals for next year? How do you plan?

*No shoes were harmed during the writing of this post.

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Hope everyone had a great holiday! I had fun spending time with the fam and giving and receiving gifts, including this lovely new Nikon D3000 that I have no idea how to operate (but thanks for the surprise, Dad!), a new TV and a TV cabinet from IKEA (thanks Mom!), which FriendBoy and I put together in record time. I’m telling you, trying to make 378 pieces of compressed wood and a smattering of screws into something resembling furniture is the true test of a relationship.

Setting up the new stuff made me want to clean out the old, and in the process of clearing out (some of) the darn near ceiling-high stacks of magazines I’ve accumulated over the years, I came across my prize publication: The September 1993 issue of American Vogue. Can you believe I still have this? A testament to my pack-rat tendencies.

There are some…”interesting” early 9o’s throwbacks in the issue, including Drew Barrymore’s Guess ad, an article about the revival of punk (I guess some things never change), and page after page of “New Romantic” looks–think Linda, Kate, and Christy sporting layers of velvet and paisley and Seinfeld-esque puffy shirts! It’s just too good not to share, so once I get my scanner situation figured out, I’ll post some images.

How was your holiday? Did you do anything exciting?

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I hope everyone has/had a wonderful holiday (depending on which ones you celebrate)! I’m looking forward to throwing on my eatin’ dress and spending time with my crazy/hilarious/wonderful family.

Merry Christmas!

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Foster kitty Beau is still with me, and it’s getting serious. He’s such a fun little guy–if I lay down, he’ll curl up on my chest and fall asleep with his head on my shoulder like a baby. If I close the door to the bathroom or bedroom, a small furry paw inevitably appears under the door (this is extremely amusing for reasons I can’t explain). If anything even remotely resembling a string moves just the tiniest bit, he pounces like a miniature panther!

He put on a full pound in the first two weeks I took him in, and though he’s still a skinny boy, he’s clearly developing muscle tone. He coos like a pigeon and has the wisest, most knowing eyes for such a small kitty–not to anthropomorphize him, but sometimes he stares up at me and it feels like I’m looking at another person.

I’ve been taking him to the Complete Petmart on Paxton on the weekends so he can get used to being in the holding cage with lots of people around and he’s done very well both times. Last weekend, he even had his picture taken with Santa! There were two adorable kittens in the cage below his, so I took pictures of them as well. Shouldn’t it be illegal to be that cute? This is why we have laws, people!

All that to say: I’m in trouble. It’s obviously love. The longer he stays with me, the harder it will be when I have to let him go to his forever home. If anyone in the Cincinnati area knows someone with a warm lap and lots of love to give…

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