Friday chickenBecause it’s Friday AGAIN. And because traditions are important. In which I cover the good stuff and the hard stuff in my week, trying for the non-preachy, non-annoying side of self-reflection.

And you get to join in if you feel like it.

I’m in Tennessee! Whee!

Hanging out with Tara the Blonde Chicken and getting ready to teach three days of wacky brain training near Asheville, North Carolina.

Which is basically the best thing ever.

Doing the Friday Chicken while sitting with the Blonde Chicken.

It’s a Double Chicken! Chicken.

The hard stuff

Overworked. I mean, over-working.

I worked through the whole weekend.

By choice, yes.

There was a lot to do and I was excited about doing it and in the zone.

So I don’t regret it. But it meant a lot of tired and grumpy this week until I remembered that I had to suddenly kind of take a weekend in the middle of the week.

Which was annoying too. Because this week was crazy.

Monday.

Every once in a while, things converge in such a way that every single thing I don’t want to do needs to happen at exactly the same time.

I’m pretty sure Mt. Hood (which, by the way, I still don’t believe in) was in retrograde again.

Because Monday was the day. Phone calls I didn’t want to make. Bills I didn’t like. Conversations I didn’t want to have.

Blech.

Stupid little mistakes.

Things going wrong.

Little miscommunications.

Seriously, how did we manage to send two people the wrong DVD in as many weeks? How is it that I put in huge chunks of really good, focused work and still don’t get to the things that I actually want to do?

GRUMBLE!

Needing to rest.

Extra-schleepy. Not so much the functioning with the schleepy.

The good stuff

North Carolina! Shivanauts!

I have been looking forward to teaching this weekend of Shiva Nata Wackiness forever.

The plans! They are full of fabulous! The people! They are awesome.

The Shiva Nata! It is the bomb.

Very exciting.

Will fill you in more next week. But I am super happy about this.

My site is having a birthday!

The Fluent Self is four years old.

Though the colors and typefaces are the same and the basic layout is similar, it doesn’t look very much like it did then.

Wow. Four years.

That is the crazy.

Big changes. Many little steps. And but but but but.

So the huge thing this week was that I did something I’ve been wanting to do for over a year.

I turned the blog part of the Fluent Self site into the main thing — so that when you go to the site you get sent straight to the blog.

Because for the longest time it felt like I had this kind of serious, sober front door and a big, fabulous party hidden in the back.

And if you knew to come in through the back door, there was always mad fun to be had back here. But you had to find your way. So many people would just stand at the front door and then go away.

But I thought I had to have that serious front door to explain something about what I do. But though it wasn’t the right explanation any more, I hated to let good copy go to waste.

But but but.

And the truth is, all this not making the change was really (as my friend Janet says) about loss. And about recognizing that sense of loss.

There was just this part of me that didn’t want to change the beautiful site that my ex built for me.

And then … I was ready. And it happened. And I’m really happy about it.

I’m really appreciating my pirate crew!.

It’s not easy running a pirate ship. And I get so much help.

And I am feeling especially grateful for my wonderful First Mate Marissa Bracke who keeps so much stuff off my plate.

Also she helps me in my impossible practice of saying no, and even approves of me saying no.

Actually, she says things like:

Go-go gadget BOUNDARIES! (Wonder Twin Boundaries, Activate!) etc. etc. 🙂

Because she’s awesome.

And … playing live at the meme beach house!

Yes, that’s a Stuism too.

My brother and I have this thing where we come up with ridiculous band names and then say in this really pretentious, knowing tone, “Oh, well, you know, it’s just one guy.”

So this week, I bring you:

A Thousand Middle Columns

Me: “So then it’s like A Thousand Middle Columns.”
Ez: “Dude. I heard it’s just one guy.”

(Special thanks to Wendy Cholbi for this week’s band name!)
twitter link

That’s it for me …

And yes yes yes, of course you can join in my Friday ritual right here in the comments bit if you feel like it.

Yeah? Anything hard and/or good happen in your week?

And, as always, have a glorrrrrrrrrrrrious weekend. And a happy week to come.

The Fluent Self