Life Begins at 30: Happy Interruptions

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365 Project: a photo a day

TASKS

Full-time job that is extremely busy right now.
(Secret Project #1)
Movie + tacos with Grandpa for his birthday.
Oversee the September 2007 Eat Local Challenge.
Plan a dinner party for 15 people in a few days.
(Secret Project #2)
365 project.
Set up a family photo for Sunday taken by a great photographer friend of mine.

It's interesting to be so busy while I am in Southern California. Often, my trips here are fairly calm and I see lots of different friends and family. This trip is the opposite -- it's busy and frenetic and full of task-filled days and evenings when I fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow*

Last night, I was in the middle of three projects, on the phone trying to work on Secret Project #1, and I got a call from my mom. I tried to ignore the answering machine as I was on the other line, but it's hard to ignore someone repeating "Pick up the phone" about 20 times in a row. I picked up the phone. "Break out the lemon and the wasabi," she said. "I was given some free, local albacore tuna from my hair dresser. He was slicing it in the back of the salon." My mother is much more cautious about sanitation and germs than I am, so I decided not to question her about the wisdom of eating raw tuna that was sliced in a hair salon. It was darn delicious, and we inhaled the whole piece.

When I am in San Francisco, my life is rather controlled. Living by myself, I'm quiet when I want to be, and social when I want to be. Being here, though, that organized quiet is thrown out the window. My days are full of happy interruptions. Mom is usually following me around the house and wanting to talk about that blog or this gossip. My aunt and I are usually giggling or rolling our eyes at something my mother is saying. When I'm not at the house, I've been hanging out at a happy local coffeehouse that is usually a scene of one sort or another.

Yesterday, I sneaked away from my computer for about an hour to check out the brand-new Bixby Knolls Farmers' Market. It's not a destination market, but it's going to be a great one for the people in that area. There are plenty of vegetables, fruits, herbs and even a balut vendor**. I picked up my first pomegranates of the season to make a cocktail syrup for the aforementioned dinner party, and then headed back to emails and projects and to do lists.

This is not a post complaining about my busy-ness. Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I am usually happiest when I am barely keeping all the balls in the air. And the chaos right now feels electric. I am completely out of my comfort zone with some of the projects, and I think that is when I grow the most.

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* Except for last night, as my brain was full of Jack's math homework -- something involving getting the numbers 1-25 using only four 9's.

** The balut vendor knows his audience. He didn't even put down his newspaper when curious Caucasians stopped by his booth. His body language said, "You don't want what I've got."

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