So, Tom and I have never really been anywhere cool together. Last year we went to Ocean City in Maryland and, though it was nice to get away and lay on the beach, it didn’t quite live up to the hype.

Don’t get me wrong - we had a great time and loved escaping to a sunny beach, just the two of us. But the area is getting older and run down, and we can’t live off of fried or fast food because it makes us sick. Sorry, Bahama Mama. I hear you have the best take-out crabs in town, but we could only stomach so much.

Honestly, in order to keep ourselves from getting sick, we typically handled lunch, snacks, and some breakfasts on our own by picking up some things at a local grocery store, and preparing them in the kitchenette of our hotel. It was also a little cheaper, but mainly it was healthier. I can’t eat like I did in my twenties.

This year, we really wanted something special and memorable. Since we never really had a honeymoon, Tom wanted to make up for it and do something memorable. Originally we checked into cruises, but with the hassle of passports we decided hey, let’s just head to St. Thomas for a week!

And that’s what we’re doing. The resorts out there have nifty all-inclusive packages that include gift cards for additional activities and shopping. I’m looking forward to this as it’s been a tremendously draining year for me, and school starts again in less than four weeks. As it is, I’m ignoring some of my responsibilities and some of the things I was supposed to take care of for church are not done. I feel horrible for not having done much with them, because people are counting on me to get them done. But I just can’t. My battery needs recharging.

According to the resort’s website, activities like snorkeling are free! For some reason I’m all hot about snorkeling. When I went to Hawaii with my family a few years ago, I had the best time snorkeling with my brother and my dad. Yeah, I’m a nerd. I love aquariums, too. So when Tom asked what I wanted to do on a vacation, the only thing I could think of was snorkeling. Oh, and of course, I want to read a bunch of books. You know me - sitting on an exotic beach, smothered in a metric ton of sunblock under a hat, an umbrella with a stack of books. I’m a party animal.

The only concern I’m having at this point is finding someone to take care of Maggie-Toes.

Okay, maybe Jonah, too. We keep trying to get him to run away, but so far, no dice. Hey, do you guys know of anyone who wants a fat and irregularly-stupid cat? If so, call me.

We’re thinking about getting an automatic feeder and automatic waterer (not a word, but you get the idea). But then we would need someone to come over in the evenings to check on them, scoop cat poop and get our mail. I was going to hit up some people at church to see if their kids wouldn’t mind doing it for a few bucks. It’s a good summer job for responsible kids who aren’t old enough to babysit.

We’ll see. Everything else is pretty much worked out - even church worship, which is a huge relief. The only thing left to do on my end is pick out that big stack of books I’ll be bringing…

Twice a year the CIOs of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association come together at a three day offsite and discuss everything that’s going on in their respective Health Plans. It happens every year and my boss has been attending them since he started working here, even before he was CIO. This Fall, the BCBSA CIO Roundtable is going to be held in Alaska, about an hour away from Anchorage.

Previously, I handled all of my boss’ travel on my own. Basically this just means that I would call the company travel agency who had his profile on file, and I would make arrangements directly with them. Well recently, the Powers That Be decided there were too many departments making travel arrangements on their own and started cracking down: All travel requests needed to be directed through one travel person who works for the company, and they arrange it with the travel agency. Basically they’re enforcing a middleman.

So, okay, I’m a team player. I receive the information for the upcoming roundtable and forward it to the middleman we will refer to as Travel Guy - TD for short. In the email I include our cost center so he can bill the trip, dates, the general time that my boss would like to arrive and depart, and so forth. Everything that TD could possibly want is in the email. I ask him to please book my boss a flight and reserve a hotel and get back to me.

Two weeks go by and no word from TD, even though I have been following up via phone and email.

This past Thursday, I finally get a response from TD: Please send me the dates.

The dates were already in there! So I email him back and say that rather politely. “Hello (TD), the dates are below. Thank you.”

I hear nothing for the rest of the day and nothing Friday. What I really wish I could do is at least reserve the hotel room, but Finance screwed up my boss’ corporate credit card and he didn’t get a replacement for the expired one. I’m still waiting. I told them about it a month ago and they said they were having another one sent to me ASAP. Two weeks later they called me and said they didn’t actually believe my boss’ card was expired. I read off the statement and they said, “Oh. Well, ok. We’ll send you one.”

I work with geniuses. But this is why I did not reserve a hotel room for my boss - no card to book it, and Tom would have a heart attack if he saw that deposit on our credit card. So my hands are tied.

So the last communication I had with TD was Thursday. Today is Monday. I get a phone call from TD asking me what is going on with the trip. Um, what? I say I am not sure and am waiting to hear back from him.

He asks me the following: What dates? Where is the conference? What cost center?

All of this is in the email, so I give him the answers right away. Because, you know, I can read. Immediately he starts balking at making the reservation. He says he doesn’t know where that is, he doesn’t even know what airport that goes into, he needs me to do all the legwork in telling him this information, including what time zone so he can work out the flights (I have no clue why he would need the time zone).

Again, most of this information was sent to him. I answer his questions, and say the airport is Anchorage.

Still the questions are coming - and all of the answers are either in the email or were given to him at the beginning of the call. TD sounds completely annoyed, and finally asks me where I’m finding all of this information. I say: It’s in the email.

He looks. The email says to book the hotel by a certain date or the group rate will be released and we’ll have to pay full price. He reads that off to me and says accusingly, “Well we blew this date out of the water.”

Like this is my fault?

But I remain calm. I really need to have this trip booked. So now he’s reading the email and he’s seeing the city names and he flips out.

TD: “I can’t book this unless it’s approved by (executive person’s name).”

Now I’m more than a little ticked off, because this executive approves all international travel, including anyone who needs to drive a few hours north to Canada. But we aren’t talking about Canada. As politely as possible, I ask why. Here it comes.

TD: “All international travel must be pre-approved. And while you’re getting the approval you need to check on (your boss’) passport.”

I almost threw the phone across my cube.

Me: “To Alaska? I’m pretty sure it’s ok, because it’s a state.” (pause) “Of the United States.” (another pause) “Of which we are citizens.”

TD: “Anchorage is –”

Me: “No.”

TD: “But you have to –”

I know what he’s going to say: You have to fly over Canada, which is another country. Oh my God, please, no. I can’t bear to hear him say it. I interrupt.

Me: “You don’t need a passport to Alaska.”

(Pause.)

TD: “Oh. Okay.”

I received flight options less than 5 minutes later.

Now that I live on the other side of the country from my family and friends, I have relied on the internet more and more to communicate. In fact, that’s the entire reason for this blog. As I’ve continued my schooling for Design, more and more friends and family are asking me for design advice of rooms I have never seen.

One of the Directors where I work unscrewed one of her kitchen cabinet doors and brought it to me, along with a sample of her counter top and flooring, the entire catalog of Benjamin Moore paints and a scribbled diagram of her kitchen, and asked me to choose her paint color. She indicated what Benjamin Moore paint numbers were in the adjacent rooms, and said if I could get back to her with a paint selection she’d be grateful. Seriously.

Wow. She said she wasn’t afraid of color, and the room had a tendency to be a little dark, so I selected three paint combinations: One playful option, one sophisticated option, one neutral option that could be spruced up with different colored accents. I have never seen this room, nor do I know her style, but she seemed really excited about the playful option - a twist of lavenders. She has a young daughter who really loves purple, so she seemed super excited about the choice. Hope it works out.

It’s these sorts of instances that have made me wonder just how viable “distance” design is. I had never heard of such a thing before. When I looked around for Design schools, none of the accredited schools offered distance learning for design, so I was beginning to think this sort of practice was frowned on.

This morning, while going through my blogroll, I came across a very interesting article on Decor8 about this very topic. It is apparently picking up in the design world and even has a name: eDecorating.

Apparently, being hired to design a room you’ve never stepped into before is becoming a bigger and bigger phenomenon. It’s a little cheaper than hiring a designer to come in, consult and do it all for you, and for the homeowner it’s a bit more DIY - something that is also growing in popularity.

Depending on who the designer is, the services being offered and the prices all vary. For some of these services, to have one room painted with an eDecorate service is $600. Just to paint a room. I guess it makes sense because the designer would have to call a contractor in the client’s area and hire them, then bill their profit on top of that. No clue if this fee also includes older homes that need decades of wallpaper removed. Let’s hope it does.

Other designers offer flat fees for consultations, three different design boards and themes for a client to choose from, and there are some who can arrange to have it all installed for you - for an incredible fee. Depending on the designer, the client is asked to provide a range of information - photos of the room, dimensions and placements of heaters, air conditioning units and outlets, links to inspiration for the room or links/photos of things that inspire the client, etc.

I don’t know if I am so interested in charging $2500 to put together three color boards (holy crap), but I am definitely curious about how to make something like this work. How would you even present a color board to a distance client? Do you package them up and send them over? Do you put them on a protected client-specific web page for them to look at?

I’m looking at my color board via internet and, although I’ve received all kinds of flattering feedback from friends and family who read this site, it isn’t as nearly as exciting as it is in person. I’m a touch and feel customer - especially when it comes to fabrics.

I can see how this would go very, very wrong for someone, but I can also see how it could go right. I have been interested in this method for helping my mom make design decisions for her house, but sort of shied away from it because I didn’t think it was kosher. Apparently it can be. I’m glad, because I have some ideas on how to make it work.

Not that I mean to bore anyone with my progress in writing, but it’s my blog and if this bores you then you can skip this part! LOL

With school over, I want to get back into the writing grind. The two writing projects I started last year are unfinished, and it is my goal to finish at least one of them before the fall. I have selected the story that I started about my World of Warcraft guild because it’s published on our guild website and it looks rather silly sitting there only half done. It’s also the piece of work that has taught me the most about the writing process - at least to date. And also because I actually like the story. It’s funny and fun, it doesn’t have to be taken seriously, and I feel like it’s something that I can really play with since it’s about my friends’ gaming characters.

It’s been a long while since I have contributed anything to it, so I have decided I would start doing an edit process on what’s already been published. Oddly enough, I’ve learned a great deal by going back and reading what I’ve written and, not only am I looking forward to cleaning it up, but I think the lessons learned will be helpful going forward. This weekend I will be working on chapter 10. It’s about half way done, and I’d like to say that I plan on finishing it but I have no idea. Over the past year, I have gotten faster at the writing process, but it is still very slow going for me.

Anyway, since it’s been so long that a chapter has gone up, I may just hold onto the whole thing until I’ve gotten a big head start, and then start publishing chapters on a regular basis. But we’ll see…

Today was the “big day” for my interior design rendering class. All 18 of us got up and presented our rooms to the class, the head of the program, and the two rendering teachers. I waited until the last possible minute and ended up being the second to the last person to go. Of course I was completely nervous, and paranoid about my design - and I still am. We won’t get our grades back until tomorrow at 2:00, so of course I’m going to be stressing out until then. When I stood up, I put my color board and rendering up for the presentation, and about half the class said, “Oh my God.” So that’s good, right? What I’m mostly nervous about is that there are some glaring errors in my rendering, and when Randy, the head of the program, gets up close to grade me, he’ll see them all. I have no idea how my grade is going to turn out. The paranoia is now that I am so proud of what I did, and I spent a lot of time and hard work on it. If I don’t get an A, then I’ll know my best isn’t good enough. So that’s the fear.

So without further ado, here’s the design. It photographed a little dark, so I tried to adjust the picture settings. Not sure if I was successful or not.

Color board:

Rendering:

With two classes left before the final project is presented, I’m still making tweaks and changes to my design. I suppose it wouldn’t be so bad if I was making the claimed “tweaks”, but they happen to be substantial changes - like the entire ceiling. It’s not that big of a deal, since the ceiling changes happen to be added molding and paint, but it’s a huge deal to draw out.

I also changed the chandelier.

Hear me out on this - when I usually find something I love, I find that it’s the concept that I love, more than the actual piece. So when I’ve found my concept, I have learned to keep searching until I find the piece that’s right.

The new chandelier will be a bold statement against the creamy walls - now I just have to decide what colors I’m going to slap up on the ceiling. Right now, I’m thinking dangerously bold…

And sconces to match.

Couch fabrics (smooshed and color-warped by the scanner):

And the couch that these fabrics are supposed to cover (couldn’t get a black and white pic to look right, so you’ll just have to try and imagine this upholstered with the above fabrics):

There’s also a small, light sage colored fabric that goes as an accent pillow (the small, rectangular pillow in the front) and will also go on two accent chairs, but the fabric color doesn’t come through all that well on the scanner so I won’t post it.

The walls are a light cream color that picks up the golden tones of the couch, and will act as a nice backdrop for the sconces and chandelier.

Flooring and area rug: I chose a warm, wood floor that has a lot of the golden tones in it. It’s hard to see the little yellow additions in the scanned sample, but they are there, and beautiful.

On top, a handmade area rug from Aga John.

And more things - curtains, sheers, club chairs, a wine bar, plants, art, a fireplace that I won’t bother scanning the tile for… The drawing for this must be finished tonight. I’ll snap some pictures of the finished product and post it next week.

For the final project of my Interior Design class, we have been given dimensions and details to a room that we were asked to draft on a large sheet of vellum. Then, we were told to get all of the furnishings, paint, accessories, lighting, colors, fabrics, etc. for the room and put it together. In this room, we must include two sofas, two to six club chairs, a baby grand piano, a coffee table, end tables, art, accessories, lighting, and more. There’s barely any room and I have to fudge my sofa dimensions to make everything fit. Out of that, we must draw the room in a 2-point perspective with color renderings to show fabrics, color, shadow, shading, textures. We are also to do a “color board” where all of our colors, fabric samples, furniture samples, floor plan, etc. are put together and presented to the class and teacher/head of program. Because of the grand piano and large-scale fireplace, I made my room traditional and formal.

I pretty much had my furniture and colors all done until last night, when I was looking around the internet for some art, I found a new chandelier. I already had a chandelier that was adorable and classic, nice curves and somewhat sedated. But this chandelier is spectacular. I love this chandelier. I must have this chandelier in my room.

Now, none of my accessories and tables work. Plus, the teacher originally told me I didn’t have to have the baby grand piano in there, but now that I have the chandelier, the room is screaming for the piano!

It’s “Make It Work” time, people.

My friend at church with the recording studio asked me to come over again this Saturday and do a new take of that song, but I don’t think I am going to have any time until this project is finished. The rest of the week/weekend will need to be devoted to finishing the drawing and getting my samples together for the board, so I can spend the rest of my time on the rendering process.

At this point, I’m not sure if I feel good about the project or not. I’m definitely behind in schedule of where I’d like to be, but since I’ve been working on it every night, the situation isn’t grim. As long as I can finish up the color board and the drawing before Monday, I should be fine. We’ll see how it goes.

To decorate a home on a small budget is no project for the faint of heart. I started out with the same idea that my mom has: One room at a time.

Unfortunately, I am extremely impatient and I want instant results. More rooms have been started and not much has finished. I started out with the dining room and downstairs half bath with success. The superficial is done: Wallpaper has been removed and the rooms have been painted. But what makes a room truly come together are the little accents and artwork.

What most people do in this case is run out and buy a bunch of impersonal knickknacks and pretty artwork that they find in their local stores, creating a sterile, impersonal room - sans Pottery Barn. I would love to be able to do that, but in my own home I require pieces that I truly love, so I can’t just go out and spend hard earned cash on objects that don’t really move me. And so, my nearly-finished rooms sit barren, waiting for the artwork and little accessories that will grab me. I know they are out there, but they can often take a lot of time to find. Sometimes years.

It’s excruciatingly painful for someone who prefers instant results.

Decor8 featured a neat little website called BlueFlip Art, a website that aims to sell artists’ work as prints for low prices (most of their prints are under $20 - which is almost unheard of). When you buy a print, the artist donates a portion of the money to a charity of their choice. The charity is also listed on the site, so you know where your money is going before you purchase.

This print by Jen Lobo caught my eye, and I immediately fell in love with it:

The blue background of the print is the same color that I painted on one of my bathroom walls. It’s pretty fierce. Tom found a coupon for free shipping and ordered it for me. I hope it gets here before my mom does.

I want to say that my 1999 Volkswagen Jetta is the first brand new car I ever purchased, but that isn’t the case. I bought a brand new ‘98 Jetta, and someone totaled it after I had only owned it for two months. A moron at USAA kept losing all of my paperwork to get the car replaced, and I finally just got mad and made them send me a check. I used my even older Jetta for a little while - my very first car - an ‘87 Jetta in the typical Williams family brown. Strangely, all of our cars back then were brown, and we weren’t sure why. We figured Dad just had really good luck with brown cars or something. Eventually I decided to go for a ‘99 Jetta - the first year that they had come out with the new body style. It was a very basic car, and I didn’t negotiate on the price at all… in fact, somehow they managed to tack on even more money, and I never even noticed. I paid way too much money for that car.

The most memorable experience in the Jetta was when my friend, Liz, and I drove it to Montana for a week long vacation at Glacier National Park. I had only owned the car for three months and I was ready to make use of it. While we were there, Liz was sitting in the passenger seat and accidentally spilled her latte all on the upholstery. I was a little irritated, but then the very next day, the roles reversed - Liz was driving, and I spilled my latte all over the same passenger seat. I could never quite get the latte out of the car seat, so the stain pretty much remained for the next ten years. Aside from that, it was a great trip. We even met a young man who we shared a meal with and, because we’re weird, we talked to him about Jesus. It seemed that he had some problems in his past church experience, and wanted nothing to do with religion anymore. We kindly reminded him that it’s typical for people to screw up because we’re human and we do things that hurt others, even for the sake of Jesus. But we shouldn’t penalize God or the relationship He wants to have with us because people are hurtful. Everyone has had a bad experience in the church, I don’t care who you are. Anyone who has been in the church at least a little bit has a story that really sucks. I don’t know why it happens, or why it hurts more when it happens in a church setting. I have theories, but it would take too long to get into them. The important thing is not to neglect our relationship with God because of whatever happened.

I don’t know whatever happened to that young man, but I still think of him at times and hope that he is OK.

Since then, the Jetta has driven all over, even across the country, and it’s lived a good life. Tom and I chose a new 2009 Toyota Corolla, dark gray, with moonroof. We picked it up last night and I gave them the key to my Jetta. As we drove away in the new car, I couldn’t help but notice that they had already taken my Jetta away, and I remembered all of the good times I had in that car.

I got over it as soon as I pulled out of the parking lot. Did I mention my new car has a moonroof? LOL

The older I get, the more I find that the saying is true: It’s the little things in life that bring the most happiness. I love the new AwK site that a group of friends and I have been contributing to. When I find that I’m in a blah mood or feeling unhappy about the stress of my life, I turn to AwK. Writing a short blip about some stupid thing I cooked somehow brings me an enormous amount of happiness. Not only do I get to write, but I get to write about something that I really enjoy: Food.

A couple of weeks ago I reviewed a recipe that I dug up in an old Bon Appetit magazine, called Sweet & Sour Tangerine Chicken Stir Fry. I made it again last night and was so thrilled with the results. The recipe is a two-serving dish and, for minimal effort, anyone can put a nutritious meal on the table. I even made a little extra tangerine sauce and drowned my rice in it. It was so good that I can’t stop thinking about it.