Guess what came in the mail today...

Squeeeeeee! The MSL December issue. It's extra thick and I can't wait to tear into it to see all the glorious holiday craft and food ideas they've come up with this year.

I'm not gonna lie. There are some days that I just want to be this woman. Okay, maybe I don't truly mean that, because I love my own life. I suppose I just hope to one day have the means and time to own an acreage filled with flower and vegetable gardens and an orchard and farm animals and dogs (absolutely no cats allowed, though!) and the most comfortable of comfortable houses with lots of room for crafts and creative projects and space to display antiques/collectibles AND we can't forget the fantastic kitchen to do all my baking and cooking in. Call me crazy, but it's a lifestyle my little heart desires.

Speaking of collectibles, I have a secret: I like to collect things. Okay, okay. Maybe it's not such a secret to those of you who have seen my dining room (and the bookshelves that contain all my cookbooks in said room). The cookbooks are really the only collection I have going at the moment...but reading Martha always reminds me of all the other possibilities that are out there. Dishes/serve-ware/stemware, etc; milk glass; knife rests; salt cellars; antique jewelry...the options are limitless. Now, I'm not saying I want all this stuff. These are just some of the categories that I consider when thinking of the possibility of starting a new collection at some point down the road.

It all started when one of my uncles passed down to me a rock collection around the age of seven or eight. I kept it in this bright blue hat box and would take all the rocks out and look at them and then I would organize them and tuck them back in their home. When my mom would take me to the library I would check out "rock" books and pick out rocks that I didn't have to keep in mind for future acquisition. When we'd go to gift shops that had the bins full of all different kinds of rocks, I would beg to pick out one or two to add to my box.

I think that is part of the reason I enjoy it so much. It's like a hunt. You see what's out there, decide which ones you want to add to your group and figure out how to get them. Surveillance, strategy, and going in for the kill. Some people might say it all boils down to materialism, but I disagree. I look at as a hobby. Does it not sound similar to what all those boys do when they go deer hunting or fishing?

Though it would be fun to start something new, for the time being I'm gonna stick with cookbooks 'cause my little house would feel a little to stuffed with much else.

Trying to relax

I've officially been on vacation for nine days now. I feel well rested and the house has been deep-cleaned (for the most part). I've done some cooking and baking and caught up on a lot of television. I say all this leading up to my main point: I just can't seem to chill out.

I've developed this...well, I guess I'd call it a bad habit...of constantly thinking, "Okay, what do I need to do next?" over the past year or so. I've noticed that I don't just focus on whatever I'm doing. I've always got one hand in one basket and one hand in the other lately.

Don't get me wrong...I'm all for some multi-tasking. Apparently, we're supposed to grow better at it as we age (we as in women...how's that for a stereotype?). I just don't like that I'm doing it all the time. I mean, I can't even watch TV at night with out also reading a magazine or looking at a cook book and planning the weekly shopping list, or doing my nails, or this, or that. I've tried to just sit there, but it usually ends up with me feeling this nervous tic-like sensastion and my brain screaming: "I'm not being stimulated enough!! Read something, plan something! Do it or I'll make you explode!" (Okay. Maybe I'm being a little over-dramatic here, but sometimes this is really what it feels like.)(Oh, and please don't tell me I have ADHD, 'cause I don't. Seriously.)

I think part of this issue is due to my brain not having yet transitioned out of the classroom mentality it has been working under for the past 3.5 years. I no longer have to worry about that weekly quiz in the class that I hate or the two back-to-back exams next week or the presentation on Friday. I mean I get some of this on my intern rotations, but it's different than being in class. Maybe once I graduate and land a job and settle into a routine that doesn't change every month my neurons will find a little more peace.

May 2010, baby! Let the countdown begin.