lazy day, crazy day PRIORITIES

Yesterday the family spent a wonderful day at a lake with some old friends. My big kid enjoyed tubing for the first time and the baby got to meet the fabulous woman who took care of his brother at almost the same age. It was a nice lazy day and a much needed no-technology day.




And then there is today, with an 8am mtg in Charlotte, NC followed by a haul down to Lancaster, SC for another mtg, then a LONG drive in pouring rain back to the "Tega Cay studio" for an interview with Curt Smith. Then a 45 minute drive back home in the rain, a quick change out of the "meeting" clothes into some "house" clothes -- another quick change after the baby decided I looked too clean, and several financial transactions (bills, logging time, etc) and now 5 minutes of Oprah before another change into a swim suit to go do my laps, (Triathlon coming up!) and then back to Tega Cay to see my Nephew for the first time.... (and his parents of course!)

Good news is that I have 2 new clients today and I am working through the pile of paper and to-dos... too bad there is not enough time in the day to get it all done.

Next week: Vacation
Following week: School Starts!!

Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Once again... Sleep is Overrated

There was a time, in my own recent history, where I struggled with insomnia. The insomnia was so bad, I considered myself fortunate to get 4 hours of sleep every other day. This was an invigorating time, perhaps due to the mania the lack of sleep manifested, however, in that moment I found inspiration and brilliance and beauty. I saw the world in a new way, embraced the quiet and stillness and felt that the hours had been created by a higher power for my own bidding. It was, in short, a happy time in an unhappy time.

I have often secretly longed for that gift during that last 2 years of relative normal slumber. I was, at least I believed myself to be, profoundly productive during this time. I cared for an infant, I ran a business, I wrote a book... It was a mediocre book perhaps, but that was clearly due to my skill as a writer instead of lack of creative inspiration and a compelling subject matter.

To my point... I have recently experienced a similar level or sleeplessness - in part due to the expected arrival of our new family member, (and the other family members, although I have less control over that than I do my own, and believe me that is not much). In that sleeplessness, I have found I have somehow lost my ability to be productive during the waning night hours. It is a sad loss, a mourned loss. Age, distraction, hormone imbalance.... the cause of said un-productivity is unclear, but all the same true. As such, I am restricted to listening to my internal jukebox, stuck on an unfortunate, albeit delightful little tune: "Zachary hated Bumblebees..." from an apparent overly used children's CD currently in the car's disc drive. (Note to self: remove CD from disc changer).

I have hopes that either the lack of sleep situation is soon resolved (unlikely) or I can regain the mid-night productivity of yesteryear. Even if it was only perceived productivity, at least it came with some sense or brilliance and accomplishment to balance the droopy eyelids and kink in my back.



Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

inhale. exhale.

Thank God the Olympics are over. I feel like the last two weeks were stolen from me. I did not sit outside as much as I would have liked, I did not pay my bills early, I did not return emails, I did not, I did not, I did not...

Thank God the Olympics are over.

Today, I sent in the most recent edits for my book and caught up on my invoicing and bill paying. I write a couple blog entries for clients and packed for a trip to Florida. I went to the library and got some new books and I got the car alignment done at the dealer. The dishes are clean, the house is picked up and I am exhausted. But I got all that done and that is what I should have been doing the last two weeks while I watched the gut wrenching losses and glorious wins, the pride in country, hard work, sacrifice. I got caught up in the human interest sob stories and got sucked in by the 24 hour a day 12 station Olympic coverage. Thankfully, the only thing happening this week on TV is the Democratic Convention, and NPR and CNN.com will catch me up on the salient points in the mornings.

I need my routine too much.

Long distance travel this week to Tampa followed by the September "get back to school" mentality -- looking forward to getting business done and life following a mundane cadence again.

(does it ever do that?)


Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Monday Update

I had a wonderful Mother's day weekend and I am trying, still, to get my computer up and running after having my old laptop melt down. It is amazing to my how dependant I have become on a little machine.

I listened to a wonderful program today on NPR about new media and marketing -- I think I would like to write a bit about this--incorporating blogging and other online strategies in the near future.

It is Monday and so I need to go work on invoices so that I can say that I did something today -

Hello to all - and until later....

Meghan Wier
Author Writer Web Consultant

Sunny Spring

It has been quite nice and sunny here in Charlotte today. It was very nice.


I have been quite fortunate to have picked up several clients in the last few weeks and I am scrambling to get all of the work done well and on time, while nursing my bazillionth cold of the last few months.


My 1 year anniversary in Charlotte has come and gone, and I am very happy here. I have been trying to get some of my friends to come and buy homes in the Charlotte area but no takers yet. If they could see the pretty Spring we are having, they would be lining up.

Admittedly that is a lame excuse for an update, but I felt like I should write something for the 1 person who reads this once in a while (like you: James!)

- Hope all is well with you, and come for a visit. I am opening up Chez Wier for visitors!

Autumn in the South

Well, Autumn has descended on the South and we are enjoying the beautiful 80 degree days. I am told that this is warm for this time of year, but you won't hear me complaining. I like the heat.

We are in draught however -- and it is very dry. (I suppose a draught, by definition, indicated "dryness," huh...) I have never lived in a place where there was not enough water. It makes me really think about the consumption of things like water -- (and electricity, and gasoline...)

I have never been a wasteful person - but I also have never really worked to lessen my use of these resources. Living in a place that requests you take 4 minute showers and use your dishwater to water your shrubs makes you really understand that there is a limited amount of certain things in this world. And we can work to be a bit more mindful of how and how much we need.

I am going to go turn out a light.

Happy Autumn.

Monday Monday

Well, another week has begun and I am actually feeling - again like the world is getting settled. The house is in decent shape, my refinishing projects are finished and some more boxes have been emptied and stuff put away. My office/sitting room is actually one in which work, and or sitting can take place and the dining room table has been ordered where there will be even more seats. I think I now can seat 28 people in my house and not use the floor or bed or plastic patio furniture... that is about 24 more seating opportunities than in the previous house. Now I just have to meet some more people.

Speaking of which - I have met a bunch of really cool people here. And I am so glad to have made some nice friends.

SEO through blog-power is taking off. I think that the www is getting a bit crowded and this will burn out to be replaced with something else. It will be interesting to see what makes the mainstream next.

Well - I must be off to go write. Don't want to waste all my creative juices here.... oh wait. nope, they are gone...

ug

I have been negligent again in keeping this blog up to date. But since it is always boring to read about how someone is not doing something and why, I will spare you the details.

Things in Charlotte are good and should settle back into a decent routine here in the next few weeks. I have plenty of work to do, both for clients and around the house. It is good to be so busy.

Weather here is glorious and certainly a contributing factor in both my mood and inability to complete the projects on my list.

I am working hard on content updates for site such as Team Events. I have enjoyed that - and hope that more site owners realize the importance of up-to-date search engine friendly content. The Team Events site is well designed and has been a pleasure to work on.

I met my niece this past week. A delightful little bundle. Congrats to sis and G.

Looking forward to the end of summer beach trip. But every day is a vacation here. Hard to complain when work is good and the sun is shining.

--- but I do need to get back into the gym. The last few weeks have not been good for the training. The Duathlon is a no-go for June. Another trip up North is not in the plan until at least Aug. I will possibly make the Canandaigua run. Possibly!

Thanks for hanging in with me folks! I will post again soon. - M

(un) regular update on things and life and such

I am in Boston patiently (as if I ever did anything patiently) awaiting the arrival of my neice (at least we think it is a neice) into this glorious world.

I am currently sitting in a hotel room, trying to get some good work done but finding that my webmail application is sketchy today - again -- I wish I knew why it is hanging whenever I try to delete. This is where my knowledge on the technical side of the world seems inadequate. But alas, there are plently of worse things to stress about. The spam is winning and so I blog.

I have been losing ground on keeping SEO Rochester up to date. If I continue to have technical difficulties with webmail this week I may actually get a little caught up on that. Tit for tat so to speak.

That is about all on me. Hello world - hope all is well. - Meg

A dose of Meg

I am enjoying a few minutes of peace and quiet as the house is uncharacteristically devoid of other people... ahhh. Also since my email box is so jam-packed - it is taking absolutely forever to do anything in there (including deleting old emails) and so in between the spring-cleaning, I thought I would catch things up here.

I have been doing some more web writing, and I am pretty busy with that--and glad that I have a consistant pipeline of work. Also, I have the doing a refinishing project that is literally sucking the life out of me... Besides that and regular trips to Monkey Joes, I have been neglecting my duathlon training. Perhaps I will get a few minutes tonight to get on the bike. Perhaps I will have to take up insomnia again.

Looking forward to meeting McKenzie - who should make an appearance in the next couple weeks. Boston should be fun - trying to balance a 3-year old in a strange city while visiting with my sis and family of undertermined demographic. Hopefully the weather will be nice. I am becoming a wimp down here in sunny SC.

Thing a lot of VT - past, present and future students. My thoughts are with you - be strong.

Sadly my phone is busted, and so I have ordered another - I should have contact with the outside world re-established by beginning of next week.

-Meg

Megupdate/Megaupdate

It has for some reason been a tiring week. It is Friday night and I am sitting exhausted not looking forward to the fact that I have to get my son bathed and ready for bed. I just don't have the energy.

I have been working out at the gym this week - although I can't say I am getting in shape. I just am getting tired and achy. It will pay off though... I hope. That Duathlon is right around the corner, and I have to make a decision soon...

Good work done on the business front this week, although I have a ton of work booked for next week. I also want to get to BNI this coming week, Maybe Kelly will go with me! It seems that there are a lot of people in need of good website copyrighting--but then I knew that.

My friend Kelly arrives Monday, so I have to get the house in order this weekend. It is in need of some attention.

Well I best be getting to that bath. The kid hasn't quite mastered that on his own yet.

blogged out

http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/USSC0118.html

I have been blogging overtime for all my clients and I am still a little behind... Check out the link above to find out why this week will not be the one I get caught up on. Especially Tuesday and Wednesday.

- Meg

update

Well, the new house is getting situated and the art is being hung up on the walls and the floors are beginning to be cleared of the random bits and pieces of my life. It is starting to feel like home.

Went to the DMV today to get a new liscense to find out I needed about 3 more forms of identification than I had. Which frankly was ok since the place was crowded and I am not a fan of small rooms of crabby strangers. I'll try again tomorrow.

I got another new client today. A glass block company that needs some Search Engine Optimization consultation, which I am happy to do. It is about a full day's worth of work, which should take me a full week to get done with all the life stuff in between. Which again is fine. There is plenty to do.

I am also working with an Events Company out of NYC and doing a little Corporate Blogging for them. I suspect you will hear more about that here soon.

-Realized that I got a paypal order through my website today. Actually the order came 7 days ago--which is embarassing since I just found out today. My site is still set up to auto-notify me at my old email account. Whoops. Something else to take care of. Truth is no one has actually ever bought my book through the meghanwier.com site... they all go to Amazon. Either way is fine as long as I sell books and help people... so I got that book in the mail today.

I turn 32 on Thursday. My eyes are telling me that that can no longer be considered youthful... I am having trouble seeing. I will have to get an eye exam when I get the doctor stuff situated. It seems like I could be getting a little age-related macular degeneration - as the computer is getting harder to read. Especially late at night. Seems as though I will have to save my pennies so that I can have the laser surgery to fix that. Since I had Lasik a few years back to correct near-sightedness, it would be a shame to go get glasses now...especially since I know I can get it fixed. Perhaps I will go see the folks at the Rochester Eye Center next time I am in Rochester...

Well I am off to sit in my Garden tub with a glass of wine and a Southern Living Magazine... Good news: I found a corkscrew today.

Meg

I miss my friends and family. I am looking forward to seeing everyone again soon.

Diary of a Southern Housewife

I am settling into my new SC surroundings and finding a few things to note.

1) I have for the second time in a month used a hand-tool to remove a cork from a wine bottle. Which says something about either drinking too much wine (available at the grocery stores here) or that I am purchasing wine with below-standard corks, (see above note about grocery stores), or that in my current state of dis-organization in my household I am lacking in proper wine accouterment. Perhaps it says I have hand-tools too readily available, or that I look to hand-tools to solve minor beverage problems. Or perhaps it is a combination of the aforementioned, or none of the above aforementioned. Who knows exactly.

2) My house is big. It is not surprising to me now that people actually consider 'running a household' a job. I am spending an incredible amount of time tending to the house and its needs. My previous dwelling did not require such attention or time. Of course I am color-coding my clothes in my new closet--so it seems that perhaps I need to get back to work soon, since said new house will keep sucking my time and life away in ways not before seen as I have a tendency (yes, I know I do) to create work where there may not have been, or have been necessary work previously.

3) I am starting to enjoy my move. The weather is lovely, the neighborhood is friendly, I open boxes each day and find new things... or rather the old which was forgotten and then re-remembered creating the feeling of new. Additionally I have found this area to be abundant in shopping locations which I have been sampling, since it is my duty as a North/South transplant to support the economy. I have plenty of new things that are in fact new, which leads me back to #1, as the finances of living the life of a Southern Housewife is expensive. I do need to work--at least a bit to be able to support my life of luxery to which I am hoping to become even more accustomed.

4) I have a pretty good Southern accent. Or at least no one has laughed at me yet. I have been attempting to fit in (being asked where I am from gets old quickly)-- and in order to avoid the conversations about my origination I have slowed the speech, added "ma'am", and been working on the little Southern lilt. I draw the line at using "ain't" and double negatives where no such negataive is necessary, thusly indicating a positive, but I am getting by. At least I hope so--it is unclear yet, however I will keep you posted.

5) I am tired. Moving is exhausting, my schedule is confused. I am not writing as I should. My diet is horrible. It is morning and I have yet to go to bed. My house looks like a cardboard monster vomited throughout. But I am starting to call this home. I do like it here, even though I miss my family and friends. I wish I could share this with them. I wish I could move them all here so they could enjoy the weather and the Southern hospitality and the slower pace (rush hour seems to start at 2pm here... don't know why, but it seems people don't work late... or even into the afternoon when there is golf to play).

It is time to sleep. I look forward to may more posts and I hope to make them frequent. I always do - and they are often not. Perhaps my new situation will allot me more time to do this. Who knows. g'night y'all.

Meg

brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I am cold. The temperature today was 8.

Yes, I said 8!

A week from tomorrow we make our move out to South Carolina - where it is what they call chilly... 45.

I'll be wearing my bikini and flip-flops.

Today I was reminded of the good friends that I have. As much as I feel that I gave and gave and gave over the last few years, I am getting it back 100-fold through the kindness and support of my friends through this move process. I am so lucky to be in a place where I can value those relationships and where I have learned how to accept the help and the love.

I'm still working on the Zellies - Ask Dr. Ellie Blog, which is going well. And I have a new project which I will share with all of you soon.

Lots of new stuff going on with the move and such - so I am gonna go do that ( or take a nap)
--Take care everyone.

Meghan Wier

up to date update

Lots of stuff going on as usual, but I was able to spend a relatively quiet weekend at home with family. I have a nice day scheduled for tomorrow including phone calls for the new house and random ones -- like calling the vet to see if we can sedate the animals for the trip to South Carolina. Things are falling intol place with my move, if only the close date would be settled here. We need a lot to happen in a short amount of time.

I did just schedule a babysitter for down in SC. Talk about planning ahead :) at least I know I will have a couple hours to myself the Friday after I move. Thank god for family.

yawn

I am sleepy - and sick tonight. Fighting off a sinus cold of some sort. Was "recognized" yesterday at Starbucks --- the guy said "a chai latte for our town blogger" as he handed me my drink. Funny. I haven't been the Henrietta town blogger for a couple months now. Just goes to show that when people set something in their minds, it stays. I was only recognized a couple times during the 6 months my picture was in the paper at least once a week. Funny. I need to get the new book ideas formulated. Mostly people have been talking about the introvert aspect of what I write about. Guess I need to work that idea a bit more. There are so many way I could take it and I need to get past the writer's block and dig in. Maybe a "careers for introverts" book.

ayup - of course

I have entered the part of the house-selling-buying process that I was dreading. Today my day consisted of lovely breakfast with my family (that part was good), stop by grocery store to pick up boxes (which they forgot to set aside - have to go back tomorow), swing by car dealer to find out that I needed $200 in immediate work (saw that coming), quick call to parents/life-savers, who changed their plans to pick me and 3-year old up. Forgot cell phone. Forgot Car seat. Got Phone. Got Car seat. Trip to my parent's house. Received 5 different calls from movers who heard I was moving (set appointments for estimates), set pay-date for Nate, had dad drive me back to dealer, picked up car, grabbed food, drove to play-date (and took calls from 3 other movers), Had play-date/mommy sanity time (kids fought the entire time), Left early without getting any sanity. Drove to Attorney's office. 3 year old had "accident" in lawyer's office. Attorney said I didn't need to come in, that I could have called, felt silly for thinking I needed to be there, and for child's pee on their floor, drove home, took calls from more movers, the bank, re: title, complained to realtor and realtor's company about amount of mover calls when I really wanted calls from electricians and plumbers. Found title in drawer of stuff husband "forgot" about, (reason for bank call and attorney visit). and the evening continues.
sigh.

learning to sleep

It seems that I have learned how to sleep. It is almost 10pm and I am starting to think about turning in for the night. What a difference a year can make--it wasn't too long ago when I was functioning on 4 hours every other night or so.

While I know that I am probably healthier to be sleeping these days, I do mourn the time I no longer have for the late night projects, or the way my brain used to work when I was in overdrive.

I have been reading a book that compares the exceedingly busy over-achiever with someone with ADHD. We both like the thrill of the brain racing around. And right now I feel in a lot of ways like the sleep is like ritalin. It is better and worse at the same time.

I am still working on my recovery plan. And the longer I am away from work the more clear it is that I really needed this break.

posting posting everywhere

I wrote a rather lengthy blog today at megs90days - so instead of rehashing all the boring parts of my life - I am going to direct you that way today. Enjoy. - Meg