ok, ok, i was dodgin the blog.

Chalk it up to a new work schedule that makes it difficult for me to blog at work. Chalk it up to coming back from a trip and not wanting to face the "routine" things I did before leaving. Chalk it up to a plan to open a restaurant and all that goes along with that undertaking. Maybe I was distracted because I finally decided to return to school, but then got stuck vaccilating for two weeks over whether or not to spend the cash on culinary school (aha - a hidden passion of mine...I love to cook. I'm a great cook). I love cooking almost as much as I love writing, and these days, it was - for some reason - infinitely easier to make soup than to spend any of my at-home time in front of the computer after a long day at work.

And I was uninspired. Maybe it was the Foley garbage that turned me off to the news and the celebrity websites became dull...or too entrenched in whatever Madonna was or wasn't adopting from afar. Then those poor Amish school children, then North Korea...

It made an already tired girl that much more tired. Between fledgling school ambitions, the weighty dread over the fact that I STILL haven't sent thank-you notes for all things wedding, trying to spend some time with my husband, trying to work eight hours - and eight hours ONLY - during the day, pondering a new business, starting an entirely new way of EATING (yes, Greece weight is hard to get rid of...)...I just didn't have anything left. Nothing that I felt like making Meaningless Observations about. Or meaningFUL observations (heaven forbid), or pointedly inane observations on stuff that almost mattered. I was decidedly unable to observe.

Then, like the long-distance friend you've lost touch with, I wondered if it had been too long. Was I out of the "blog" frame of mind entirely? Was it "gone for good" or was I just in a strange funk? Had I crossed that "it's been too long, just forget about it" threshold (that weird social point-of-no-return where you wonder if it would take more effort to get back into the swing than to just stay away)?

Not sure.

At any rate: Still breathing. Still busy at work, my blog vibe is still a little off. I'm forcing myself to find time in the evenings and on the weekends to do what I used to do during the day because it's so important to me to make time for my husband, for my house, for my education, for my...culinary endeavors (hmmm, perhaps there's a cookbook in the works, as well, in the background). So it's Heatheradair with a slightly new bent. A slightly new schedule. A slightly more weary attitude, but still dedicated nonetheless. Because I miss my friends. My faceless friends. I miss you guys!

And, because it would be strange NOT to toss up some of the fantastic pictures of the Trip I Can't Quite Come Home From entirely (K wants to move to Greece. He said he felt more at home there than he ever has in Seattle. I can't argue, the people are kind, the weather is beautiful, the country is breathtaking, and the euro goes a LONG way), here are pictures of the trip. The trip that began this whole blog-lite spiral!

*small note: it took some kind of FLIPPIN NERVE for me to post pictures of myself in the swimsuit so many times. I do not post pictures of myself in swimsuits except with VERY good reason ("reason" being very good scenery, in this case). i'm layin myself bare here (er, literally, too, I suppose!)...!