Lovely day here in lovely Seattle. J & I stayed up into the wee hours & were rewarded with a big, fluffy snowstorm that completely evaporated by morning's light. I've been wandering around Seattle while J hung out at home - got to visit Dandelion Botanical Co., where I chatted with one of my best friends and picked up some essential oils (myrtle, vetiver, fennel, tea tree and two more I can't remember). Then, after window shopping for a bit, I settled in this new coffee shop in Ballard, Verite, home to many cupcakes & somehow many birthday parties. I answered e-mail & listened to ween played over & over & over again. Tonight, J & I will see Hotel Rwanda. Don Cheadle is one of my favorite actors & I've only heard raves about him in this performance.

This week has been good, varied. Old friends from art school have reconnected, which feels very yummy, b/c they are some of my favorites. It's good to be talking about art with folks who are in it up to their eyeballs, I spend a lot of time trying to gauge folks interest around me.

It's been good to be back at work, although there's heaps to do. The two folks on my team are leaving this month & so I've been strategizing for the transition. I usually have to bear the brunt of training & make up the production work myself during this time & I don't think this transition will be the exception to the rule. I'm trying to stay positive b/c I love the projects I'm doing now & the prospects for more, but am a bit nervous b/c my boss has been way overworked and may well be crabby with me, sigh. Anyway, my time off energized me, so good things are in the works.

I was able to donate to a local Sri Lankan orphanage through a co-worker this week. It felt really good to know that the money was going directly to an established place. I sent out a mailer to folks who may also want to donate, ping me if you're interested. One of the great things I got from that was that most of the folks I know have already given what they could.

2005 is well under way. My goals are listed out & the next step is to see how I did last year. I think J & I have a dance class to take to catch up & we still need to buy a house, but we're mostly there for last year's goals.

Well, that's all for now. More to come soon - we took pics of the snowstorm last night, afterall...