uncharacteristically blog-quiet ...

indeed ... 5 posts over the past two weeks?! yes indeed - quite uncharacteristic. time for shirlnutkin to get back to characteristic. time to gather some nuts (again)!

for starters ... social food fun and yip-yap on saturday - a been-a-long-time breakfast buds morning, so the quiet will slowly let up. although not at much ruckus as breakfast buds new year's napkin fun at ella's, we caught up at 900 grayson - catching up on dating, non-dating, and what's dating(?) stories. trips planned and still in the planning stages. learned what it REALLY means when the host's mutters "it may be about 1 hour and 20 minutes". and finally, knowing that without planning a breakfast buds moment, there will be other breakfast buds moments in the future. (always fun times!)

side note: always love 900 grayson (on yelp and their site). it's not just their cheese grits - it's their almond macaroon, alfajores, specialty sausage offering, fresh ingredients, and fun-fun-service (which includes the decoder ring).

nudge from a friend ... thanks to my buddy, yvette, who gave me a little nudge saturday afternoon - "i hope that's simply because you're busy with other stuff and isn't reflective of discouragement of any sort."

my response ... my note back to yvette included words and phrases such as - "work ... pretty major ... sick mon + tues ... bundled up ... bit of discouragement .. slow train wreck ... catch-up ... life observed ... regular fun/creative things ... housecleaning ... funky-ness ...". with cubeopolis life being quite the contributor to how i spend my time - day-time AND a few evenings here and there - the past 2 weeks have spoken ... get clarity and (re)focus!

a bit o' social stuff ... however, amidst the meh-blogging over the past 2 weeks, i have had a bit o' social activities that have included attending comedy shows last week, a very awesome brunch where i met my friend's baby girl (10-months old) for the first time, happy hour and dinner with a buddy, and breakfast buds yip-yap (which included chomping on a TASTY(!) alfajor). ALSO, i have LOVED the flurry of FB fluevog sisterhood shares and comments among glady, dorothy, and joanne.

reconnecting with what i've missed ... as i am playing catch-up, i realize that it is time to reconnect and get my ass in gear. for good or bad, i'm still in the search mode as i was back in mid-january. time to get jump back onto love2011 and health month posts, and given the out-and-about food stuff i've been doing, a few food posts are in the future. the daily reverb10 has evolved into a monthly reverb11 or re11, with my contribution to february's prompt over here, and a yet-to-be-posted-response for the march re11 prompt (hmmm ... what a prompt?!)

i am a couple of months behind on my nutshells, with january as the most recent nutshell (though february is teed up somewhere in my drafts). and for me, there is the catch-all yhd2011, for which i recommitted in march. B3 (or blogger gals) is still a go (yippee!!!), and although kit's cyccyl (on facebook and yet-to-be-revamped site) is in hibernation, i still keep my kit kick going on. and in the world of cubeopolis, intending to continue to be involved activities that make the workplace an enriching experience.

and a few adders in the mix ... with my recommittment to yhd2011, i am using my droid's springpad and thinking space (mind mapping) much more so i can capture, organize, share, and act on ideas that keep flying ... and just in case my phone is not around, i've got my purse-friendly paper-pen moleskine grid journal and action runner notepad. while doing a bit of human-spring-cleaning, i am getting read to work with human performance expert, tracy, at t2 performance solutions, and i am signed up for a greenleaf center course on the foundations of servant leadership, which i was introduced back in 1999.

to r|cat or not to r|cat? that amidst cubeopolis ... and go figure, for whatever reason, i have been pondering a complete overhaul of r|cat - not at all what it once was, while retaining the same vision and values. dunno where that's coming from, but i'm going with it for now to see what pops out at the end. meanwhile, yes, i'm sticking with cubeopolis.

oh those?
that's the pair of fluevogs i'll own
after this week's cubeopolis
OR MAYBE
i'll get them sooner and
sleep with stare at them
THEN
wear them after this week's cubeopolis

gathering nuts: shirlnut-WHO?!

girl nutkin ... who the f**k is shirlnutkin, anyway? and what the F**K is this girlnutkin thing she blogging about?

no answer key, yet ... i am still working on an answer(s) beyond what my header to this blog says ...

"... random yippity-yap stories & ponderings & discoveries about transforming, pop culture, writing, cubeopolis life, and relationships"

and beyond my girlnutkin who? blurb.
(help me, spock!)

and if you DO NOT want to read about my morning neurosis ... skip to the bottom for what it all means? (though i still don't have an answer,yet) all the other stuff in between is just my brain-dump about my not-so-consistent message about what girlnutkin and shirlnutkin are all about.
this past friday's happy hour blah-blah ... alex and michelle asked what i blog about. with no help from the margarita (on the rocks, with salt, thank you) i cradled, i attempted to recollect my blog's header and my little blurb. poorly answered, i babbled about ...

"... it's just random. it's like a life journal. blah-blah-blah-diddy-blah-blah ... dating. stuff. blah-blah, blah-blah-blah. ... you know ...? i like to write. it's like blah-blah long emails. oh! i had this one post about blah-blah. (insert laughter) and then i like posting about food and restaurants. (oh my gosh! i'm still talking!!! i'm-getting-tired-of-my-voice-and-myself. snooze.). and like, oh! i lived in san diego. here's why i started a blog. (shit! i'm answering a question they didn't ask. blame it on the margarita.) moving ... but then there was this eviction ... (they stopped listening. good. i can stop now.) so, you know. my blog. yeah ... you know ... ?!"

NO! if i don't know, then alex and michelle are not going to know (or give a rat's ass).
technorati-what? ... meanwhile, this week, my technorati claim was complete. i don't even know why i did this, other than someone told me i should do so for my random-blog-topics blog. so i did. check marks a task completed on my springpad.

here is my show & tell. someone want to tell me what it means? (i don't read owner manuals, so i haven't read up on technorati.) here is the description i provided - albeit something i can later edit ...

"girlnutkin in the BA is a journal-type blog of random yippity-yap stories & ponderings & discoveries about my interests in transforming, pop culture, writing, cubeopolis life, and relationships. transforming includes self-improvement and self-reflection through promoting a cultural transformation, spiritual awareness, and creative expression. pop culture includes all things entertainment, fashion, art, and nostaligika. writing includes my expressing myself and exploring my writing abilities. cubeopolis life includes perspectives (serious and snarky) of the conventional work-force environment. relationships include perspectives and experiences with dating, family, and friends. girlnutkin also is a an on-going collection (aka flashbacks) of former blogs' posts."

(too many words. i'm tired reading. i stopped after the first sentence.)

blogger bosom buddies (or B3) ... then there is this fabu foursome of B3 of which i feel fortunate to have been invited to be part! kay, rebecca, yvette, and i comprise B3.

kay did a FABU post of our group (over here or click the image to the right). i like what she shared about girl nutkin ...

"Shirley has been using her blog as a way of connecting and getting inspired by others who think alike. In the past she had done a lot of brainstorming via email with friends and is now sharing via her blog. She describes her blog as "random yippity-yap stories & ponderings & discoveries."

side note: B3 humble beginnings ... yvette brought the four of us together (virtually) late last year. we met on monday, jan 3 (telephony). we started B3 at the beginning of the year and plan to meet weekly, holidays aside. (yes, that means 2 meetings to date.) from the two 30-min teleconference calls (colorado and california) we've had, we have already accomplished quite a bit -getting to know each other, setting weekly goals, email exchanges, group name, a google group, and because we each have a bit of project management in us, we are establishing a general framework to support each of our interests, while supporting each other.
this morn's attempt at shirlnut-WHO? ... i shared with B3 yet another version of what my blog is about, within the context of how any of the B3 gals getting traffic to our blog, which actually has NOT been an objective of mine ...

"my blog's purpose is not to get traffic. the purpose of my blog? ... and I do **not** have a message - other than I crack myself up and I have alot of sh** in my head that I enjoy writing about. I have **not** tried to market my blog (myself), which is more of a "Life Journal" - life observed / experienced. It's really (as I described to Yvette at one point) another "email" to my friends. I have dear friends on the East Coast that check-in. It's another place I can point friends to things that make me laugh, my rants and raves, whatever topic is on my mind, etc. Or if someone has a topic related to my interests that they want me to write about, then I do."

however, i also reminded myself of branding and shared a previous post (over here) about the value of branding.what does this all mean? ... i am in a creative space - open to ideas! i am in this funky fun space where i have this compulsion to "gather my nuts" so to speak - and have a clear message (even if it is just a life-journal) about my girl nutkin blog (so i don't bore me and others ... more .. when i describe my blog).

AND i am endeavoring to develop a separate blog with a message - my message. i envision my message to be the bigger umbrella over my idea about cultural transformation & apprentern shared as part of my post on tyler's guerrilla influence formula post and to be part of my core story (reverb10), and to bring together my yhd for 2011, especially, creative expressions, relationships, work, and special intentions.

wishing myself focus and fun!

* happy hour, technorati,
blogger bosom buddies (B3),
librarything, more B3. this post.