RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR A MONDAY

Since coming back from Maui I've been incredibly tired. Everyday is a chore to get out of bed. I could probably take a nap sometime around 2 p.m. if that was kosher. I think I'm fighting off what I call an "airplane cold." Basically, I pretty much get sick every time we fly since I have a suppressed immune system - being trapped for hours with recycled air teeming with germs is a sure combination for sniffles & sneezes. Kind of like when I used to ride BART everyday, twice a day, with the unwashed masses and their various maladies. This weekend I had a sore throat, and last night I felt slightly feverish, but I woke up this morning only feeling tired. I can deal with tired, although it's never fun.

Most of my public relations career revolved, in some way, around the world's largest information security conference. When I first started out as an Account Coordinator, the agency I worked at threw a party that was pretty well known in the community and all of us had to be on hand to work it (which in a lot of cases meant, much to my chagrin, flirting with nerdy older men). Then I had security clients that were attending the Conference and so I'd have to prep for weeks in advance to make sure they were prepared for their announcements and interviews with the press. The last few years I spent in the agency world, I was the account manager for the team that actually did the PR for the Conference. I went from weeks of prep to months of prep, and my life was consumed with everything Conference-related. The week of the Conference was insane - we'd get to Moscone before the attendees, and stay past when everyone had left for the parties. The last time I was there in an official capacity I met Michael Chertoff and introduced him to a couple of reporters before his speaking session. It was exhausting, and oftentimes frustrating, but looking back it was always a great bonding experience with my colleagues. I mention this because this week is the Conference and this is the first time in nine years that I have absolutely nothing to do with the event. My Twitter feed is filled with updates about it and I'm feeling kind of nostalgic about it. Given that I now work for a security company, I probably could have gone, but there was really no point, especially since my boss canceled his trip there himself. I don't miss the stress and drama associated with being the PR team for the Conference, but I do miss a lot of the stuff that goes into making it through the week.

I think Dakota is getting old. Well, I know she's getting old (she's going to be 13 this year), but she's finally starting to act like an old cat. She sleeps all day (next to me in my office, of course), and doesn't play as much as she used to. Oh, she still loves to play, but her games have become a bit different. She used to have mad jumping skills. Now she just likes to chase things or be chased. We can get her to jump every so often, which tells me there's still a spry young girl in her somewhere, but a lot of times she just looks at me like, "you're kidding with that, right?"

I didn't watch the Oscars last night. The only movie I'd seen that was remotely nominated with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Based on nothing more than Rooney Mara's performance as Lisbeth Salander I thought she should have won the Oscar. Alas, it went to Meryl Streep. Of course. I looked at the pictures last night and so far no one's gown blew me away. I haven't seen a pic of Nicole Kidman or Kate Winslet who I can usually count on to dress stunningly, so maybe they were duds too? Jennifer Lopez, who I wholeheartedly agree is worth of the title of Most Beautiful Woman Alive, looked terrible. Cheap. Predictable. So sad. Cameron Diaz looked old and hard. What happened between The Holiday and now? Must be all those terrible men she's sleeping with - I'm looking at you P. Diddy.

It's time for The Homies again. Of course it's the usual people. Some I read, others I don't. I looked at the list of all the nominations this year hoping to find some new additions to my Google Reader since I did away with several a couple of weeks back. Apparently as a community we have no problem giving awards to people that don't produce original content. As a community we apparently love curators. Rather than looking at House Beautiful or Elle Decor ourselves, we'd rather just honor those blogs that take those pictures and re-post them. Over and over again. I don't want you to think I'm bitter that no one loves casacaudill. I'm not. I don't write this blog to get thousands of readers or to compete with the likes of Young House Love or The Lettered Cottage. Truly, I mean this. But as someone that actually WRITES for a living, and someone that has counseled people for years about how to create quality content for blogs and other social mediums, it's a bit offensive to me that people that don't actually create anything are being singled out as examples of quality (caveat: please don't let the quality - or lack thereof of my writing on this blog be any indication of my real world skillz - I don't do any editing here. At all. I'm sure some of you guessed as much.) That's not to say that I disliked every blog that was on the nomination list. Like I said, I read some of them happily quite regularly. I've "known" Stefanie from Brooklyn Limestone for years (we were on the same wedding planning message board together way back in the day). I love the remodeling and furniture making at chezerbey. Nicole from Making it Lovely is a darling. I guess, though, if I'm going to spend my time reading a blog, I want there to be something substantial. I want more than pretty pictures and I'm tired of curators being lauded as thought leaders. That's all, I guess.

Okay, that's a lot of random thoughts. And still no pictures of the progress going on in our living room and dining room. I promise. Soon (that is, depending on your definition of the word).