You’ve been good enough to respond to my emails giving me career advice which I’ve, mostly, taken. Thanks for that. You and Seth Godin are great at responding to emails. That’s cool.

But your personal life is a mess. And you suck at relationships with men. I wish you’d let me help. I think I could really straighten you out and get you on the path to success with a great guy. I have a pretty good track record of this myself. In fact, I’ve always wanted to write a book on it. Maybe I will.

At any rate, the first thing we would tackle is your nagging insecurity. And then your overly-critical nature. This is not me being mean, this is me being honest and having both of those traits myself. And then we’d have a whole long session discussing the way men think which is very very different than how you seem to perceive it.

I see a lot of potential for you. But more than anything, I wanna spread the love.

Either way, rock on with your bad self. As for me, I’ve gotta jet to a job interview.

Sincerely,

Priscilla

2. LOST blew my mind last night. We had so much fun watching it with neighbors and their dogs. It’s so easy to forget in the time off without LOST just how much we look forward to that one hour of television. This is how we get our jollies.

3. I wish Facebook was not about being friends with people that you want to snoop on and people you’d like to think are really your friends. I wish it could be about true social connections. I get that about 50% of the time.

4. I hooked up my Twitter status to my Facebook status and now I don’t tweet as much.

5. I’m back to listening to a lot of Bob Schneider. It ebbs and flows but I’m really in the mood right now.

6. I think it’s great that we have an African-American president. Even though I didn’t vote for him. It’s been lots of fun to see all of the coverage and feel the excitement in America. I hope it continues.

7. There’s another goldendoodle in the neighborhood and Berlin tried to kiss her on every inch of her body when they met yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her so happy. Except when I snuck her some pepperoni last night.

8. I bought a pound of Peets coffee yesterday to try. I’m going to see if I can find a coffee that I like better than Starbucks.

9. If you’re the praying type, please send up some prayers for Matt’s family. He lost his grandmother this week. She was an amazing woman with the most beautiful, thick, half-NY/half-NJ accent. Once she whispered in my ear that she thought Matt had married really well, which was one of the best compliments I’ve ever received. We’re headed down to NJ this weekend to celebrate her wonderful life.

10. That’s it. No number ten. See ya.

It’s the kind of day where I’m overwhelmed with a million things to say, but am having a really hard time prioritizing them in my mind. So I know this will all come out very stream-of-consciousness, which I guess is ok. It is, after all, a blog. Perhaps a numbered list will make it work.

1. I’m having a hard time drinking anything other than Argentine malbecs when presented with adult beverage choices. Chatting with people who have also visisted Argentina makes the whole trip come flooding back and makes me want to move there. That will have to come after Nashville though.
2. Matt is open to moving to Nashville if recording takes me there. Initially I believed it was purely driven by his love and belief in me. After more thought I think it’s because he has visions of uprights dancing in his head.
3. I spent many hours this weekend blowing the dust off the section of my brain that used to think only in microphones and patch cables. I’m too scared to say out loud the excitement I’m feeling because I’m afraid that will jinx it.
4. Less is SO more. Living simply will always outweigh living otherwise. (My parents, who have been without power since Thursday, would beg to argue otherwise. I can completely understand.)
5. I am officially a dog walker starting on Thursday. For like, my favorite dog EVER, aside from Berlin.
6. My challenge this week is to not judge so much why people make the choices they make. Because there is always much more that goes on behind the scenes that you have no idea about.
7. I now keep the TV on mute all day long. I use it as a clock to determine where my time has gone. Does anyone know why soap operas are called soap operas? It took me three days of “All My Children” to do my Christmas cards.
8. People get really into vampire movies. I don’t understand the attraction. Can anyone fill me in?
9. LOST starts back up again in one short month.
10. Several women in our town were stabbed last week while walking home in the dark. My heart goes out to their families. And that’s the reason I’m heading home now… before it gets too dark.

Hello? Are you alive? Cause I am. Despite my radio silence.

Thanks to you, my great friends, who have filled my inbox with inquisitive emails, and my voicemail with loving messages (and in Ron’s case, hateful messages) over the past two months.

There’s no way to go about it but to tell the honest-to-gosh truth. And the truth is this: I went on vacation with my husband to Argentina for a week and a half. We had the time of our lives. I will post pictures to show you what a great time it was. Other than that, I had a miserable fall. My priorities were all out of whack, and the only way I could lift my spirits and/or feel any sort of goodness about myself was to consistently write large checks to non-profits to coerce my conscience into behaving. I’m sure the children in Burkino Faso were thrilled, but I was starting to settle into head space that I hadn’t visited since 2004. And I didn’t want to go there.

So last week I cried a lot. And then I quit my job. And now I am in the process of re-prioritizing my life.

I have successfully put my husband through graduate school, and now he is in the career of his dreams. We can live on his salary, and (plug your ears, feminists in the crowd) it feels really good to welcome him home after he’s worked a long day and know that he put the food on the table. I appreciate him all the more now that I have the time and energy to do so.

And because he loves me more than anyone else has ever loved me, he has challenged me to stop being a coward and start living the life that I dream of. A life where I tangibly touch the lives of people in need, and a life where I pursue things people always teased me about – like spending my days with animals, and winning a Grammy in audio engineering.

The people in my life that I respect think I’m totally insane for walking away from a career in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression. But I have nothing to lose, because my happiness was sold off a long time ago. And frankly, I have everything to gain.

So I’m in the process of figuring out what is the best way to share my talents and my energy with the world in need. I’m tossing around ideas like buying a business where people can come and create for art therapy. Or training seeing-eye dogs. Or recording music where the proceeds go to a terrific cause. Or blogging for charities. Or doing all of the above.

But you can rest assured that I’m bringing Verbal Intent back with a vigor. And I fully intend to be more honest, more real, and more me than ever before.

When did the site design get all screwed up?

From Daily Daguerreotype

Another thing I swiped from my Grandmother one day, this little globe canister make me smile every time I glance at it. It’s gotten quite beat up over the years which, in my mind, adds to the appeal. Not only is this my favorite shade of blue, but I love how it sets off the gold trim – plus the font used is to die for.

Initially we used it solely to store spare change that eventually Matt would take to the grocery store and exchange via Coinstar for iTunes giftcards. This always seemed to please him immeasurably. Lately, however, we’ve also been using it to store the guitar picks which previously were tossed willy nilly on the coffee table, but now are too dangerously close to Berlin’s digestive tract. It is well suited to both purposes.