So that phrase popped into my head; I wondered about the origin and looked it up. Thus far, I can’t find anything about the origin of the goat version, but the ghost version is documented. Have people just twisted it in a centuries-long game of “telephone” - much like “part and parcel” sometimes becomes “part and partial”?

I’m not feeling like looking into that right now.

Today is my first day off from work in ten days. It feels nice. I couldn’t sleep late because my internal clock is apparently set on work time whether I like or not, and even if I go to sleep at 3 a.m. (which I did). I was still up at 7 and that’s just silly. I’ve done a fair bit of work, though.

Last night, I helped my friend pack up his apartment. I got a little loopy off of the marker fumes when writing on boxes and this resulted in some entertaining cartoon illustrations/writing to indicate what was inside certain boxes. One box, for no sensible reason, now features an illustration of a headstone with the words, “Here Lies Joe” set in tall grass. The box that ended with a Ladytron CD has a cartoon of a busty pin-up girl gesturing to the word “Ladytron”, Vanna White-style.

Back on the home front, winter sheets are going on the bed and the winter comforter is in the duvet cover. It’s been flippin’ cold lately. The bathroom tiles have been sprayed with stinky bleachy stuff so now I just have to wait a few minutes and start scrubbing away at the ick. Laundry is being laundered. Boxes are ready to be dropped off at Goodwill later today. Productivity. Productivity.

But it also means I’m spending time alone with the stuff in my head. My brain wandered off to some strange semiotic plane where I was momentarily struck by the realization (and I’ve been struck by this same realization before, so it’s nothing earth-shattering) that words (words, that I love, that I use all the time… that are my favorite thing) are nothing - they’re just symbolic representations of our thoughts and feelings and merely representative of everything we see around us… until we imbue them with meaning. This isn’t the crazy part for me; the implications can make a person feel totally adrift and alone in this world when we realize that even when we’re talking to someone we feel we are deeply connected with—someone for whom we don’t need to parse out every shade of meaning and nuance—we aren’t seeing or hearing or feeling the same thing. We’re just not. We can’t.

Extrapolate that a little further and here’s something else that makes me feel empty and adrift: in the end, no one is really listening because no one can understand.

I should get back to cleaning; distractions are good.

Thought the first:

Cauliflower is the tripe of the vegetable family. In many ways.

Thought the second:

I am torn between spending $335 to get an incredible deal on a really good lens for my camera and $180 on a pair of tall boots for the fall. Which person am I? The one who’ll invest in something personal, creative and that will provide a sense of accomplishment and pride… or the one who will spend it on fashionable footwear that will generally only affect other people’s perception of me as a trendy/not trendy individual?

(Pssst. The secret is that I’d like to have both. If I were a rich girl…)

Also, I’m home. Yay, New Jersey. My flight was almost an hour early, thanks to an 80-100 mph tail wind. And the plane was practically empty - also nice. I had my nice window seat with no one next to me and no one kicking the seat behind me or leaning back in the seat in front of me. Heavenly.

I am tired. Physically and mentally. I have to go to work tomorrow and am debating driving in so I can give myself an extra hour of sleep… or just leaving on the early train since I don’t know how many hours of legitimate productivity I’ll be able to handle. Sigh.

The best thing about this week will be a four-day weekend. I shall be taking my compensatory days on Thursday and Friday. Delicious. There’s plenty to do, but at least I’ll be doing what I WANT to do.

Crap. I don’t think I have any clean “work” clothes for tomorrow. Hrm. If I can locate a skirt and tights, I’ll be all set for the 49 degree rainy weather tomorrow. I need some tall boots, yes I do.

There is light rain here. I am glad.

Oh. Did I mention I saw Marie Osmond at Quilt Market yesterday? The scene was thus:

I’m chatting with someone interested in the book. Then there’s a group of about six people walking down the aisle, orbiting around teeny-tiny woman with dark hair flowing in big ringlets over her shoulders and down her back. The person with whom I was speaking said, “That’s her, isn’t it? Marie Osmond? She looks great - and I think she’s, like, 60 years old.” I watched as Marie and her (handlers? entourage) peeps passed by… and walking about five steps behind her was a woman carrying a pillow, much in the fashion of a ring-bearer at a wedding.

Except that the pillow (and the person carrying it, by extension) was there to transport one of Marie Osmond’s dolls - just a few steps behind her at all times, apparently. It wasn’t this exact doll, but it had the same expression. Yes, indeed. I’m a little frightened of these kinds of dolls. I don’t have any weirdness associated with clowns, heights, velvet, condiments - and I’m not actually terrified by china dolls. I just find their vacant expressions mildly disturbing.

So that’s my story there. I also bought some cool fun things. Melissa Averinos of Yummy Goods led me to a booth where they take antique and vintage “things” (china, lace, crazy quilts) and transform them into interesting jewelry and whatnot. I got these pendants:

It’s an old typewriter “tab” key, and then an antique china (I think) letter “E”. It’s about 1″ square in real life. I don’t have enough silver chains for them both, so I might have to invest in some pretty ribbon… or more silver chains.

I love the colors of these beads. The light doesn’t quite do them justice and I might photograph them again later… or make some jewelry with them and then photograph them. The sky’s the limit.

I hope to get some good photos in next week or two so that I can update the blog header. It’s time.

1) It’s a little bit sad how all cities have the same flavor nowadays. In the few days I’ve been here, I really haven’t experienced anything Texan. There’s a Benihana down the street, a Starbucks everywhere… though the “real Texas” beef jerky I bought at the convention center is quite tasty.

2) In tooling around with my camera, trying to find pictures of interesting things, I also noticed that there is absolutely nothing esthetically redeeming about a hotel room. I’m staying at a Hyatt Regency in downtown Houston; looking around the room, there isn’t a single element or detail that would be interesting, even in a macro shot. It’s just… boring. The “atrium” of the hotel is kind of cool, simply because of the scale, which is somewhat lost here:

I’m on the 19th floor… and the clear glass elevators are sort of nauseatingly awesome and look out over the interior of the atrium OR the outside of the building/rest of Houston.  Funfunfun.

So, I’ve spent the last two days in Houston, Texas, attending Quilt Market 2008. It’s a work trip, and I didn’t know quite what to expect beforehand. I guess I sort of expected a lot more of the “traditional” quilting audience… and I’ve been pleasantly surprised to see something quite different and meet people who are just cool as all get-out.

Now, here’s the full disclosure part. I don’t normally write about work stuff on here because, well, I don’t want to be “a publishing marketer who blogs.” I’ve been keeping up with this for much longer than I’ve been working where I work, so it seems like this should be “me” and not the work version of me. If that makes sense at all. It might not. I’m quite tired.

The point is that I’ve been attending in my capacity as the marketing manager for a book published by Wiley: Seams to Me by Anna Maria Horner. You can buy it pretty much everywhere online (and get autographed copies from Anna via her online store) and you should read her blog (and not because I do… she’s got a great writing style and a fantastic eye, so every image is just a pleasure to behold. Maybe even something to aspire to?).

So - over the last few days, I’ve been hanging at Anna’s booth, interacting with buyers and wholesalers and distributors and just fans of Anna, helping her out with answering questions about the book while she signed copies and talked with her legions of admirers (seriously.) I also got to meet some of her colleagues/friends - other incredibly creative designers who are also well-known in the industry and just super cool peeps to boot.

For example, Heather Bailey of “Hello My Name is Heather” blog fame (and many many other things including fabric designs, patterns and patented hair ties which I will be ordering shortly). She’s lovely and fantastic and so nice. We sat next to each other at dinner last night and sang They Might Be Giants lyrics together. Good times.

I also had time to chat with Melissa Averinos of Yummy Goods blog fame. She’s fantastically funky and seems to have the charming touch of the wacky that I sometimes feel I have. Sometimes. She’s got a store, a new line of fabric called Sugar Snap (I need to order some and learn to sew, truly), as well as some cool finished goods (cuff bracelets I’m going to try and score tomorrow), as well as an incredible sense of taste. She runs a shop (also called Yummy Goods, I think) on Cape Cod and was showing me some of the things she found at Quilt Market that she’d be ordering up to sell in her shop. If Cape Cod was closer, I’d totally be shopping there. Yes, indeedy.

And, of course, I’ve been spending the most time with Anna Maria Horner - a human dynamo, really. New line of fabric, new book, mother of five… and a super funny, superbly warm and generous Creative. An aspiring designer stopped by the booth to say, “Hi” and tell her how inspirational she is, and it turned into a bit of a career counseling session complete with portfolio feedback (since the designer had it with her). Also, Anna made me a gorgeous skirt using some of her newest fabric line (NOT YET AVAILABLE IN STORES! I feel all exclusive and on the inside). I’ll photograph it later since it’s wrinkled from having been worn and sat on all day. Here are some photos of her award-winning booth:

More later. Internet connection through the hotel is a little dodgy and uploading photos appears to be an issue. Either that, or the laptop doesn’t like my multi-tab habit. These things happen.

Update: here are more of my pictures from Quilt Market on Flickr.

The view from the 19th floor of my hotel.

Tomorrow afternoon, I’m flying down to Houston. For work. I get back on Monday. This will be ten straight days of work. Apparently, in civilized places like the UK, there are legal limits regarding how many days of work in a row you can actually work. This is not the case stateside. And I guess that’s why we’re working ourselves to death and not taking all the vacation time allotted to us each year, despite the fact that we complain we don’t get as much as the rest of the world. And don’t have any legal right to a vacation either; it’s simply something our employers can deign to give us, if they so desire, but they’re under no obligation whatsoever to do so. But I digress. I have a good amount of vacation time from my company, so that’s not my complaint.

Anyway - Houston. Weekend. Yes. This is a bit of an adjustment as I’ve been wearing my wool and angora coat up here… and loving how it’s 38 degrees (F) in the morning. It wakes me right up. It’s going to be 83 degrees in Houston on Saturday. Taking that into account, packing is confusing the crap out of me. My brain doesn’t accept that as real.

So there’s that, and I don’t fly much domestically. And that’s a bit more of a pain in the ass than flying internationally, IMHO.

Internationally? Of COURSE I’m checking my bag. I don’t need to worry about the 3-ounce rule or what-have-you. It’s going to be checked. Bishpleez! But with this short term domestic flight, I don’t want to go through the nonsense of waiting for my checked bag to roll out. Nope. Carry-on only. Yes. And that brings all those insane TSA limitations. So, I’d better clip my nails tonight so there’s no need to bring a nail clipper. No Leatherman on my keychain. Perfume? I can douse some cotton balls in my perfume and put them in a plastic bag in my suitcase. It’s something. Can I do without makeup? Probably not. So there’s a Ziploc bag for me. Grrrrr.

But I’m bringing my camera. I’ll take some photos. Some will be interesting due to the nature of the event I’m attending; some will be mind-numbingly boring because, well, I don’t think anything in Houston other than restaurants will be open when I am finished with my work day each day. I’m checking that out on the internets, but I also might be too tired to do much else.

We shall see. Right now, I’m tired. So tired. And waiting for my clothes to dry so I can pack.

“It” being stuck in dead-stopped traffic because of late-night road work on the one highway that can get me from work back home — after a 14-hour workday. Yes, the last 3-4 hours of that were business dinner, but still. Work.

Business dinner is not the same as sitting at home, in pajama pants and the same t-shirt I’ve slept in for the last four nights (comfy, not filthy), listening to my “sleep” playlist on iTunes. Now that’s comfort.

And I suppose I should update my Facebook status to something new. I have no idea what’s going on in the world today as I’ve been in meetings all day, so a trip to Google Reader and the NYTimes homepage is in order.

… but when I find Anger rearin’ its head, nothing makes me feel better than a combination of two or more of the following:

1) going running
2) watching an action/violence flick (in this case, Starship Troopers)
3) eating a bit of good chocolate
4) venting to a friend

Thankfully, tonight I was in the position to do ALL of them. And I have to say that I feel a bit better-prepared to sleep tonight. Not happy, but OK for slumber. And after I finish watching Johnny Rico and the gang shoot up some Bugs, I should be golden.

If you missed the whole “Putin rears his head” thing, check it out here (you’ll just have to wait to get past the Salon.com advertising screen… I apologize for my poor choice of link).

Back to a bit of the old ultra-violence for me (and that’s one movie I don’t have on DVD. I’ll need to rectify that sooner rather than later.)