La Rentrée

"Here in France, early September is known as la rentrée, and it’s a Big Deal. It’s when everything picks up again after the two month break that is summer holiday season – and as the French like to holiday en masse in July and August, it makes it well nigh impossible to get anything done until September. So now we’re all getting back to work, the children are going back to school with smart hair cuts, shiny shoes and new satchels..." --The Languedoc Review

La rentrée is not just for the French. La rentrée right here in NYC kicked my butt this fall. I have spent the last two months in back-to-school mode, all the way through midterms and one of the busiest seasons at work. I have no energy to blog or read or think or do anything besides sit on my couch and lazily flip through magazines on my days off from work when I found myself without a school project/paper/reading assignment to do.

And now that it's almost Thanksgiving, which leads to the holiday slide into my birthday, Christmas, and New Year's Eve, before January (another heinously busy time in the publishing world), I think it's about time I re-enter the blogosphere.

Because I freaking love the holidays. And I need to share these things with others.

My parents will be arriving at my teensy-tiny NYC apartment in about 20 minutes, and everything is sparkling clean, the fridge is packed, and the world's naughtiest kitties are currently taking a nap. It's just me and my parents for Thanksgiving this year, but I am so excited! It should be terribly relaxing for once, since I've left our schedules pretty wide open for food, shopping, and napping this weekend.

[the packed fridge - note, most importantly, packed with wine, cheese, turkey, and Snickers icebox pie from Magnolia]

I'm more than ready for a little holiday cheer. Operation Thanksgiving Dinner in the World's Smallest Kitchen 2.0 is a go!

[Hammie can't figure out what these lights are for]

Merrily, merrily.

Happy 4th of July! Bottoms up!

Merry Christmas...

Merry Christmas from the world's naughtiest kittens. Have a blessed and safe holiday everyone!

Countdown to birthday/Christmas/New Year's/freedom.

Being a young professional apparently means being overscheduled.

There's A LOT going on this week: It's the start of finals week of my 3rd semester of grad school, my 23rd birthday is Wednesday, my 3 besties from college are coming Friday morning from Maryland, California, and Montreal for My Big Birthday Weekend of Bad Behavior, and it's Sales Conf at work this week.

For you non-publishing folk out there, that means a week of the pub office (my department) presents 75 books to our Sales & Marketing departments... and repeats in 6 meetings spread over the next 4 days. 75 x 6 = A LOT OF BOOKS/A LOT OF TIME SPENT IN MEETINGS. It also means I will be away from my desk for virtually the entire week, getting none of my other work done, and answering zero incoming emails until Thursday at 3 p.m. when it's all over. AND THEN I am responsible for completing a massive meeting minutes packet & change memo for everything that comes out of Sales Conf.

Which means no chance of doing homework at work this week. (Although, I DID find time to blog during lunch...)

On the bright side, though, Friday-Sunday, I'll be laughing/eating/drinking/shopping/playing NYC tourist with my best friends in the entire world, and then next Wednesday night when finals & work are all wrapped up, I'll be heading home to Mpls for Christmas. I'm excited beyond words for the weekend; I just have to figure out how to survive this week first!

What's better is that every single one of my friends working full-time while in grad school is experiencing the exact same thing right now. It's nice to know I'm not the only one with a crazy schedule... and somehow, we'll all get through it.