Our trees are trimmed! Both the big one and the smaller one that is devoted to my Beloved's collection of Star Trek ornaments. We've got the mantel decked and LED candles in the windows. The house looks lovely. But the really fun part was decorating together, fortified with thick hot chocolate with all the trimmings and the concept album version of…

Today, my One Good Thing is having to get rid of this lovely holiday manicure.  Sounds strange, I know - but hear me out.  For quite a while, I've dealt with a chronic condition that affects my breathing. When I ignore it long enough, it really becomes a problem and exercise gets harder as I don't have enough "wind" to really exert myself.

Today, I got to do one of my favoritest things ever - lead a watercolor class! Mind you, when I started painting, I literally NEVER THOUGHT I'd ever be "good enough" to do that. It still blows my mind into outer space sometimes. But so much of anything is repetition. I've worked at learning watercolor painting for nearly seven years. That's more than 2,500 days.

Some decorating is getting done. I stayed a few extra minutes at work to put holiday window clings on my office door - they've lasted for a few years and are probably done after this year, but I have to admit that I like the pop of color and cheer they bring. I also wore a festive sweater today - it's not actually vintage, although the style is.

I am happy to report that I am no longer a "probationary" employee! Yep, six months in and we've decided to keep each other. As a means of celebrating both that new beginning and reaching milestones on some big, complex projects, three of us decided to go out to lunch together and we hit a Gaffney institution - Logan Street Hot Dogs, better known as…

Holiday decorations! I love decorations in my own home that are slightly over the top; maybe just a touch gaudy. (Exhibit A - my Beloved will have a small tree devoted solely to the Star Trek ornaments we've collected throughout our marriage and I'll soon be considering one exclusively for the sloth-themed baubles.) And Monday night, following pizza and Plur1bus…

Divas, as the holiday season gears up, please make sure you're taking time to tend to your own garden. It's far too easy to get so caught up in making the holidays fantastic for everyone around you that you ignore your own needs for calm and quiet in which to ponder the deep joy and mystery of the season. This weekend, I made some conscious decisions to carve out time for myself, time with friends, and time with my Beloved.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving and it was wonderful. I had that most precious of commodities - time. I made mashed potatoes for a platoon of kin and learned a new-to-me trick, which was to warm the milk on the stove, melt the butter into it, THEN add it to the boiled potatoes. Keeps everything warm and increased the overall creaminess. I also had time to go beyond the surface and actually talk to relatives in three generations.

Divas, between several large work projects and the upcoming holidays (which tend to be both wonderful and stressful), I was in need of more than a single Good Thing, so I put a fence around this weekend. The timing was good, since my Beloved had a long work day on Saturday. While I made time for a long walk in the sunshine, most of the time was spent at home just puttering.

As I drove into the parking lot at work today, I saw a crew prepping the big holiday decorations to install downtown. By the time I came out for a lunchtime walk, the huge tree was up. Combine that with the Grinch-themed windows in all the downtown shops and I felt downright festive. And - don't you just love the homage to the Peachoid?

The weather is strangely nice for a few days, so I've been trying to get outside a bit. So I went to a short, paved trail in uptown where you  can walk and think without worrying about tree roots.  Part of the Carolina Harmony Trail runs alongside the new Shelby Dog Park, and further down, it runs alongside part of…

Divas, I love movies. (And television, but this is about movies.) I love movies so much that I used to have an entire blog devoted to movies, I've taught classes about film, and I even hosted a local show devoted to movies. I don't write much about movies these days, preferring to just keep my thoughts to myself (as I do on a number of other issues, as well).

An amazing day, with excellent conference presentations and fellowship. I met my incredible god-daughter for lunch (she's in this city completing her final year of grad school), followed by ice cream, then I got to see her apartment. (The picture at the top of this post is from the ice cream shop - it seemed very Diva-like.) The apartment is charming and cozy and she and her fiancé have decorated for the holidays. When I got back to the hotel, I took a stroll in the warm sunshine on the River Walk. Just a great day.

It took a lot of driving through a lot of North Carolina, but I'm down at Wrightsville Beach for a fantastic weekend conference! I always come home from this one energized and excited about new techniques I've learned. Lawyers deal with high levels of stress on a near-constant basis and, as a profession, we don't always handle it in good, constructive ways.

This week has had many Good Things and I nearly let life get in the way of Life. So before that happens, let me recount a few good things: Getting to my swordfighting class a few minutes early and seeing my instructor dancing with her partner. Turns out that she's not only lethal with a longsword, she's a competitive swing dancer.

I am now three weeks into my four-week "intro to swordfighting" class. I'm enjoying it an immense amount, although the traffic-clogged drive makes it unlikely that I continue beyond this course. So why am I driving an hour each way on my Sunday to sweat while swinging around a two-handed longsword that could cut a pig in half with one swipe?

Between my Beloved going to his annual work conference and being short-handed at work, it was a crazy week of intense work, followed by an extra shift at home. I usually plan all sorts of things for that week - I'll finish the last season of Hacks and watch Sandman and paint fall things, and decorate the house with harvest/Halloween things and make healthy vegetarian meals and exercise every night!

Always remember that joy is armor. There are, sad to say, people in the world who view open and obvious female joy as unseemly. They will look disapprovingly at you when you are what they view as "too much." Smile brightly at them and go your own way. Yesterday, on the spur of the moment, I joined a few friends and went to the Official Release Party for Taylor Swift's newest album, …

Oh, Divas, I just love October! And today was a great start - after several days of gloomy, wet, overcast days, we had that gorgeous bright blue October sky with just a touch of nip in the morning air. I'll start getting the fall decorations out, but for today, I settled for my cozy "sloth witch" blanket. The other Good Thing for today was taking the plunge and registering for a series of four introductory swordfighting lessons.

A year ago, Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina, causing widespread destruction and devastation on a level you don't want to see, much less experience. A year later, there is still a lot of work to do - this was a life-changing event for the small towns and rural areas of this region and the scars still are visible…

Yesterday, I officiated a wedding. I've done a few of those over the years - sometimes, for all sorts of reasons, people don't want a traditional church-type wedding. I enjoy working with couples to help them craft a meaningful ceremony that allows them to express their devotion and commitment to each other and it's always an honor to serve in that way.

The other day, I kept a promise to myself and went to the opening of an art exhibit hosted by the Cherokee County Alliance of Visual Arts ("CAVA") at the Visitors Center in Gaffney after my workday ended. This was a different sort of exhibit for me, as it featured tattoos as art. In the years since I became a woman of a certain age, tattoos have certainly entered the mainstream - I often used tattoos as an example of nonverbal communication in my teaching days.

Sometimes, things just come together in totally unexpected, yet joyful, ways. For instance, I have a very good friend named Joyce. For fifteen years - quite possibly longer - she has worked in journalism. Oh, the stories she's told me - and I've been involved in at least one of them. (That one involved meeting her for a brisk walk around the town square and ended with her running towards a young woman walking a zebra through uptown, determined to "get the scoop." Cross my heart, it happened.

I finally decided it was time - we have a house full of beautiful and loving (in their own way) cats, and I don’t plan on getting a dog anytime soon. I’ve had tremendously good dogs, but when Chance passed . . . well. So I priced the large kennel run, insulated doghouse, and collapsible crate and put them up for sale.