It's fall... and things change

It has been a while since I posted - indeed, since I have picked up a piece of tile in a creative manner.

I did rock out of my lethargy long enough to enter a piece into the SAMA 'Beneath the surface' conference... more on that later.

Hurricane season - soon to be over - does that to me. So does attrition of people at work. So far, we are down two editors and one reporter and coming up - the paginator. However, we are getting a replacement editor next week.... everything else is in the works.

Big changes throw off the creative drive temporarily... I know, I quit smoking in August and it's been eight weeks [I think].

I lit the last cigarette the day before the first editor quit. Held my ground when the second one quit, and the reporter is gone as of this week. While I really like him, his leaving doesn't affect me as directly as the loss of the editors.

When you quit an addiction such as smoking, medical things that hadn't shown up before raise their heads... I had a full battery blood test run and I am [thankfully] healthy and within range on all the tests. My EKG was fine. The small snag I do have is a lite case of high blood pressure, more related to not having a replacement for the smoking - I quit cold.

So when I would stress out, walk out and lite up - I don't have a support for that. I will walk out and wander around outside, which doesn't quite make it. But, I haven't given over to eating either. I am still within 8 pounds of where I was when I quit.

I have picked up a small addiction to replace the smoking - it's called iced mocha latte and I need to go make one NOW.