IT'S ALL ABOUT ME ME ME

It's actually not about me. It's about you. Well, and it's a tiny bit about me. I edited the "About" section on the navigation above and to save you the click, I pasted it below:

You know how sometimes you look around and you wonder how certain people look as if they are so perfectly put together? How they are a picture of perfect health in their perfectly neat jogging suits at some morning hour that you haven't seen since you pulled an all-nighter in college? Those people that always have a hot meal waiting for their family, even after working all day at their six-figure job? Do you have the urge to clobber those people over the head with the laundry basket of dirty socks you don't have time to wash?

I'm just as curious as you are about those people. Are they faking it? Are they prisoners of Martha Stewart? Are they alien lifeforms placed on this planet to make you feel bad about yourself? Let's stop wondering and see if we can't crack their secrets.

No More Wire Hangers: A Stress-free Guide to Living Swell

By pairing fun stories with ideas for improving your life and inspirational ways to achieve your goals, No More Wire Hangers is a new blog that will explore the categories of Home, Relationships, Work and more.

Expected to launch in the first quarter of 2010, I'm thrilled to bring you ways to live easier and happier. From simple big-batch recipes to decluttering, enjoying your loved ones and securing your finances, we'll explore the means for keeping it all together. Maybe some day, we'll become those people that we love to hate ... or at least we'll feel a sense of satisfaction because things are looking up.

I'm excited to learn along with you in this journey towards living a good life.

I'm currently completing revisions on my debut novel about the quirky and desperate love life of a New York City urban rooftop beekeeper, tentatively titled "Don't Get Stung." Kelly and her friends Ginger and Terry all come from unique perspectives and dole out advice in an attempt to help each other along. You'll cringe along with Kelly as she makes every mistake a younger you has already committed. It's like watching a horror movie and yelling at the screen "Don't open that door!" as Kelly fumbles and ultimately learns her way towards her final epiphany. Agent inquiries welcome.

To contact me, click the "Email me" link at the top right.

Coffee Coffee Coffee!

I'd been off the caffeine for about a month in favor of tea in the morning. It was my hope that if I were less caffeinated and thus got more restful sleep at night, then I would just naturally have more energy during the day to work out and go about my business. Right.

Sleep is greatly overrated. The best, most refreshing sleep can't come close to giving me what a cup of coffee delivers. I've been seriously dragging. The mental acrobatics that I've had to put myself through to work out a measly three days a week have been ridiculous. The subsequent energy drain I suffer following a good hard workout with minimal caffeine has been practically destructive. I haven't been able to sit down at night after a hard day at work and do any writing, and I am seriously getting antsy to get the novel finished once and for all.

This morning I gave in to my darkest roast desires and went nuts with the coffee pot. And I was rewarded accordingly. I was able to do my workout without feeling as if I needed to lay down and die afterwards. I feel alert and energetic and like I could accomplish everything I need to accomplish today without a crash and burn.

Ah coffee, how I love thee.

Happy (belated) Creepy & Weird Halloween

Heather and I decided to make a small statement on Halloween: that these days, you could craft the same costume, only difference being the lettering on the sash and pass for a little girl "birthday princess" or an adult "bachelorette" with matching tiaras, stickers on our faces and candy necklaces. I guess this means that sometimes adult women dress like kids to be sexy and kids dress like adult women to be sexy. Creepy and weird.

I Am NOT a Wiener Butt Poopy Head! (I think)

I think I have a semi-organized way of managing my jumbled mess of ideas now, which is a relief.

I’ve always been a creative person, but creative doesn’t translate into productive for me unless I have a way to get organized. Hence the charts, the lists, the calendaring and the planning. I don’t get much done outside of these kinds of constraints.

To attempt summing up the scope of the new blog I’m thinking about - in a nutshell – it’s easier living for perfectionists. Everybody’s got a little perfectionist in them, even if they aren’t bat-shit insane like yours truly.

And it’s sort of TBD whether I’ll keep the new incarnation at katiemorton.com or launch a new domain, but I’m thinking I’ll probably keep it here.

I’ve created a chart of categories and blog post ideas for the new blog, and so I’m wondering if there are any posts you’d like to see.

So along with the charts and the lists, there will be advice articles that will include the categories of:

• work
• relationships
• home
• health
• leisure
• money
• mind – mind meaning goals, stress relief, motivation, confidence, happiness, etc. You know, brain things and thought-patterns as opposed to actually doing stuff. Maybe “mind” needs a title that actually makes sense. Ideas?

Funny aside about one of the categories' being Leisure. For perfectionists. Uh wha? I don’t know what leisure means. I feel guilty for taking up a TV-watching habit like a normal person. So I think I’m going to have to research really hard for that category, like, “Perfectionists of the world: have you heard of this concept called ‘leisure’? There is a world of pleasure and satisfaction that awaits you!” Except I don’t yet know what that world is. I’m looking forward to finding out.

So now that we know this and have a basis figured out so that maybe I can sleep at night and complete the novel in the meantime ... and considering that I’m taking a month or two for planning and further gathering my thoughts before I do this new blog thing, are there any topics you’d like to see addressed? What kind of advice or resources do you want? Do you like this idea, or do you think there’s a better idea I should go after?

All thoughts and opinions appreciated, even thoughts of the, “You are a weiner-butt-poopie-head” variety.

Too. Many. Ideas! GAH!

I am full of ideas these days, but there’s so much going on in my head that it’s a challenge to choose any one thing to execute on at any given moment. And so I came up with a schedule that’s a crazy regimen of early rising, followed by exercise and then every minute of the day until bedtime is planned out.

Today is day one that I could have conceivably followed this color-coded timetable since I only created it yesterday (Husband, if you are reading this, yes I know I’m weird) and I am no where near on plan. I haven’t even looked at it this morning, truth be told, because I’ve been working. So maybe actually I am on plan, minus early rising, getting exercise and eating breakfast, because I’m not feeling terribly stellar today.

To give an idea of the plan, aside from the exercise and of course full work day, is to keep my evening schedule on track so that I may keep our home neat and tidy, complete my novel revisions and get to bed on time.

And I also have another blog idea. I’m not ditching this one, but I am considering the possibility for starting a new one. It may be aimed at other weirdos like me who would appreciate a color coded daily schedule, or maybe it could also be aimed at people who would feel better about themselves by knowing that there are other people out there who would use such a device.