In an attempt to get both stoked about my return to Salt Lake City and the holiday season I decided to throw a holiday bash at my newly feng sui-ed ole apartment. I aptly named the gathering “decorate your own damn cookie and make your own f***ing pizza party” to reflect my holiday spirit.

Having lived an insane 12 different places in these past 8 years in Utah – I have never settled into a place long enough to put something up on a wall. Why bother, I thought, I will be out of here in a few months anyway…

The Happy Family

Since I am now going to be working mostly from home I decided to make the place a bit more warm and cozy – although that walls are still bare except for a lonely string of holiday lights. Procrastinating from my major life duties has been good for all those other more often neglected areas of my life (i.e. trips to IKEA, finally cancelled checking account that I haven’t used in 2 years, painted toenails, made 100 plus cut-out cookies).

Yummy Pizza Creations

It has been a bit crazy easing back into big city life. The traffic, the noise, and the notorious winter smog was enough to completely stifle all the stoke that blossomed in that cute little mellow Colorado mountain town. Since returning to Salt Lake, I have been well, basically – SAD.

Everyone keeps asking me what I am going to do now that I am back and for some reason it is really difficult to tell people that I am suddenly a writer. Maybe I don’t believe it myself. I’ve started looking for jobs…

I look back at my notes from those months of stoke and wonder how I can revive some of that spirit.  I look over the life list I made a month ago and choose a few things to start shooting for.  I think I really need to get back down to the desert or start making some serious plans for the spring. Oh stoke, how I need you.

Ingenious Thinking After Running out of Mixers

So I started small, I rearranged my house to carve out some workspace, bought a desk and a bookshelf, made a shit ton of cut-out cookies, strung some lights, bought a huge bottle of vodka, and invited over nearly everyone I knew.

Not one to throw a party, this impromptu bash was a hit.

Cookie sprinkles were tossed every which way, drinks were spilled, dogs passed out on my bed, holiday songs were sang with drunken fervor, and new drinks were invented as fresh juice was squeezed out of my garlic press.

Happy Holidays to y’all!

And a stoke filled New Year too!