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10 Important Things I’ve Learned in the First 2 Years of Business

Booze Époque was born of a dream that started at Burning Man in 2011. That it even came to fruition is a testament to my initial ignorance and then, when I was rudely awakened, sheer persistence and every ounce of time, blood, sweat, and tears that I could muster.

Burning Man, 2011.

The first year was amazing and amazingly difficult - the number of permit meetings and lawyer visits outpaced the number of actual events.  Year two has been much kinder and gentler.  We did something right.  Phew.

Below is a list I’ve been meaning to cobble together for awhile, and since today is our second anniversary it seems like there’s no better time than now.  

This list presupposes you already have a pretty solid business plan. Otherwise that would probably be number one. Here goes...

10 Important Things I’ve Learned in the First 2 Years of Business

Porch Fest 2012 - our first event

1. Get a great lawyer and a great accountant (before you do anything else).

This is number one for a reason, without these people your life will be a lot harder.  It was very important for us to run Booze Époque legitimately from the get go. If you are serious about your business you should not cut any legal corners, it will only hurt you in the end.  We had an excellent lawyer, she helped us navigate the stringent permitting issues we ran into, motivated us onward when we felt overwhelmed, and drew up all the necessary paperwork we needed including a partnership agreement and articles of incorporation.  Every penny we spent on legal advice was well worth it and saved us from navigating incredible hurdles we may not have been able to overcome alone.

As for an accountant, this was a failing of ours.  We should have had someone on board from the beginning and we did not.  This meant many extra hours (days and days worth of hours) getting our finances in order when tax time came around.  Keep great records and have a great person on hand who can decipher them.  Otherwise you’re in for a world of pain and suffering.

2. Get everything in writing

Going into business with your best friend? Husband? Sister?  No matter how much you might love these people make sure you get your business agreement in writing!  Having a clear and legal business contract removes ambiguity and allows you to keep your personal and business relationships separate.  I like keeping my friendships friendly.

Also, when dealing with clients have a contract that clearly spells out all expectations and legalities.  Your clients may not read the contract fully initially, but if an issue comes up you can always point them back to clarify any uncertainty.

3. Carve out “self-care” time

Someone once told me that their friend started a business and didn’t take a day off for three years.  Somehow I internalized this and for the first year I worked nearly every second of every day and became a total crazy person.  You can take time off, and anyone who says otherwise is an asshole.  There is no magic rule about how much you have to work.  You need to be comfortable with working a lot, but it does not need to be to the exclusion of all other things.  Pencil in yoga, a night out for drinks, a weekend away, the world will not fall apart if you give yourself a break.  A sane business person is a good business person.  

Basics of Good Self-Care - One of my favorite lists!

  4. Get the right equipment.

We brought a rag tag assortment of equipment to the first few events we worked.  We barely made it through and came out on the other side with three busted juicers and collapsed tables.  It is worth spending real money on one great table rather than cycling through three crappy ones.  I never thought I could love a commercial juicer so much, but it makes all the difference.  Whatever your field make sure you outfit yourself appropriately it will save you time and money in the long run.  

5. People are going to want things for free. Learn when to say yes, and when to say no.

We get so many requests for free or discounted drinks, labor, and recipes. This has only increased as our profile has risen.  Initially when we got these kinds of requests we humored them and worked for very cheap or free.  

Ultimately, we felt resentful because the “good exposure” never translated into actual jobs.  There was often a bait and switch too and suddenly 20 guests became 60.  

We love certain charities, and we love supporting the local community, if a charity that we feel passionately about asks us for a donation we’re happy to give it.  But gone are the days of giving free work to anyone who asks.  

Conversely, if you are a person asking a business for a donation apply to them personally (not form letters!) and make sure the business you are asking is appropriate for your cause.

  6. Distance yourself from destructive, jealous, and angry people. Surround yourself with motivated, positive, fabulous people.

Starting a business is hard enough, you don’t need people dragging you down with their anger and insecurities.  No matter how hard you work there are going to be jealous people who think you don’t deserve success. There will be people who simply want to take advantage of you.  We’ve experienced it all and found the best cure for the haters is to remove them from your sphere. Surround yourself with the many wonderful people who love and support you, their love makes all the background noise go away.  

7. Don’t take on more debt than you have to, and be smart about the debt you take on.

Number 7 is pretty straight forward.  If you need to dip into personal funds and take out loans to get your business started, do it.  If you think your business can grow on $20K invest $20K not $200K.  Be conservative during year one, and year two will make clear what you true expenses are.  Many young businesses fail, do not put yourself in financial ruin if this happens to yours.  Be comfortable with the amount you can and are willing to invest.  Buy necessary but not frivolous business items (i.e. no yacht, yet).

8. Learn from your mistakes

This probably goes for everything in life, but know you are going to make mistakes, hope they’re not huge ones, and learn what you can from them when they happen. Things will not be perfect all the time, learn to be adaptable and roll with it.   

  9. Join professional organizations in your field and go to conferences.

Whether you’re a builder, a mortician, or a bartender there’s a professional organization for you.  I’ve found huge value in being part of USBG and attending events like Tales of the Cocktail and Portland Cocktail Week.  Growing a national network of like-minded colleagues has been such a tremendous boon for me personally.  I always want to be innovating, meeting other talented people keeps me on toes and keeps me interested in upping my own game.  

10. Be excited about what you are doing!

As a small business owner you are going to be spending a lot of time immersed in every aspect of your business.  BE PASSIONATE ABOUT IT! Learn the history, meet the key players, love it like you would love a child. There will be terrible heartbreaking moments, but be able to step back and realize why you’re doing it in the first place.  I’ve had many grumpy days, and days where paperwork overwhelms me, but fundamentally I love my job.  I still get a thrill when I work a new event, it’s my life, art, love, if you don’t feel that way about what you’re doing, don’t do it.

Manhattan Cocktail Classic, May 2014.

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Dear Parents, Don’t Be An Unintentional Bully

Dear Parents, Don’t Be An Unintentional Bully

With the school year upon us (or fast approaching) I’ve been seeing a lot of anti-bullying sentiment popping up on Facebook.  I thought I would throw my hat in the ring with my experience.  

I was not a cute first grader.  Clothes didn’t fit my chubby body in the way they fit the adorable girls in my class.  My hair was short cropped and permed and stuck out in every direction. I spent most of my time reading books or playing make believe with the one friend I had (who did not go to the same school), instead of playing sports.  I was clumsy, and artsy, and precocious, and no one really knew what to do with me.  

I came from the wrong side of town too.  Each elementary school district covered a certain geographic area, my apartment building, one of the only apartment buildings in my upper middle class suburb of capes and colonials, sat on the cusp.  So while most of my classmates lived within blocks of each other in houses, I was on the lonely outskirts in an isolated building with no other children.  

I also came from dreaded full-day kindergarten, the kind for kids whose parents had to work and couldn’t pick them up mid-way through the day.  I was transported from that world into one awash in a sea of stay-at-home mothers and children who had all known each other since Pre-K.

I was immediately a target for my peers. I was teased mercilessly about my hair, my weight, my not-so-nice clothing, my penchant for reading, being “poor”, for getting boobs first, for being taller than everyone else, and every other slightly out of the ordinary characteristic I had (and there were a lot).  

I’m guessing the parents and teachers felt it was “kids being kids”, but I wish someone had intervened or said something so I wouldn’t have spent the first three years of elementary school crying.  However, it’s not the taunts of my classmates that I particularly remember it’s the more insidious rumors, speculation, and outright humiliation inflicted upon me by some of their mothers.  

I’m a pretty well-adjusted and successful adult, largely due to the few supportive people in my early life and an innate sense of resilience that I am lucky to have.  I bring the topic of parental bullying up not because I feel the need for therapeutic purge, but rather to save other kids who might not have the same coping skills and support that I miraculously had.  

My home life was less than ideal, I had an chaotic alcoholic father and a mother who worked constantly to keep up with his gambling debts and other mounting bills.  There was rarely peace in my home and always an undercurrent of anxiety.

I was a strong student and I loved to learn, so school did provide some level of relief and routine. Getting lost in books was one of my favorite past times and I was never shy about answering questions in class.  Despite the constant teasing I did very well in school during the first year and was happy to have a focus for my restless energy.

It wasn’t until the end of my first year in school that the accusations started to fly.  I overheard one mother loudly whisper to her children “She smokes, stay away from her.”   It soon became a wild rumor all around the school that second grade me was a dirty dirty smoker.  I even got sent to the principals office, completely confused, for smoking.  The truth was that my parents were heavy smokers and consequently all of my clothing smelled.  I have no doubt that these women knew enough to put two and two together, but decided to perpetuate the gossip that a 7 year-old-girl was puffing away, because in their eyes physically and socioeconomically I wasn’t a proper companion for their children.

I joined Brownies in second grade, our troop leader was the mother of twins who were some of my greatest tormentors.  She also choose to berate me on any occasion she had.  When all the girls were being loud she would single me out, if we were camping and up late at night I was the one she would punish.  She lead a campaign of misery which ended with my intoxicated father coming in to a Girl Scout meeting and yelling at her and the girls who were harassing me.  Obviously this was mortifying and didn’t help solve the problem, but things had escalated to the point where even my totally checked out father felt the need to intervene.  

There were other instances as well, mothers whispering that I was a slut, as if it wasn’t already difficult enough to have gone through puberty in third grade. They criticized my morals, my weight, my poverty and it all came back to me in playground banter from their children “My mother says you…”  

Why would 20 and 30-something women pick on a child?  I’ve thought about this a lot, because I simply can’t imagine doing it.  I think there were many factors at play for these young mothers. I was an outsider in a very tight knit enclave, I was strange, my family did not fit well into the system of norms that had been established in that community.  Also, frankly, I think they were bored. I could go on and on.   I’m sure people reading would never participate in parental bullying intentionally.  But sometimes things slip, and these seemingly minor transgressions can have an impact far greater than you might imagine.  Don’t make snap judgements about a child’s life and their character.  Be mindful what you say about other children around your own children. If you hear parents facilitating rumors shut them down. If a child is exhibiting some dangerous out of the ordinary behavior whispering behind their back is not going assist them in getting the help they might need. I could have used an ally, and so can many other children.

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Kickstarter Link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1008026635/booze-epoque-launch

What Are We Raising Funds For?

We are raising funds for our Booze Époque launch extravaganza. Join us as we revive La Belle Époque and deliver to you a wonderful evening of art, music, food, and...

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Building

The bullet points of the last couple of months:

- Started a new business, doing boutique bartending for events, called Booze Époque  -  Booked a really successful show with Gregory Ferreira and Friends at Porch Fest - Started working with Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys and Jaggery.  - Been attending a writing workshop, but unfortunately that suffered over the last couple of weeks due to some crazy life stuff coming up.  Back on that horse once I get business stuff in order. 

Life continues to fly by with many exciting ups and downs.  I'll be on the west coast for most of August (and part of June).  So stay tuned for more shenanigans as I approach my one year anniversary of leaving NU to pursue my dreams.

This is the Booze Époque business card.

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Lifestyle!

Abby Taylor and I are Co-managing Lifestyle!  Check out a couple of shots from the photo shoot today with sexy ladies Lyndsey and Ashley.

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My new business cards by the delightful Sky Winchester. 

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New GGMPS, LLC FB Page!

I've finally created my Artist Management FB page here: GGMPS, LLC.

In the next couple of weeks I'll be getting ggmps.us up and running!

Exciting things on the horizon!

Thanks to Sky Winchester for the beautiful image below.  I'll be using it on my FB and business cards:

I'm also working with Live By The Sword Studios, check them out (and the great art work by Jax!):

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Hazy Shade of Winter

I'm plunging headlong into Spring with renewed vigor.  My writing productivity over the last month has been pretty dismal, but I had a great conversation with Derek, a friend and great writer, about polishing what I've got so far and sending it out just to get some feedback.  I think it's the jump start I need to reinvigorate the process. Needless to say, my extremely ambitious goal of finishing by April is absolutely not going to be met.  And I'm pretty okay with that. I'm going to spend the next couple of weeks polishing off some of the first chapters and I'll likely post an excerpt here and then get to work mailing sections out.   I've never been much of a performer, although I have absolutely no problem getting up in front of a crowd.  So after attending a great reading, here&now:mortality, put together by my friend and multi-dimensionally talented artist, Jade Sylvan I have been inspired to put some writing together for public consumption.  It didn't hurt that all of the writers came back to my house and burned their work in a beautiful ceremony in my backyard (bringing the spirt of Burning Man to me!). This will be a summer project, but again, another kick in the ass to get my work out there.  Hold me accountable, okay?  I haven't read in front of a crowd that wasn't a workshop or class since high school coffee houses.

I've read a handful of pretty cool YA books lately, and they've been keeping the wheels turning, I recommend these three for sure:

  Management business on the other hand has been growing more and more steadily.  I've started to make a concerted effort to get out and network in the music community, and it's giving me a nice dose of socialization that I thrive on.  

I've met some great ladies involved in the Ladies and Girls Rock Campaign, which is an incredible program. I plan to volunteer for one of the Girls Rock Campaign Summer Sessions.  If you haven't heard of the Rock Campaigns definitely check out their website.  I feel like their mission, "to help build self-esteem and leadership skills for girls through music education and performance.  We hope to stimulate and enrich the communities surrounding us and provide space to foster and showcase that power", is so inline with everything that I'm doing, and I could totally see Violet, the protagonist in my novel (or me) being part of this program.

I've had a couple of meetings with a very talented band over the past week and it's looking like I'll be working with them soon.  I don't want to make any sort of announcement until that's official, but needless to say I'm really excited to be part of their team.

Missing Ships has been working really hard on their upcoming album French Vanilla. And I spent a very long and late night listening to some tracks last week and it sounds huge and bold and fun and stunning.  The night culminated in me video recording Greg and Sky painting the album artwork on a sheet of paper taped to the wall, until I was too tired to do it at 5:30 a.m.  Here's a still:

So I've been brainstorming and booking and updating all of the MS web presence. We now have a Missing Ships Bandcamp too. So since late January I've really been buckling down to make sure every thing runs smoothly.

Next on the menu, get my GGMPS website up and running, get my new business cards ordered and make good use of the longer days and warmer nights of Spring.

Oh and on a final note, congrats to my husband's band, Cooling Towers, on getting into the WZLX Rock N' Roll Rumble!

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This photo session is the product of Mimi taking some shots during the French Vanilla recording session at Live By The Sword in Brooklyn.  And me taking some shots at School Street while Greg and Sky painted the album art way into the night while I video recorded the whole thing.

A highlight reel from the last couple of weeks.  We’ve taken up residence at Live By the Sword Studio, Brooklyn, furiously recording our upcoming album, French Vanilla.  And on the other side of the Fung Wah bus line, with the help of Sky Winchester the album art was born on a wall canvas in the wee hours of the morning. 

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Feel The Burn...

It’s been a week of Burning Man on the mind.  I won’t get into the ticket lottery or the extreme disappointment surrounding not getting a ticket due to tactics that I feel were far less than fair on the part of Burning Man Org.  But instead I’ll take it to a positive place.  While I haven’t spent much time on the book this week, the Burning Man debacle (after the rage subsided) prompted me to beging writing about my experience at The Burn.  So yesterday I sat down in Diesel Cafe in Somerville and stated to write about my experience at Burning Man starting in 2000 and ending in 2011.

Look it's Diesel

I’ve only written a bit so far but have a massive outline of what I would like to write.  I’ve always, even before I started the Violet book, wanted to write a memoir and I really enjoy writing from life.  Here are the first few paragraphs of my Burning Man experience.  I wanted to squelch all the negatively I feel about the process with something creative.  So out of my East Coast angst this has begun to emerge:

Pic of Frostbyte's obelisk and GRAVE Camp, 2000 Feel The Burn… Pete and I had only been dating for a month and a half when he suggested we go to Burning Man in 2000.  I had no idea what I was in store for, I’d never heard of Burning Man but was ready for an adventure. And fortunately, for the first and perhaps only time in my life I was relaxed with no expectations, ripe for experience. Our road trip, an obvious if not cliché rite of passage seemed like a fitting cap to our first summer together. It had been filled with night swimming, roof sitting, concert going, and the kind of partying that can only be reserved for and sustained by twenty-year-old bodies. Our plan was to drive from Boston across the country in Frostbyte’s Windstar.  It had been outfitted with piles of electronic equipment, stacks of car batteries, and drugs hidden in secret compartments. Pete lived in a decaying, spectacular Fort Point Warehouse with a group of mad scientist-artists. It was their collaborative decision to head to the Playa. So while Frostbyte flew into Reno we, slightly less encumbered by jobs, headed out on the road to the West with the light art projects he had engineered. Two friends, also MITers (I was the only non-science nerd), joined us as we zipped down I80.  The drive was a blur of cornfields, gas station mini-marts, sleepy two person Wyoming towns, then miles of government restricted land, spooky and barren.  The West still felt wild. But then as the sparse desert shrunk away and the lights of cities started to emerge we began to see some curious things; adulterated moving trucks with company names changed to profane and amusing phrases.  Cars from Calfornia, Colorado, New Mexico, New York displaying etched in dusty windows, sketched with soap, or constructed in duct tape the same figure, a man, arms splayed, reaching to the sky, The Man. We were all headed in the same direction, past Reno, Sparks, Fernly, Nixon, Gerlach. A misfit caravan winding through the lonely roads out into open land, the alkalai flats of dusty Nevada desert, the home of The Burn.

I have much more to write, but in the sea of negatively including my own, I wanted to spread a few positive words out there.  And breathe.... Take in what serves you and let the rest go.  My mantra of late.

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In other news I booked a a couple of show for Missing Ships.  The next will be at Radio in Somerville with Japanese Monster and J/Q. Then the next day at Spike Hill in NY with Cooling Towers and Madam Trashy.  So band stuff moves along as well.  I'll also be at SXSW in a month so expect some live updates from the showcases.

I’m on a yoga kick and will need to run out the door in a few.  I want to include some YA books I've been reading in my next entry, as I feel I won't have time to do them justice right now. Have a great weekend friends and stay tuned for the February installment of Cafe-A-Day next week.

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Some Saturday Evening Reading: The 10 Most Expensive Books in The World

It could be a record-breaking afternoon in the book world. Today, Christie’s New York will auction off a copy of John James Audubon’s Birds of America, which already holds the title of most valuable printed book in the world, having sold for about $11.5 million in 2010. In fact, according to The Economist, a true list of the ten most valuable single books ever sold would have to include five copies of The Birds of America. Though Christie’s is playing their cards close to the vest and estimating a $7 to $10 million sale, today could see a new record for the book. After all, the copy that sold for $11.5 million was estimated at less than the copy on auction today.

To help you brush up on your knowledge of the very old and very valuable, we’ve compiled a list of the ten most expensive books ever sold — no white gloves necessary. Click through for an overview, and then head upstairs to check your attics for any forgotten dusty tomes — you could be a millionaire and not even know it.

See more here: http://flavorwire.com/251055/the-10-most-expensive-books-in-the-world

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A Cafe a Day

One of my goals for the New Year was to test out some new writing venues.  While writing at Niner Bravo has been productive I felt that it would be helpful to have some external stimulation.  Niner Bravo is a bit of a windowless cave. So I decided to try writing in different venues around the city and did so last week.  It was so successful that next week I'm going out on the town again.

The process was better than expected and I ended up writing 6000-7000 words over the week which is a VERY good week for me.  As I mentioned, I am SLOW.  

Here's a run down of my Cafe a Day adventure around Boston and Cambridge.  I think I'll be hitting up Somerville and Allston next week so look out!

DAY ONE: Tealuxe, Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA Beverage of Choice: Lemongrass Tea and Chaider  Work Completed:  Major edits to chapters one, two and six and 1500 new words outside of those chapters.

Let me admit that unlike most writers I don't drink coffee (LOVE the taste, can't handle the caffeine).  So Tealuxe is like a dream to me. I've been going there since High School and it holds a lot of memories, plus the musty dark wood and perfumed air really awaken my inner goth.  A portion of my novel takes place in Harvard Square, why it never occurred for me to write here before is beyond me.  It's also a place that's laden with so many of my adolescent memories, and I try to get in tune with that whenever I write.  I didn't realize that just being in Harvard would bring back more pulsing nostalgia than listening to Mazzy Star or the Pixies or Nirvana.  Consequently I was filled with words. DAY TWO: Espresso Royale, Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA  Beverage of Choice: Rooibos Latte  Work Completed: Editing of Monday's new work, ~700 new words 

Day two was a bit of a rush as I had some errands to run in the morning, a hockey game at Fenway and a movie (HUGO) in the afternoon.  But I wanted to make sure I got some solid writing time.  It was pretty blissful at ERC, right next to BU, because all the students were on Christmas break.  I like the ERC over near Northeastern University a little bit better as it has a grungy art school vibe much more so than this one. I'll probably hit that one up next week.

DAY THREE: Boston Common Coffee Company, Washington St, Boston, MA Beverage of Choice: Earl Grey Tea Work Completed: ~700 Words 

I was actually aiming for The Thinking Cup which I had been to once before but it was completely packed. So I opted for BCCC which was around the corner.

I had a really hard time getting into the groove in this place.  Maybe because I had my sites set on The Thinking Cup, which has a slightly more homey vibe.  I take singing lessons at the Steinway Building on Tremont Street and these are the only two independent cafes in the area.  As far as I can tell BCCC is an independent shop, yet it definitely has a sterile corporate vibe despite the art work and plush couches.  If I'm going to be writing before singing class I'm going to have to find a way to either fall in love with this place or force myself into The Thinking Cup even if it means taking out a couple of Emerson students in the process.

DAY FOUR: Andala Cafe, Central Square, Cambridge, MA  Beverage of Choice: Peppermint Tea  Work Completed:  ~2000 new words

Andala is a beautiful cafe on the cusp of Central Square.  It's the closest to my house but I've only been there two or three times in all my years living in the area.  Truthfully I spend a lot more time in bars than cafes, which is something I'm working to change. I'm trading in the rock n' roll, at least for these few months, for the full-time literary life.  I'll still do some management tasks here and there but my goal is to get this book done by April, May at the lastest so it will require a measure of abstinence in certain areas.  Maybe that's as counterintuitive as my not drinking coffee, but I've never been much good at writing with booze in my hand.

Anyway, Andala aesthetically is a great match for me.  It's filled with beautiful light fixtures and gorgeous windows and wall hangings.  They staff is attentive but the whole place has a leisurely feel.  I really liked working here and went back on Sunday night to get some reading done.  Living in a college town can make finding seats in a cafe pretty difficult but Andala typically seems to have at least some seating.  And you cannot beat the delicious goat cheese and fruit plate (you can see it sneaking into my photo above).

DAY FIVE: Blue State Cafe, Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA Beverage of Choice: Peppermint Tea (again)  Work Completed: ~1500 new words 

I was slightly hesitant to try this place.  Even though I am flaming Massachusetts liberal the name rubbed me the wrong way (I know *so* superficial). But again, owing to the college students still being on break this was a really pleasant place to work.  It's right next door to BU so I don't know that I'll be visiting it again unless it's Spring Break or Summer but I set myself up by the counter and it was a quiet and mellow place to work.  

It's pretty bright in there, which is not usually my scene, but the staff was so friendly and the music was so good that I got into a groove pretty quickly.  Having the young energy of the staff (at most of these places) has also been great inspiration in channeling my young adult energy.  On the way over the BU bridge home I had a powerful insight into my main character Violet, so a very productive endeavor indeed.

I think getting away from my normal environment and out into the world is something I've got to do far more often.  I'm going to ensure I write outside of Niner Bravo at least once a week, and I'd like to spend a week a month exploring more writing spots around the city.  Once the weather is nice again this can expand to outdoor parks or sidewalk seating.

I think, just to carry the momentum that I'll be Cafe hopping again next week.  So you'll all get the run down, maybe in less detail.  I also plan to talk about some new YA books I've been reading.  I got a Kindle for Xmas and as much as I love REAL books it's been a wonderful portable friend.

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Year in iPhone Photos 2011: Part VII

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Year in iPhone Photos 2011: Part VI

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Year in iPhone Photos 2011: Part V

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Year in iPhone Photos 2011: Part IV

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Year in iPhone Photos 2011: Part III