midwest – Briana Hansen

I’m glad my loved ones on the east coast and in the midwest survived the Polar Vortex these past couple days. I know a lot of people lost heat and it was frustrating and scary for folks. I hope you stay safe as you return to work and school tomorrow.

I know how it is to be cold. Here in LA, it got almost down to 50 degrees last night. I considered putting on my full-length wool coat.

Am I being an asshole? A little bit. Why? Because people make fun of LA and those of us who live here all the time. So this is one of the few moments I get to gloat.

I mean it when I say I’m glad everyone stayed warm and safe. And I also mean it when I say I had a wonderful the day at the beach and golfing while you were all being pummeled with snow.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go to the grocery (where they’re going to charge me for every bag I didn’t bring from home) to buy (overpriced organic) groceries that I’ll put in my car (that I have to make a hefty monthly car payment on) that I’ll drive back (on fumes because gas prices are so high) to my studio apartment (that costs more than most of my midwestern friends mortgage payments on their 3 bedroom homes).

But I don’t mind. I’m gonna drive with the windows down because-Whew! It is really gorgeous out today.

Last week, I did a very strange thing for me. I took a whole week off working.

To be fair, I love my work. I love to create. It’s how I relax. When I finally make it my career, I’m going to be the most uptight relaxed person you ever met.

But because I do work on so many projects and am constantly focused on performance and creating, it can make me distracted at times. And when I’m away from it and think there’s a lot I should be doing, I can get a little worked up.

So I made myself a promise to take the week off last week when I was at home visiting my family and friends for the holidays.

And let me tell you… it was great.

It’s easy to lose perspective when you’re totally engrossed in something. I think I had lost a little perspective in my own world. And by forcing myself to not constantly produce, I got to breathe a little deeper and enjoy the present moment even more.

But most importantly, I got to just hang out with my family without anything else on my mind.

Sure. After Christmas when everyone was just relaxing by themselves, I may have done a little organizing for our upcoming Other Client List shoot. But I wasn’t working hard. Just a lil. And just because it’s relaxing.

And rest assured, after about 20 minutes, I joined my dad in the living room and drank cheap wine and watched terrible network TV.

And it was awesome.

Tag: midwest

Polar Vortex

Week Off