Good morning, Happy Tuesday and, well, welcome to the holiday season. I know, crazy, right? 

But rather than fight it, I've embraced it. I have zoomed right past pumpkin spice everything and zeroed my thinking to the end of December. Yes, I know you won't believe me, but I already bought a Christmas present for my partner where it will sit in an unknown location (to him) for the next 114 days. 

I once saw a TV show once (I think it was EIGHT IS ENOUGH) where the mother of the family had purchased presents in the summer before her demise. As a kid, I thought it was kind of cool. And, in my 20s, after one harrowing holiday season where I was living in San Francisco and spent my lunch hour at Pier 39 franticly buying for my family and then having to ship it all back home at great cost, I thought, 'never again'.

How many times is it suddenly mid December and you're like "holy cow, I have to start shopping!" and then you can't find anything you want at the usual places and you don't have the time to hunt for it? Do in September. 

It's a bit more challenging to hide things in a New York apartment, but not impossible. Being an event planner where logistics are literally what I spend every day doing does help in coordinating these things. 

Try it. Sure, I know. There is a bit of a 'rush' in waiting til the last minute, but when you've bought, stored, wrapped and are done by the time everyone else is trying to figure out a Halloween costume, you get to December and realize that all that time you spent freaking out can now be spent tra la laing having cocktails with friends, co-workers, etc. I promise that you will LITERALLY DO IT THIS WAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. 

The downside is that your present receiver may decide between now and then to simply buy it for themselves not realizing that it's already sitting in a nearby undisclosed location (hint: keep the receipts). but this is part of the fun that re-introduces the element of 'risk' to the whole thing.

And, you can overspend. It doesn't seem like so much when you buy now and then see something else in a couple months. Because it's out of sight/out of mind, you can kind of forget it's there.

And, of course when you buy a few things in September, you do also run the risk of forgetting where you put it. It's harder to do in the small space of a NY apartment, but I've managed to do it. 

Anyway, try this and see how it goes. Would love to hear from anyone who has done this or currently does this. 

Above, please enjoy a holiday MEMO I made a couple years ago, it's one of my favorites!  

There are times when the blank piece of paper on my drawing table looks blanker than at other times. I don't know why this is, but it's true. 

I sketch and everything looks stupid. Does this happen to you? 

Or, maybe worse, sometimes my characters speak to me about what they're doing. They tell me fantastical things they're doing and I struggle to have the ability to depict those adventures.

I had this 'conversation' the other day: 

ME: Com'on Angie, let me know what you're doing.

ANGIE: I have.  

ME: Yeah, but I don't know how to draw that. 

ANGIE: You can, it just might take longer than you want it to, but you can. 

ME: (sighs) can what you're doing be something that I can draw, please? 

ANGIE: .... .Where's the fun in that? 

ME: (looks again at the blank piece of paper on my drawing table). 

My characters challenge me to tell their story.

And sometimes your muse tells you what you need to do and the only way to do it is to go through it. 

Has this happened to you? And what do you do then? 

Well, I think, if you want your characters to stick around, you get to work. That's what you do. 

#dwaynejohnson, #therock #fastandfurious #jasonstatham #projectrock #underarmour #dwaynetherockjohnson #hobbsandshaw #fast #vindiesel #bodybuilding #fitness #paulwalker #gym #wwe #workout #motivation #focus #michellerodriguez #fitnessmotivation #hollywood #movie #hardestworkerintheroom #styleblogger #mcu #mcm #ironparadise #furious #muscle #bhfyp #dwaynejohnsonfans