Saudade - a Brazilian Portuguese word pronounced saw'dade; a word for a feeling of nostalgic longing for something or someone that one was fond of and which is lost. It often carries a fatalist tone and a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might really never return. Saudade differs from nostalgia in that whereas nostalgia involves a mixed happy and sad feeling for the lost memories, saudade involves the hope that what is being longed for might return.

I stole that definition straight off of wikipedia. Regardless, it's been a prominent feeling since I left Brazil about 3 weeks ago. I emailed a lot of my Ogilvy/Brazilian friends yesterday and received the sweetest, happiest replies! I really do miss my friends there and hope that we will find each other again sometime soon. My friend Luiz has already started talking about maybe coming up here in December, and Ruivo made a comment about visiting sometime soon too. That would be amazing!

Had a darling weekend in NYC with Melanie! We ate some great meals, hung out with our "significant others" (Mel met Brad for the first time!), guitar hero'ed, and saw a really great play called Reasons to be Pretty. We sat in the FRONT ROW! It was a very raw, intense play and felt very real. I also got to have brunch on Sunday with Jenny right near the park while Mel trained for her half marathon (HOW impressive is that. "Oh, I have to train this morning. Just gonna run 13 miles though. No biggie."  WHO are my friends and why are they all so friggin talented???) So overall it was a happy, much needed weekend with good friends.

This afternoon I'll be frollicking down to Alexandria to meet Brad for lunch. I'll also be checking out his office for the first time ever! Pretty stoked!

My hardcover portfolio is being shipped today - so that's great. Even though every interview I've been on has not even ASKED to see a physical book (they can see all my work online), it will still be nice to have it.

And that is all that can be revealed right now :)