Last year I set out to meditate for 40 days in a row in honor of my 40th birthday. And I loved it. So this year, in an effort to make it more of a daily ritual I upped it to 60 days. And I loved it again. I used the Habit Streak app to track the days I meditated and to remind/encourage me to sit on the days I strayed. But most mornings I found myself heading directly to my little meditation nook upon rising or just after my walk for a few minutes of quiet reflection.
Sometimes it was a few minutes of total brain chaos. Sometimes I was still basically asleep. But there were days where I felt focused and connected and for brief moments felt a little bit of that divine/spirit/mojo.
I finished the 60 days a week ago and promptly stopped. whyyyyyyyy, self??
So now I’m going for a streak. no max/minimum days. I’m just going to try to meditate daily for as long as I can and we’ll see how long the streak is.
Any meditators out there? How do you meditate? Where do you meditate? Any tips for quieting my monkey mind?
Day 3 started off with a whimper. Neither of us had slept very well despite the super comfy beds. We staggered down to our hotel’s continental breakfast and were welcomed by a pretty decent spread with eggs, sausage, pastries, cereals, fruit etc… and again the super nice people. We stocked up on coffee and water – both now feeling the altitude a bit. (Santa Fe is at about 7000 feet). The plan for the day was all museums and the Plaza.
It was a sunny morning and about a 5 minute walk from our hotel to our first stop – The Georgia O’Keefe Museum. The plan was to head first for the furthest point on our map and then meander our way back to the hotel all day. On our way to the museum we passed the spot where Native American artisans set up their wares to sell all day. It’s a great place to find turquiose and other stones as well as Native American folk art and the like. I’m not the type of shopper who can spend any amount of time pondering my options. If I see something that catches my eye and the price is right – I buy it. And then I’m done. I rarely look again or look at anything else. I’m the same at restaurants. As soon as I spy something on the menu that looks like what I want to eat, the menu closes. Anyhow – that’s what happened here. I spied a really lovely piece of cerulean- colored stone hanging from a silver chain.
The Georgia O’Keefe is not a complete collection of her work as I’m the main art museum in your town has a piece or two in it’s collection, but it is dedicated to her and includes a bit of her history etc…I found really interesting. Like did you know that she was initially really upset that people interpreted the imagery created by some of her most famous flower paintings as sexual? Not her intention apparently. She got the reputation for being a bit of a sensual sexpot because her husband (Alfred Steiglitz) took a bunch of nude photos of her and displayed them in a show. Who knew.
Lunch was at a restaurant I’d seen on many “Must do” lists about Santa Fe. The Shed. Tucked back in a courtyard behind a line of shops, it was clear lots of other folks had seen the same “must do” lists I’d seen. We had about a 25 minute wait before being seated. The food was good – simply prepared and freshly made. But the most striking thing about The Shed was that the waitstaff was ridiculously good looking. At least our waiter. He looked like Paul Rudd’s handsomer younger brother. blush-worthy.
After lunch we hit two more spots before heading back to the hotel for a rest
I took a nap after lunch and Beth did a bit more shopping. We met for a drink at The Coyote Café in hopes we’d be able sit on their outdoor deck. No such luck. However – if you go try to get a table. It has a great view of The Plaza. We decided on Italian for dinner and found ourselves at Osteria D’Assisi a great little restaurant.
Here is something you should know about Santa Fe. Evereything closes early. We were walking back to our hotel not much after 8pm (if that) and the streets were empty. Our hotel staff said the Santa Fe way is “Open late/Close early”. They ain’t lying.
Our last day in Santa Fe consisted of a lot of walking and art appreciation. So much so that I gave up on the art after lunch in favor of reading a book and resting my tired dogs on our balcony. Our first stop was the Artisan market by the railyard. We are expecting more Native American artists, but instead found a rather run of the mill art fair. Not worth the trek. The views were nice though.
We made one last sightseeing stop before heading back towards are hotel and Canyon Road – The Loretto Chapel – home of the mysterious stairway.
What is so mysterious you ask? Well it was built without center support and was built by a mysterious carpenter who asked for no money and left without telling anyone his name. Architects and engineers alike cannot figure out how the staircase is able to function without collapse with no center support. (It was totally Jesus, right??)
Canyon Road is a two mile stretch lined with high end Art Galleries. By the time we reached Canyon Road I was hungry, tired and starting to lose interest in the arts as a whole. Sorry, Arts. At the top of the hill we found a funky place for lunch featuring a rotating, somewhat confused/confusing waitstaff system and lavender lemonade. the food was delish. The Teahouse. If you like tea they have a tea menu that looks like a small novella.
Our last night we tried to witness the famous sunset from yet another rooftop- The Rooftop Pizzeria. Alas, the clouds thwarted our plans. But the food was great and we had a funny run-in on the elevator with a heavily jeweled dude who was all disgusted by the number of elevators in Santa Fe. He was over it.
The next morning we made a relatively easy drive back to the airport and I had a super easy flight home. Beth was waylaid in Denver for 8 hours which is a nightmare, though I think you can get a massage in that airport. I don’t actually know what Beth did all that time...
Verdict: New Mexico has the nicest people on the planet, good food and great history and Art. And also they go to bed super early (hell yeah) and some of them are like 'elevators - I hate you', but the rest of them are like "hey - welcome to New Mexico. Let's be best friends!"
Yup. I totally went to Albuquerque last weekend. (My friend Simona taught me that trick!)
#3 – Travel places I’ve never been
Back in January, when I think we all had the inkling that this winter might be a doozy, I started hatching a plan to head somewhere warmer for my birthday weekend in March. Last year I took a much loved trip to Louisville. This year I hit up my always-up-for-a-trip friend Beth and we decided to head to New Mexico. We stayed for 4 nights total: 1 in ABQ and 3 in Santa Fe. I have been through both of these places on a road trip and even stayed overnight, but have never really *seen* either.
Day 1:
I flew into town first. Picked up the car and headed into ABQ to find somewhere to eat lunch and waste a bit of time before I could check into our hotel and then pick Beth up at the airport. Being the anxious traveller that I am (and the fact that I was now 5000 feet higher in altitude) I was pretty sure that I couldn’t get a deep breath so it took me a beat or two to relax, but I got there. And the spot I picked for lunch helped: The Grove Café. Their philosophy is to provide high quality local and organic foods with a kind of neighborhoody vibe. My kind of place and they nail it. My first impression of ABQ was a good one. Hipsters, families, young, old – it seemed like a good crowd. I ordered a tuna salad sandwich and a lemonade and found a spot to sit and people watch.
After lunch I took a drive up and down Route 66 to get my bearings. I knew we were going to be here for such a short visit and I didn’t want to waste time trying to find stuff to do once Beth got here. So this part of ABQ is curious. It reminded me a lot of Reno, NV. It seems a little down-and-out, but with little peeks of culture and history tucked in. There were a lot of empty store fronts along this road and tons of motels (Route 66 and all). If I go back I need to see more sides of the ABQ.
Our hotel was super nice inside: Hotel Parq Central and, as we were going to come to find out was true about everybody in New Mexico, the staff was incredibly nice. The hotel is a converted hospital and with a contemporary/luxe vibe now. (Thank bejesus, we didn’t find out it had been a hospital until the morning we checked out – I would have been convinced there were wandering sick from the beyond who were responsible for the bathroom shade I kept breaking).
After picking Beth up we dropped off her things in the hotel and too a drive down to Albuquerque’s Old Town to walk around and find some dinner. Old town is a bunch shops/restaurants/businesses housed in old adobe buildings all encompassing a historic church and plaza.
After a confusing attempt to follow the moving blue ball on our “smart” phone apps and getting turned around more than once – we found our dinner spot. It kind of sucked so I’m not going to even name it here. But I will say, thank you world for the creation of the sopapilla.
After a drink on the roof of our hotel (there was a bar there, claro) we called it a night.
Part 2 – the Turquoise trail and Santa Fe….later skaters.
This morning I re-watched two of Amy Krause Rosenthal’s videos called “The Beckoning of Lovely”.
The first one:
and the third one
I knew when I added “Make 41 beautiful things” to this year’s list that I’d been inspired by AKR, but it had been awhile, maybe years since I’d seen the videos. I think now that her ideas inspired the creation of my life lists as well. However far off my radar they’d become a seed had been planted when I first watched them.
I have started to collect ideas for beautiful things to make and over the last couple weeks I began making them.
#1.
I started with a trip to one of those paint & drink establishments popping up all over. Have you been to one? My friend Anna came down from Michigan for a girls weekend, just her and me and we spent a snowy afternoon at Bottle & Bottega drinking Dark & Stormy’s and learning how to paint.
They do a fine job of breaking down the process to small enough steps that even the least creatively inclined among us end up with something that looks pretty dang close to what it’s supposed to. We picked a particularly difficult painting to tackle. I think the Dark & Stormys helped!
:: Ours side-by-side.
::hanging in my office/pantry/mudroom/cat feeding station!
#2
I have a medium sized collection of mostly burned-up candles. I can sometimes dig up enough of a wick to light the dang thing, but not for long. So I gathered up all of those useless candle remnants and made myself something lovely.
It’s a teacup candle! Pretty obvious, but super cute, no? All you need is a sweet little teacup, a wick and some candle wax. Also a couple of chopsticks help with the steadying of the wick.
I used an old glass jar to hold the wax and placed the jar into a small pan of boiling water (don’t put the wax in the pan directly – unless you’re into wax soup, then fine, do what you want). The wax melts, you pour it into your teacup, wait a few hours til it hardens and voila! Now you make candles, dude.
I really like cooking. I like the chopping part, the mixing part, the cooking it part and especially the eating it part. It’s good stuff and good times. the end.
But wait there’s more!
When I put ‘take a cooking class’ on my list for this year it was not because I don’t know how to cook, it’s because I wanted to learn to cook some new things well. Initially I thought I’d end up combining my “don’t freak out about cooking a chicken” goal with this one, but the chicken still eludes me (or I’m eluding the chicken? But that would mean the chicken is coming after me…? *shudder*)
Last time I wandered by the new Sur La Table I noticed they have cooking classes. On a whim I looked up what they were offering and found a Tapas and Paella class for the following Saturday. I love tapas and I love me some paella – yay Spain! I texted my friend Leah who also loves cooking and eating (and who is also up for just about anything) and she was game to join me.
A piece of advice: Sur La Table will give you a nice coffee, water with lemon and/or they’ll make you bubble water. So you really don’t need to wait all day in line for the Starbucks across the walkway. ALSO – bring wine with you! You can totally bring wine and drink it while you cook. Bring two bottles, dude.
After everyone arrived (read: we were the last to arrive. see Starbucks above) the chef gave us a bit of an introduction to himself and what we’d be doing that day in class.
He showed us how he wanted the herbs and veggies cut for the Sofrito (the flavor base) and then divvied them up among us. I learned a new way to dice onions – which is good because until now I’ve been a completely unreliable dicer. No two alike. But look at this:
I learned! I pitched in with the garlic smashing and dicing, the herb prep and chopping asparagus
We made one Tapas dish – Sautéed Shrimp with Pimenton and Sherry. Our class had split up into two groups and I ended up sautéing the shrimp for our group. Another good thing, because shrimp is also something I have hang-ups about cooking, because I don’t know when it’s done and I really WANT it to be totally done, but usually I end up overcooking it and it’s tough. boo. Our chef told us that after you flip the shrimp once (and only once) you are looking to see the shrimp curl up tightly and the center of the curl to be no longer greyish, but white. I added the spices and sherry and our little dish ended up looking like this
It was good! If I was a better food photographer I would have thought to clean off the plate before taking this photo. ah well.
Next up the paella. Another of our team stepped up to man the paella pan – which apparently is required for making paella. As in, if you didn’t use the paella pan what you made was not paella. slowly-lowers-her-raised-hand-when-asked-who’s-made-paella-before.
oooh, fire! Watch out for a little extra liquid when you add in the artichoke hearts!
We also prepared a little Majorcan Flatbread with caramelized onion, pine nuts and raisins to have with our paella. A really easy little bread with incredible flavor
Leah getting our bread ready
We had a little break while the paella finished cooking. I spent too much money buying kitchen tools. Thankfully they didn’t have an ice cream maker because do I really need one?
And then it was time to feast
*drool*
moral of the story: paella is really easy to make and fun to make with friends. Cooking classes are fun and you should bring wine!
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