So I don't totally know what "Mercury in Retrograde" means, but I've heard it mentioned in the same way people nod knowingly when the realize the full moon might explain the weird things that happened to them recently. But yesterday when my boss mentioned to me the whole retrograding mecury I looked it up. Bad travel, messed up electronics, plans going awry... this explains my summer so far. Here is the (hopefully complete) list:
broken foot
new A/C installation installed incorrectly
2 cancelled flights
1 3-hours delayed flight
My luggage doesn't arrive with me
GPS doesn't work 3am on unfamiliary highway
phone dies 3am on a highway while using the map function
car in for repairs but "repaired" with a broken part i.e. still broken
The GOOD news
My foot is healing nicely
My new A/C was repaired quickly and they gave me a coupon for a car wash!
I made it to Maine!
My luggage eventually made it to Maine!
I came upon a rest area with outlets to charge my dead phone long enough to get me to hotel
They are fixing my car as we speak with a nice shiny whole and unbroken part
You got nothin on me retrograding Mercury. But psyched for July 1st to get here quick.
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!
Earlier in April I was out on a walk, trying to bank some steps onto my FitBit (do you have one? can we be friends and race to our daily steps?) and thinking about some of the upcoming items on my list that are decidedly fitness/health related:
1. Try Paddleboarding
6. Hike 40 miles of trails in Illinois
9. Lose 25% of my body weight
11. & 12. kayaking/paddleboarding at sunset and sunrise
27. Complete a Mud Run
I was thinking about preparing specifically for #27, but also still trying to wrap my mind around #9 and how I want to accomplish this goal. As a woman who has thought about her weight constantly since age 10, I’m not keen on the idea of another diet. I’m not willing to deal with restriction in any way that removes pleasure from my life. I am here on this planet to enjoy it. HOWEVER, and this is a super-important-however-i –need-to-face….my body hasn’t been feeling good. I can’t get around that fact. My digestive system doesn’t feel right most days, my body is stiff and my joints are achy. And my body is just plain heavier to move around. It’s not like I only eat food that is amazing and delicious. I eat a lot of crap too. Easy, convenient crap – does it even taste good? I honestly don’t know. I could be making better choices. It’s the getting myself to make those better choices that is going to be key.
Earlier that same morning, I was still in bed slowly waking up, trying to decide if I’d go for that walk. I’d been dealing with muscle spasms in my calves that I wasn’t sure weren’t muscle tears (they weren’t!) when I asked myself, “What would the fit version of myself decide to do?” And I answered, “Fit Erin would go for a walk.” So I did.
So far in the few weeks since I’ve been asking myself, “What Would Fit Erin Do?” (WWFED) It’s helped me order a delicious salad over a fatty sandwich, it’s helped me skip the bagel and Starbucks mocha in favor of the green smoothie I had waiting to be made at home, it’s pushed me to trust my body to go further. It’s gotten me to bank my first 18K steps in a day. I love Fit Erin!
I also quickly realized that Fit Erin would know what her starting point is so she knows how to prepare for the journey ahead. I’ve started by collecting data.
I am using the Fit bit to track my steps with a goal of 10,000 steps a day. I have a really sedentary job (I am 10 steps away from the bathroom, the copier and my file cabinet) with an hour commute at either end of the day. When I started out tracking steps I started by altering nothing to my day to see how many steps I naturally took each day. roughly 3500. I was shocked by how low the number was! So I quickly learned that the only way to reach 10,000 was to go for a walk every morning before work. I am now walking about 2.5-3 miles every morning. My current goal is to have at least 5000-6000 steps complete before I leave for work. My future goal is to work running back into the mix. Fit Erin is totally into it.
I am using Fit bit to track my calories. I am using this just as data gathering for now. I am not restricting what I eat in a prescribed way, if I go over the suggested amount, I go over the suggested amount but I take a good look at what pushed me over the edge. Was it worth it? Only Fit Erin knows for sure. My goal was to first figure out what kind of damage my current eating was doing to my calorie intake. The most shocking: an 1150 calorie burrito from Chipotle. This was a standard burrito for me. I had no idea. My second goal is to make adjustments to what I’m eating so that I meet the calorie limit more often than not. The Fit bit tracking feature will keep track of carbs/fat/protein and vitamins and I’ll pay more attention to that later. For now, I’m just finding my rhythm. But I’m making changes. You won’t find me going Vegan or Paleo or whatever is the popular diet these days. But you will find me returning to more home cooked meals, more locally sourced foods, better food in general.
Next on my list is building strength, flexibility and body confidence – not body image, actual confidence in my body’s abilities. One of the worst consequences of neglecting my body/health for so long is the lack of confidence, and sometimes straight up fear, that I now have about my ability to do certain things I physically used to be able to. Also, I totally have baby muscles now. Fit Erin has guns, I’m pretty sure.
So maybe you’re on a fitness journey too. Maybe you’ve got some good ideas to share with me. I’m looking for community with this one.
I wrote my 50,000th word at about 9:30am on the morning of November 30th – the last day of the Nanowrimo competition. I honestly couldn’t believe I had done it. three days earlier when I still had 5000 words to write I wasn’t confident that I could do it without resorting to tricks, like really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really sneaky tricks. But somehow I pulled it out.
You cannot sit down and read what I wrote and understand the plot. I wrote it in fits and bursts. I had written the ending before i ever understood how I would get there. Everything is out of order. I introduced one character who by day 15 had been deserted in favor of another character – but they both still exist because I learned one (of many) very valuable lessons in Nanowrimo – don’t delete anything. ever. And don’t edit as you go, even yesterday’s writing. Just keep it moving forward. Editing can wait until December.
I spent nearly 4 years writing and rewriting the same 30 pages. I couldn't move past it. Once I let go of ‘getting it right’ before moving on – the rest of the story found it’s way out.
I learned that if I wrote every day some days would be challenging, but if i just put my fingers on the keys words would appear. Some of those words are so, so badly written. Some of those words are true gems.
I will spend the next couple of months organizing, rewriting and editing what I’ve written and then we’ll see where I end up. I won’t know until then if this is a story that I want other people to read – I think it is, but I will let you know.
If you have a goal of writing – of writing anything longer than a few pages i strongly encourage you to give any of the Nanowrimo events a try. Get out of your own way and write something, dammit. I, for one, would like to read it.
I spent all day at home on Sunday as I’m slowly trying to put back together the room I had painted last week (pics to come). I’m still missing a few integral pieces to that room but I’ll show off the finished project once it’s done!
So as I was busy climbing up and down ladders all day I decided an easy and tasty dinner was in order. I bought my first tiny bunch of basil at the indoor farmers market this weekend. They grew in a greenhouse and smelled like summer.
With a little spinach, pine nuts, parmesan and olive oil the basil made a tasty little pesto
With a few mushrooms, Italian sausage, fresh mozzarella and my favorite recipe for pizza dough – this baby was born
This pizza crust is light and chewy – just how I likes it. Want the recipe?
this is the full recipe. I always halve it when I make my dough. If you halve it make sure you’re halving all of the measurements called for in the steps.
For the dough, combine the water, yeast, honey, and 3 tablespoons olive oil in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook (I don’t have this and just use my Cuisinart). When the yeast is dissolved, add 3 cups of the flour, then 2 teaspoons salt, and mix on medium-low speed. While mixing, add up to 1 more cup of flour, or just enough to make a soft dough. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth, sprinkling it with the flour as necessary to keep it from sticking to the bowl. When the dough is ready, turn it out onto a floured board and knead it by hand a dozen times. It should be smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a well-oiled bowl and turn it to cover it lightly with oil. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and allow the dough to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes.
Dump the dough onto a board and divide it into 6 equal pieces. Place them on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and cover them with a damp towel. Allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes. Use immediately, or refrigerate for up to 4 hours.
Press and stretch each ball into an 8-inch circle and place 2 circles on each parchment-lined sheet pan. (If you've chilled the dough, take it out of the refrigerator approximately 30 minutes ahead to let it come to room temperature.)
Top it with your faves and bake for about 10-15 minutes. eat it.
It’s so much better than store-bought frozen pizza. But hey, if you like a frozen pizza, just wrap this sucker up and toss it in the freezer. what do i care?
For the last few years it has been as if I cannot be moved. The more I recognize changes needing to be made in my life, the more I have stood my ground. I think sometimes resistance to change is because we aren’t ready and somewhere internally we are aware of this. I think MOST times resistance comes because we are scared of change. I know that I have been scared.
While I am decidedly less scared these days, I’m still in transition out of resistance. This morning, however, I received a little sign from the universe/god/buddha/elvis. I’ve been trying to meditate every morning. I’m new at it and trying to figure out my own way of doing it. But I have an awesome little spot for it (more on that in another post) and it's been a nice way to start my day.
So this morning I was thinking about "resistance" during this little medi-moment and suddenly my eyes popped open and (I thought) I lost my meditation flow. At the same moment I caught sight out my window of a woman and her dog in the midst of a tug-of-war. They were in a face-ff, each wanting to go in a different direction. For a moment they each stood their ground and pulled against one another – in complete resistance of the other. Then the woman stopped pulling. She took a moment and then stepped behind her dog and gave him a push in the direction she wanted to go. He wagged his tail and trotted along with her.
Aha, I thought, sometimes you just need a little push.
This was not one of those years where I was counting down the minutes for the new year to arrive, but 2011 was a weird one. I didn’t write much about the weirdness here on the blog cuz I’m not sure I even knew how to describe it. But going through my photos of the year helped me remember that there was a lot of fun being had in between the weirdness. Maybe your year was the same.
i got a cat. she is smushy, though sometimes she scratches me across the neck. I think she is trying to remind not to take life for granted, mob-wife style
I took 5 trips. I couldn’t believe or remember that I took 5 trips this year! That is awesome: Portland, Madison, Boulder, Maine and California.
I got these weird half-like bangs and spent most of the year with my hair bobby pinned
You did not know this because not once did a photo of myself grace this blog in 2011
I felt sad, happy, depressed, anxious and hopeful…all in one year!
2011 was a tricky year and here is what some of it looked like for me:
A whole lot of food and pretty views. This slideshow needs some tunes! in 2012 I will learn how to add tunes to my slideshows.
My plan this weekend is to spend some serious brain activity on thinking about 2012. I feel like 2011 happened to me. Like I was continually stumbling and looking back over my shoulder muttering, "what the hell was that?!" as 2011 blew past me again.
This year I hope to give 2012 a run for it's money.
What are you plans for 2012? I'd love a little inspiration...
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