going native

I've been trying out a life coach, just to see what all the California hoo-ha is about. Despite the cringe factor, it has proven to be quite useful for an overachieving procrastinator, because she sets tangible tasks and deadlines, including all of the following...

• reading books on meditation and mindfulness (one very hippie one that she assigned, and one more scientific one that I picked, both of which have been interesting)
• trying out meditation (formal meditation always seemed long and uncomfortable, but short ones have been good so far, and yes, there's an app for that)
• finding multisensory cues (she pointed out that I focus on written word a lot, so I'm working on smells, pictures, and sounds that remind me of my happy place)
• taking step one to New York (if this pipe dream is going to happen, first I have to test Henry on a plane, which is happening in two weeks)
• spending more and better time with people (sometimes you have to just schedule things and assign tasks to people so that you see people but there is still an element that you're not responsible for and which can still surprise you)
• taking better care of myself (more water, fruits, and vegetables)

So I'm not sure it's going to be a total revolution, but iteration and improvement are good, too.

cutting back

Managed to cut out Tums entirely (after a few years of taking them daily, I needed the calcium anyways, right?), and cut my Advil and caffeine consumption by over two thirds while we were vacation. Now I'm cranking up water intake and hoping this all sticks.

serenity or nap

Tried out a guided meditation app today, and fell asleep for a surprise nap, instead. Not quite what I was planning, but refreshing, nonetheless.

what's cooking

Sous vide salmon, roasted sunchokes, and leftover gazpacho for dinner. Friends coming over tomorrow, and we're making mi-cuit salmon, a fresh batch of heirloom tomato gazpacho, sous vide eggs over arugula and smoked beef tenderloin with pickled sunchokes, and stone fruit and berries with a balsamic vinegar reduction over sorbet.

namibia in depth

Two weeks of pure awesomeness on what Boyfriend has declared to be the best trip we've ever taken!

• Windhoek
• showing up and finding a firepit in the room
• Okonjima:
• eating granola with yogurt and fruit every morning, and bacon (I don’t usually eat a real breakfast, but I also don’t usually get up at 5 every morning)
• discovering the joys of having hot water bottles in the bed at night, and a fire in the fireplace
• watching a baby leopard play while its mother ate a warthog on our first drive
• taking an extra day so that we could go on a second leopard drive and a second cheetah drive
• going into safari trances on the road and getting a lot of thinking done, and having some good realizations
• and some smaller realizations, such as how much I really like to pee on dives and game drives
• giving up on FitBit, because it registers too many fake steps on bumpy roads
• not being online
• Ongava
• watching the sun set and the moon rise at the same time
• seeing mother and 3-4 week old baby rhino at watering hole on first sundown drive
• taking a hot shower (super-hot, heated by a wood stove) in a cold tent after a dusty day never gets old
• watching a huge orange full moon rising
• seeing a herd of elephants with two babies at the Okonkuejo watering hole in Etosha, drinking, bathing, playing, and taking a dust bath
• watching rhinos and elephants at the watering hole during second dinner
• seeing a mother rhino and her older baby on our last morning drive, and walking near them
• squeezing extra life out of my camera battery when it tried to give up a few times near the rhinos
• Onguma
• getting in before sunset and not having anything to do the rest of the night
• staying in a warm room and a fancy lodge is so great after a cold tent with a basic lodge -- so glad this was after Ongava so we could really wallow and appreciate it with no pressure to go do things
• seeing the Milky Way from our house
• listening to roaring lions the first night
• going into Etosha and feeling no pressure, since we'd already seen everything we'd really wanted to see, so everything else was just a bonus
• getting back from Etosha by noon and having the rest of the day free to relax, read, write, and think
• taking a 2.5 hour nap on a sunny bed after a week of waking up before 6 a.m., and on this particular day, waking up at 6, going on a walk for an hour and a half, then having breakfast, then getting back in bed before 11 a.m. to have a dream within a dream within a dream in a sleep that felt like I was in an underwater cocoon
• coming across a fat, sleepy male lion on night drive
• having a super helpful manager who fixed our wheel well and got our car washed
• starting to figure out manual camera settings for sunrise, sunset, stars
• eating the best food of the trip (the food was good in general, but particularly good here, and we discovered that all those antelopes are delicious -- oryx and springbok are good, but kudu is the best)
• Windhoek
• after seeing the room they were going to give us, asking for our first room back and getting it
• Sossusvlei
• having the front seat in the plane
• making it up the biggest dune (Big Daddy) after much huffing and puffing
• gliding back down the steep face of the dune after some doubt, making the sand sing like a cello and then like a tuba or trombone
• spending another morning at the dunes -- two fun descents, and a long photo session at Deadvlei
• going horseback riding into the sunset, which was startling when we were galloping but exhilarating
• getting two massages, one of them outside!
• getting a late afternoon flight out of Kulala so we could chill for the day
• spending the last night under the stars
• sitting in the cockpit again, just by asking

And generally:

• I don’t usually keep this kind of schedule when left to my own devices, but it was amazing to see sunrise, sunset, and stars every day, especially when there was so much sky.
• I realized that one of the amazing things about dive trips or safaris is that you just show up, and then you can turn your brain off, because there is no planning to do and no decisions to make. They tell you when to wake up, when to eat, where to go, what to see, and you can just enjoy yourself without worrying over whether you’re doing the right thing at the right time to get the most out of the day.

namibia is awesome

That was an amazing trip, in both expected ways (safari! dunes! stars! no work email! quick catch-up with old friends and the gummy candy store!) and unexpected ways (long meditative rides! hot water bottles! hot showers in a cold tent!) and I will have to dedicate a post to it, but for now, it was an incredible trip, and we came back to our favorite dogs and stone fruit season.