Desert Magnolia

If you've never been to Taos, you should find a way to go. It's unique in about a million ways, and never disappoints. Case in point, our recent stay. In an historic mansion. With close family and friends.  Said mansion was built in the late 1700's. Yes, 1700's. Of adobe. Thick walls of it that subdue sound and make everyone feel like they are alone in their space, when in fact they are surrounded by others. It's very cool. The house meanders, the older sections have lower ceilings. The newer sections have radiant heat, so your feet are always toasty and you feel comfy warm without the pesky central air blowing noise that most modern houses have. The kitchen, well, it's a chef's wet dream. Really. Viking rules the double ovens and cooktops. Butcher block island in the center provides ample prep space. Multiple sinks make keeping the whole space clean while large meals are prepared easy.  The bedrooms are all cozy, and private. So if one needs some personal t...

Have you ever had a getaway that, the more you looked back on it, the better it became? The ones that fall into that category are rare and precious and buoy the spirit for years to come, I've found. Our big birthday trip to Seattle falls into that category. Every time I share memories with someone, I realize just how amazing it all was. It felt..fast, but we relaxed. It felt comprehensive in many ways, but we took our time. It felt langorous, yet we did and saw a lot. Magic, yes? I think so. Mostly I think these magical moments are about the people involved, and how they flow together and enjoy time and generally just relax into each others' company and simply enjoy whatever happens. In this case, JL knew when we wanted to head out and explore, and when relaxing and just 'being' were the ticket. And as a tour guide, well...she cares about and sees life very similarly to us, so naturally the stuff she showed us, we totally enjoyed. Apparently we all roll the s...

In less than two months I'm turning 50. The big five-oh. Half a century. And just a few weeks after that, so is GG. We've tossed around a lot of ideas for how best to celebrate this rather momentous event. We knew we wanted to get away for a few days. We knew we didn't really want to do the whole party thing. Black balloons, bad cards and terrible jokes about impending death are fun, but we wanted to keep it a little personal this time. First we thought we'd go South, maybe back to Cancun for a few days of R&R, Paamul style. Then we thought we'd head up to Pagosa Springs to enjoy a weekend soaking in hot, steamy pools in the mountain air. But over the weeks we both knew we hadn't yet hit on exactly what we wanted to do. But then we both came to the same conclusion at exactly the same moment - Seattle! Why Seattle? I want to share this event, as it turns out, and my dear friend JL just happens to live there. :-)  When this song came out, the ye...

I have a really beautiful calendar featuring, yes, Paris. This morning I gave it a cursory glance and realized how incredibly lovely this month's featured image is. It's the Arc de Triomphe..., lit up with a golden glow...and in the foreground is a street at night..with those really pretty white crystal lights strung on trees....and one brilliantly red roof on a quaint little restaurant... And it made me completely nostalgic, and yearn for another taste of that beautiful city. We will return, we've already discussed how we'll do it. We'll plan on a few weeks, ideally during the summer, and we'll find an apartment. We'll walk around during the day, cook at night, and enjoy Paris from a less touristy, less frenetic, more 'yes, we're staying just around the corner until the end of the month' kind of way. No hurry, no stress, just Paris at its best, revealing itself to us, a little at a time, on its terms. Our only responsibility? Be absolutel...

Happy New Year! My how the time has flown. First there was the week from some conjured Hell aka finals week, and then we were gone...to the Yucatan, where we were greeted by sun, sand, quiet, lovely people, and time together as a family. We spent a week being bored, by design. Decisions were easy, and usually involved either what to wear, if it was time to reapply sunscreen, if snorkeling was next or would a nap really be more the ticket... In short, it was Heaven on Earth, and we were absolutely charmed by the experience. The food, fresh, delicious, Yucatan style. Fish, avocado, fruit..and pico de gallo, and habanero sauce to spice things up. Fresh squeezed orange juice every morning. Mmmm...lots of fresh corn tortillas, which were completely and totally habit forming and absolutely yummy. Drinks were also very good, and Enrique liked to pour a particularly potent margarita for his American guests. Ahem. His guests appreciated his work. I am not usually a marg lover, but pu...

As weeks go, this one has had its moments. Fortunately, most of those moments have resolved without too much bloodshed. Which, I'm sure we all agree, is a good thing. While it's not over yet, I'll venture to say that there's a good chance it will finally come to a fucking end about this time tomorrow... Between now and then, though.. Tonight's shows. Grey's. Lots going on there. Can Meredith hold onto that baby? Will the surgery work for Mc Dreamy? Will Yang really divorce Owen? Did Owen ask for a divorce to keep Yang in the lawsuit? Yes, lots there. Also, and I thank you JL for continuing to entice me with the new Scandal drug until I am now officially hooked. Ahem.  WTF? I mean, come ON....it's always way over the top and I LOVE it. Tomorrow. Meeting in the morning, which, should go ok, but really? Anything can, does, and has happened in those stupid things so I'm just going to do yoga in the morning and act unsurprised no matter what come...

Actually, that countdown began with our actually buying plane tickets , I suppose, but you know what I mean. Things that must be done before we depart? At least a million, and about half of those are non-negotiably must do's. Patience I have with anyone who smilingly assumes I'll be able to handle yet another 'awesome big idea' before I go? None. Reasons why Cancun represents an opportunity to regroup, sans wireless? Duh. It's Mexico. In case you forgot how beautiful it will be there: Reasons why I can't wait to get the hell out of here? If you've been reading my blog, you already know. If not, know this - if it were possible for a few months to be any more insane, emotional, stressful or just plain ri.fucking.diculous, I'd be terribly surprised. And at this point, not much surprises me.

Simple things are truly what make life rich and wonderful. In fact, some days, the simple stuff is all that keeps me from running screaming from the room. Seriously. Like, when my friend JL would do her silly happy dance as she walked by my office door. That would jolly me out of any stress out I could conjure. Every single time. Like when Son called yesterday and announced he'd be joining us in Mexico for the holidays. Woot! So now our fam will be complete plus 1 sweet friend of Daughter's...laying on the beach, contemplating whether it's time to apply more sunscreen. Or or to reach for a cold beer or order a chilly marg. You know, that kind of stuff. Easy. Like Daughter and I spending time at our hair stylist's yesterday afternoon. Sipping a glass of wine, getting our 'dos done. Then shopping, and actually finding a cute pair of boots and some darling jeans for the girl. Like dancing in the kitchen..while listening to Tom Petty, laughing with my girl, p...

For the Mexico trip? I decided to buy a new suit. Ahem. It's red. And it's a bikini. And it's stringy. I am...fairly fit, but made curvy. I am confident and most days it takes a lot to make me blush. The path to this suit is one I thought you might appreciate, since my very good friend, confidant and fashion adviser JL is part of it. A paraphrased conversation between JL and me, earlier this week: Me: What is your position on the whole women of a certain age wearing bikinis? JL: I wish we had a more European view of things and just did what's appropriate for an occasion instead of getting caught up in the whole age thing. Me: I agree. I'm thinking of getting a string bikini for this Mexico trip, and I think I just needed to hear that it's really ok..to do whatever I'm comfortable doing..but not do something because someone says when you reach a certain age you stop wearing bikinis, you know? JL: Yep. I think you should do what feels right, the...

Flash forward to present moment. To a Monday night spent domestically focused..on Skyping with Daughter, who is improving in both emotional and physical aspects. To making flight plans to bring the girl home for the holidays...the day following her last final exam. To making flight plans that mirror hers for her bestie and roommate. Why mirroring flights? We're getting the hell out of Dodge for the holidays, and we're taking her bestie with us. To Mexico. Cancun. The ocean, warm breezes, where only SPF, hats, plenty of water and bikinis are required. "Mas tequila, por favor." That's really all I want to say during our stay in a time share condo that a friend of ours has been kind enough to offer up. We'll cook, we'll hang out, and mostly..we'll just 'be'... Picture if you will, Hubby, moi, Daughter, and her friend the lovely Ginger girl from the East Coast. Can you say Hell yes? I can.

So, hi. I'm really not sure where to begin so I'll start where I left off nearly a month ago and move forward... Timeline 9/20/12. I get on a plane and head East. Made it to Minneapolis before Delta, the least reliable airline in the entire world (that isn't currently in bankruptcy) with what must be an abyssmal on time record announced that our commuter jet from Minneapolis to Providence had 'a pretty big dent in the cargo door', and that they were going to have to address that before we could leave. Well, yeah. That would be good. Address the big dent in the skin of the airplane BEFORE we take off, please. Turns out the dent was bigger than they'd thought at first, so really, the next step was to 'wheel over another plane' and then we'd be all set to go. Up until this point I didn't realize that extra planes are just sort of stored...just for these occasions when a ball peen hammer and some swearing aren't going to do the trick wi...

One of GG's friends is a musician, in fact he teaches it, and he's good. He plays the piano, often with a couple of other band people and they make nice jazzy music. Tonight he's playing at Mykonos, our favorite neighborhood Greek restaurant. Their food is traditional and delicious. Their bar is full service, so if you're in the mood for a glass of wine or a killer martini, you're set. I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for yet. But I'll know when I sit down. We're meeting friends. A couple we've known for 26 years, and in fact who attended our wedding and whose wedding we attended and with whom we've raised our 4 children (collectively) and who feel much more like family than many family members to us. They're awesome. And a former colleague of GG's, who is funny and cool, and who lived in the Middle East with her ex, and with whom we share fun stories and who really convinced us to spend next Christmas at her timeshare in Mexic...

I did. Today. And I realized that it was the unexpected shock of a weird turn in a haircut that resulted in my going with a super short pixie in lieu of 'growing long layers into a bob.' Because sometimes, when layered on top of all the other crap that's going on, even if it's good crap? Enough is enough. The good news is my stylist and I worked through it all, just fine. I have supershort hair for my trip abroad, which may not be a bad thing anyway. So really the crying? Wasn't about the hair so much, as the shock of the new look, coupled with the realization that I'm leaving the country in one week (ONE), coupled with the knowledge that I have a butt ton of work to complete before I leave just so things stay moderately on track, coupled with my fear that I've forgotten at least one something significant but not knowing what that might be, of course, which simply adds another item to couple with the rest. And I think I may have just misused the t...

Seriously. You'd think that arranging a trip the likes of ours would be a piece of cake. That travel agents would grab at the chance to book us. Apparently not. Apparently nobody seems to know where to stay in Paris, and unless they're getting a rather substantial cut of an airline fare, they don't look for good deals. This is a fact which has upset G.G. and caused a series of events to begin that include but certainly aren't all inclusive: We bitch and carry on and then do what we (probably) should have done in the first place, which is to do our research on our damned flights and book 'em. Period. There are hops and there are variables, but if you're a travel agent, aren't you supposed to take that in stride? I mean, what the hell else do you do all day but figure out options for your clients??? That's your frickin' job. We decide if we want to go through Boston or NYC, then choose. Just make a decision, and book. We concoct a meal tha...

I have a very long bucket list. On said list are a multitude of international locations, some predictably so, some for more personal reasons like 'wanting to visit the homeland of my people' and that sort of thing. Some are on there for no apparent reason but a whim. Of all the types of locations, for all the reasons they appear upon my list, Abu Dhabi remained absent up until a month ago, when it not only was added, it was placed in the top two spot. Let me explain. Son is working over in the land of many sandstorms and camels and plentiful oil reserves and indoor ski slopes and where the bright shiny present crashes into the 5th century. Everywhere you look, I'm told. He said we should come visit, and that we should do it when the daily temps are somewhere below interior of the sun levels, which means in the winter. It should be around 80 degrees most days. At first we couldn't fathom a trip of that magnitude right now, but then we realized he was probably n...

Grandpa Jack was a scientist through and through. And an atheist until his last weeks when he began to suspect there might be more to all of this than just atoms and rearranging matter and such. Particularly when he really began to consider the whole, 'energy is neither created nor destroyed, it simply changes forms' thing. Oddly enough, many of our last conversations revolved around the meaning of life, of family, of the purpose of this ginormous, grand, universal experiment. Grandpa Jack was born in Idaho, and went to college in Pocatello. He loved the Western U.S., but before he died at three weeks shy of 90 years old, he had seen every state in the union. But he loved the West best, he said. My family, as I've shared, is on their homeward leg of a most amazing sight seeing trip that was borne of a need to be in Boise at a soccer tournament and morphed into a national park tour that has awed and amazed and mostly humbled them at every turn. There simply isn't m...

Between now and the time my plane takes off on Friday morning the following activities should have taken place: Make cherry sauce for cheesecake Buy cheesecake stuff Make cheesecake Write a compelling press release (not about the cherry sauce or the cheesecake, about work stuff) Distribute the press release to normal, then online outlets Print a stack to take to the event Pick up bag from our assistant who had been labeling chocolates for us Pack Pick up library books that are waiting Buy cat food and sundry other items for house/cat sitter and general use/travel Touch up pedi Do/Fold laundry Enjoy a nice early Father's Day dinner with Hubby, Daughter, and Hubby's best friend GR who will be joining us for filets, cognac sauce, artichokes, crusty sourdough and very nice cabernet. Oh, and cheesecake with cherry sauce. Try to get a good night's sleep before the trip since Hubby and Daughter and GR will be leaving at 0500 on Friday, then...

Seriously. For the past 11 years I have been a serious business traveler. At my peak travel frequency I was on the road at least twice a month for a week at a time. It was brutal. It was a test in personal and professional endurance. It was part of my job. Travel is a part of what I still do, but usually it's not back to back to back to back like it has been this last few months. And it's never accompanied the hellish professional and emotional year that has unfolded. I'm setting you up to feel some sympathy for me, but really, it is what it is. I'm a grown up, and I screwed up. See, a couple of weeks ago we did a big shuffle on who was coming on this trip, and I rearranged the itineraries, rooms, etc., since I had made the original reservations. In the process, I actually traveled to another destination, was there for five days, did the song and dance that event required/deserved, then returned to home base...for less than a week, and now I'm on this ja...

Never accuse me of being deep. I am capable of superficiality of stupendous proportions and manage to derive intense satisfaction from focusing on issues NOT of substance whenever possible. Life is intense; finding joy in simplicity requires skill. Kind of like meditating and learning how to steer your brain back to your heart energy when it veers off on some random tangent again. And again. And again. It's a discipline, really. So I found an amazingly beautiful deep winey garnet polish, Stop Whining, by Sonia Kashuk, that will become the icing on my toesies' cake this weekend. Now that I have my pedi plan in place, I need to focus on wrapping things up here at the office, then head out and wrap up things in my personal life before I head out once more. DC weather forecast seems reasonable, mid 50-60's with a chance of rain a couple of the days I'll be there. So I'll pack an umbrella. And take my favorite black bomber jacket and a fun scarf. Checklist bef...

Someone teased me about it, so I just want to clarify. When I went to pack for this last trip I did NOT use Ziplocs for my clothes or shoes, after all. The effort seemed...ludicrous and like overkill when I seriously thought about it. I did roll my clothes up, though. And that worked fabulously. I only had to iron once, and it was really a touchup that was prompted by pre-media meeting nerves. I probably could have worn that blouse a little wrinkly and nobody would have noticed because they were focusing on my energy and what was coming out of my mouth and the essence of our meeting, right? Which is why I decided to touch that baby up. So, Ziplocs 0, Ironing 1. That I can live with. Can you? :-)