Adventureuse, rêveuse and bonne vivante. Loves dogs, motorcycles, real conversations and the sea.
What I’ve been up to:
The 4th annual Rainier Ravens Holiday party – about as Christmasy as I get these days but it is always a lot of fun and this year Matt came out and manned the piñata.
Afterwards I, got to deliver the gifts we collected for the women at Jubilee Women’s Center and that made me really happy.
And then it was my flamenco dancing debut at our studio performance! The dogs were very involved in helping me practice.
What was beautiful:
What I’m reading and listening to:
What I’ve been up to:
A quick trip to Morocco and Barcelona were unquestionably the highlights this month (especially in comparison to coming down with a cold). I wandered medinas and came across all sorts of treasures, saw snake charmers and hawkers, rode in a hot air balloon, rode a camel (again), visited ancient tanneries, bought a carpet, saw the blue city and ate so many amazing tagines and couscous.
Barcelona was super nice to revisit as well and meeting up with Matt, we visited the Sagrada Familia again, went to some of our favorite tapas spots and took in a couple of flamenco shows.
Earlier we also had the opportunity to see Barbara Kingsolver in conversation at Seattle Arts & Lectures and I was (as always), charged up and inspired by her quiet politics and extraordinary storytelling. I love this quote from the program:
“The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do it live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides”
And finally, US elections happened while we were away and so we were keeping a very close eye on that.
What was beautiful:
Morocco was as amazingly beautiful as I ever dreamt it would be.
Barcelona also had plenty of moments.
What made me laugh:
Some of the crazy dreams I’ve had lately, dog antics and lost of good laughs with Mateo (as we call him in Spain).
What I’m reading and listening to:
Finally watched The English Patient and Lawrence of Arabia to ease myself out of the desert.
How to just pick something (the Scientific Method)
How a human chain of helpers moved a bookstore
I have kind of an obsession with Gable Stones and House Insignia
What I’ve been up to:
TL;DR: I’ve been hella busy. This is a big one.
After mostly being home in July, supervising landscaping and doing my altMBA, August saw me escaping to the Olympic Peninsula with my Rainier Ravens women’s motorcycle group, then over to Victoria to visit a friend and see the Egyptian exhibit at the Royal BC Museum.
Then Matt and I broke out the dirt bikes and did a part of the WABDR – the Washington Back Country Adventure Route. Definitely looking forward to ramping up the dirt adventures next summer.
I threw all my clothes in the wash and swapped my motorcycle boots for Louboutins for Allyson’s bachelorette spa day and dinner, followed by her fairy tale wedding.
In between it all, both dogs have been taking obedience classes and I have been working like a fiend on a work project gone sideways and then upside down.
To celebrate coming out the other side, Matt took us to the beach.
What was beautiful:
All of the Egyptian artifacts at the museum, the many generations of Seattle
and the serene blues of twilight on the banks of the Pacific
What made me laugh:
Can always count on the dogs and my sister!
Also this high AF sloth:
What I’m reading and listening to:
ON HAPPINESS –
The Surprising Science of Happiness
Dancing is the Best Way to Get Fit & Live Longer
ON PERSPECTIVE –
Freedom From Want. You Have Enough
ON PLACEBOS –
ON RELATIONSHIPS –
Why You Should Be Kind to People You Hate
ON SUNK COSTS –
ON VULNERABILITY –
Brene Brown’s Ted Talk. Again and again.
“Somehow I can’t believe that there are any heights that can’t be scaled by a man who knows the secrets of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four Cs. They are curiosity, confidence, courage, and constancy, and the greatest of all is confidence. When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.” —Walt Disney
Scientists give Ecstasy to Octopuses
ON STORIES –
The technology of storytelling
ON WORK –
6 Signs it’s Time to Quit Your Job
How to deal with a Job You Hate
100 Ways to Boost Your Creativity
How to Use a Notebook to Reach Your Writing Goals
How to be a Good Writer with a Good Life – Writing, Reading, Ideation, Talking, Exercising, and Regrouping
ON GREED –
Why are we still chasing more money?
ON POWER –
Why Women Don’t Get to be Angry
ON MONEY –
How Much You Need to Make to Own a Home in Vancouver
ON MAPS –
An excerpt from The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands
It’s been a while since I’ve done a proper Thanksgiving but I have just surfaced from several weeks of family and then work stress and the news of Kavanaugh has hit me like a ton of bricks and I feel like I really need to focus on the good things all around me so here is a smattering of the usual suspects I am grateful for: flamenco dancing (in general but I have had this postcard for 20 years and it never fails to make me smile), that sister that makes me smile so hard, all those adventure machines (but especially the new one), that amazing flock of Ravens, those loveable doofuses, that guy that takes such good care of me, the endless serenity of the sea…and all the opportunities I have to travel and explore, that cool cat and my beautiful garden that feeds my body and soul.
There are many more things as well…I never forget how lucky I am to be educated, well-traveled, able to walk around and explore by myself, loved and cared for, healthy, employed, well-paid, Canadian.
What I’ve been up to:
Trying to get the yard finished up so we can enjoy it but in the process, I fell off the ladder onto my face so I am also practicing putting a fair bit of makeup on my eye as I run from the Anniversary sale at work, flamenco classes and shows, painting the living room, participating on various projects and learning groups for the altMBA, scrambling to keep up in my podcast fellowship and get going on The Travel Cure and 1000 Things to Love, interviews, appointments, and social calls. Phew! But the yard is finally done and I have a brand new motorcycle so in spite of the classes and all of the upcoming trips to Vancouver, summer starts now and I fully intend to kick back and enjoy it.
What was beautiful: 
What made me laugh:
A different thing every day, as it was part of the Whole Life Challenge lifestyle exercise this week.
What I’m reading and listening to:
ON HEALING –
Is the Introspection of Self-Help and Therapy Hurting our Ability to Empathize?
ON WORK –
What I’ve been up to:
Summers are always about the same…ride motos, sit in the sunshine, do yoga, go for a hike, cook some delicious things, work on a project (or 3). This one is somewhat different in that the yard work / landscaping project is still continuing but we are getting close to being done (and then I think I will actually be able to sit back and enjoy it!), and I am participating in both Seth Godin’s Podcast Fellowship and the altMBA workshop in place of some of my usual adventures.
What was beautiful:
A butterfly fluttered by and then skidded to a stop on my 17th-floor office window ledge at a moment when I really needed some magic.
I listened to the Just Kids audiobook – the story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe and it just drips and aches with beauty. I am going to have to listen to it again, and then probably read the paperback version, and then consume all the other formats for their work. Incredibly inspiring and artfully crafted.
What made me laugh:
What I’m reading and listening to:
ON MOTORCYCLES –
How Motorcycles are a rite of passage
ON HAPPINESS:
Americans are the unhappiest in the world
What I’ve been up to:
Gardening, studying, dog-walking, dancing…working on a couple of new outbuildings for my home (a mini book library and a greenhouse) while trying to stay out of the way of our landscapers while they resurface basically the entire yard, working on bettering myself (altMBA, podcast fellowship, blogging, looking into grad school, Coursera courses, PMP) while working at the J.O.B., riding my new motorbike
What was beautiful
My garden (or at least the parts of it that are intact at the moment) but which now also includes the magnolia tree blooming in front of my studio window.
What made me Laugh:
The dogs are always good for a laugh but even that’s been pretty thin. Need to insert more joy into this summer ASAP.
What I’m reading and listening to:
My reading list for the altMBA has arrived, my PMP exam is booked and my podcast fellowship class started today so have not been clicking on too many links.
On Toxic workplaces –
Mental Health Issues -“the comments about being a family were red flags”
On ME! –
Personality test results
On Self-love –
Nice people finish last
You are and always have been whole & complete
On Happiness –
Happiness Cheat Sheet + all of the links and courses and questionnaires mentioned therein. I love this stuff.
On Healing –
A Medicine Woman Seminar I am very interested in.
What was Beautiful:
The tropical lushness, turquoise seas, and volcanic activity of Hawaii.
My new Triumph T-120 motorcycle.
My garden bursting with food and flowers.
What I’ve been up to:
Wrapped up my project at work and headed to Oregon for Flock to the Rock, but then lost my wallet so turned around and headed home. The next week I went to Hawaii for my yoga retreat, except that the retreat part of it was cancelled so I rented a motorcycle and rode around, did yoga at the beach and went diving. It was alright but I need community and connection more than I need a tropical location and so it proved to be an exercise in discipline and letting go more than a holiday. Next was the purchase of a new motorcycle that I had been considering for the past year and the requisite, immediate road trip to break it in. Looking forward to summer.
What made me Laugh:
Not much lately, honestly. I have small moments of joy but they are easily overshadowed by the larger anxieties. Still, I delight in the dogs playing in the yard, having dinner with friends and making light of occasional absurdities.
What I’m reading and listening to:
On TRAVEL –
On RELATIONSHIPS –
Psychological Tips to Make Your Marriage Happier
On WORK –
Why it’s ok to be bored at work. Boredom is trying to tell you something.
How to keep your bad mood from affecting your work.
How to handle negative situations at work
A hilarious bonus episode of Revisionist History where Malcolm Gladwell debates Adam Grant loosely about organizational psychology
Walt Disney on how to truly love what you do
On MOTORCYCLES –
The Happiness of the Motorcycle
On BEING BETTER –
The cure for an anxious, sucky life
A depressive’s guide to microdosing
Why Are we Getting More Depressed?
Redefining Work, Love and Play – find people who want to color outside the lines
Happiness is tangible – “The goal with simple joys is not to crowd or rush them, not to chase or exhaust ourselves or make ourselves sick in overindulgence, but to enjoy them gently — to drink them in fully, but then just as gently put them away.”
5 Ways to Have a Good Life – “You have to commit yourself entirely. You can’t love people half way. You can’t leave important business unfinished. You can’t deliberately half-ass your job or your relationship or any other area of your life because you feel more comfortable when you have one foot out the door. You have to decide what you’re in for and then go all the way with it. You have to realize the freedom and possibility that exists within commitment…Be braver than you feel. Achievement doesn’t come with ease or comfort.”
Being Sober for 21 Days Has Improved My Life
How Social Media Impacts Our Reality
On Midlife – “Midlife is not about the fear of death. Midlife is death. Tearing down the walls that we spent our entire life building is death. Like it or not, at some point during midlife, you’re going down, and after that, there are only two choices: staying down or enduring rebirth.”
Fuck where you see yourself in 3 years – apropos, as I write my 3-year letter…
The new prime suspect for Depression – Ketamine could be our best lead in the hunt for depression.
The power of emotional decision making
On FEMINISM –
There are no Safe Spaces for Women
On AMERICA –
Why America is the World’s Most Uniquely Cruelest Society – “America is the most cruel nation among its peers — even among most poor countries today. It is something like a new Rome. It has little, if any, functioning healthcare, education, transport, media, no safety nets, no stability, security. The middle class is collapsing, and life expectancy is falling.Young people die for a lack of insulin they cannot crowdfund. Elderly middle-class people live and die in their cars. Kids massacre each other in schools — when they’re not self-medicating the pain of it all away. The combination of these pathologies happens nowhere else — not a single place — in the world. Not even Pakistan, Costa Rica, or Rwanda. Hence, the world is aghast daily at the depths of American cruelty — yet somehow, they seem bottomless.”
The birth of a new American Aristocracy – “Family, friends, social networks, personal health, culture, education, and even location are all ways of being rich, too. These nonfinancial forms of wealth, as it turns out, aren’t simply perks of membership in our aristocracy. They define us.”
On Writing –
What was Beautiful:
Grey foggy morning light while I walk the dogs (super early these days because of work busyness, flamenco music on repeat while I practice, McMenamin’s Kalama lodge.
What I’ve been up to:
Finishing up my project at work, finishing levelling the yard, riding to Oregon for International Female Ride Day with my Raven wind sisters (and stopping for McMenamin’s passport stamps at the new Kalama lodge on the way), and now I’m off to Hawaii although it looks like the yoga retreat portion/purpose of the trip may be cancelled due to volcanic activity.
What made me Laugh:
“Peculiar travel plans are dancing lessons from God,” says Vonnegut and don’t I know it after getting in late to Kalama last weekend (not my final destination) and deciding to stay, getting up early and riding to Astoria only to realize I’d lost my wallet and ride home again after tracing my steps. Now lava is literally bubbling up under my Hawaiian yoga retreat so we’ll see what happens there.
What I’m reading:
How to Make Something People Love
How to Appear Smart in Meetings 😉
Memories of my Analog Childhood
Why it’s ok to be bored at work. Boredom is trying to tell you something.
How to keep your bad mood from affecting your work.
What it means when you hold your phone without using it (and who’s doing it)
How to Love without Attachment
Create my Life vs. Life Happens to Me – a “life happens to me” mindset. We all know it’s a powerless state. Throws you into victim mode, turning your life into a choiceless maze. It stunts growth and potential and instead of living, you merely exist. You become a walking shell and define life as something that’s tolerated instead of truly lived.
What was Beautiful:
My lilac tree bloomed overnight! Which was nice because the rest of the yard is still a mud pit while I level it out and re-sod it. Getting ready for garden parties!
What I’ve been up to:
Working, and working in the garden, then curling up and watching a lot of movies…Ferdinand, Molly’s Game, I, Tonya and Ready Player One will be up soon.
What made me Laugh:
Riley, trying to grab a cookie that bounced off her nose.
What I’m reading:
How forgiving yourself and others changes your brain
Getting more done by doing less
The subtle art of connecting with anyone. “There is nobody you can’t learn to like once you’ve heard their story.”
Great relationships – 1 in 4 people in a study said they had no one to talk with. Two thirds of Americans say they’ve lost more than 90% of the friends they had 10 years ago. Many Americans can only claim to have 2 close friends — maybe less.
How to deal with annoying coworkers and the job
On manholding and emotional labour