Remabulous

Re-entry

As you all know, I have recently returned from a two week adventure in Europe. It was amazing to get the opportunity to submerge myself in a different culture and enjoy the patterns of everyday life in a different country. Now, I'm home and trying to figure out how to integrate the lessons I learned abroad into my somewhat crazy life at home.

oh my god, the jet lag.

hello, lovelies! i am back from my adventure in england, now know how to make a proper cup of tea (if circumstances conspire properly), have an irrational love of food roasted in goose fat, and possess over 30 new pairs of knickers. Along with this bounty comes a walloping case of jet lag ( i have now been awake since 4am except for a nap at 6pm which was, let's face it, ill advised). i shall begin to report on the chronicles tomorrow, as some serious sorting of the 800ish photos i took while away needs to happen before i can do it justice.

hope all are well!

hopping the pond

well, remabulous ones, i am off for the uk tomorrow. i have left a number of little treats that will post while i am gone. i will post if i am able to from europe, but am unsure what sort of internet access i will have. have a wonderful couple of weeks, and i will be back here on the 11th of february.

image: law keven via flickr

escape to esalen

after my big tirade yesterday, it is a good thing i am scheduled to get out of town. i am off today to big sur, my very favorite place anywhere, to do a weekend retreat at esalen. i will be training with rick jarow, author of the anti-career guide. i listened to the audio series of this book and decided i needed to meet and study with him. my dad decided that was a good birthday present. and so i am off.

back in the saddle again?

no, my house didn't get blown up. this is from the universal studio tour i took with my friend sean while he was visiting. i am starting to see it as a representation of my crazy month.

back from boston... and a bit disoriented. quick jaunts to the east coast always leave me scattered. it seems that june's goal is just that; scattering. despite my increasingly hey mon experience (i am up to four jobs now, i think) the running around and to-ing and fro-ing of this month makes me feel like i am doing this crazy workout challenge, too.

oi veh. here we have the challenge of the self-employed freelancer: how to maintain control  of your time in the face of chaos? i have a few strategies, and hope that sharing them will motivate me to follow them more thoroughly.

image: caroline donahue for remabulous

beantown party (where the air smells good)

am off for a few days to boston. apologies for the day off... i was stuck on a plane. am struck by the air on the east coast. it is softer than l.a.'s and smells like trees with real leaves. we took a little stroll around jamaica pond today. my brother had to get his daily exercise so as not to lose a bet with friends (3 months, cardio 6 days a week. they're crazy). i was so struck with how lush everything is here. big plush grass, giant leaves. even though i grew up in the same environment, it feels really different as i have really become a california girl in the last six or seven years since i first moved out west. still, there are things i miss: thunderstorms, fall leaves, and the smell of wet air after rain.

what do you miss from early memories? can you tap into one of these this week? i am finding that this air smell is making me want to create. find your memory and make something of it. perhaps  nostalgia is the most powerful motivator. grab onto it and see what you find. then write in and share...

image: basykes via flickr

Off on an Adventure

so i am off on an adventure for the night to go and enjoy wine country up north of l.a. with some friends. i finish my job today and was delighted to receive such a fun invitation. i have not left l.a. since january and am ecstatic for a little breather. will return monday with stories and photographs. although, perhaps, not of a landscape like the one above, which is in south africa- still, north of l.a. feels every bit as exotic for me today.

have a wonderful weekend.

image: the amazing victor geere via flickr. please take the time to look at his work via the link on his name.

no vacation time? try imagination travel

my mom recently got to spend most of february in antarctica. i didn't. but that doesn't mean i can't go with her. sort of. as i have learned that having a full-time job means having some more money but a lot less time to use it, i have had to get creative given my claustrophobic tendencies. here are some of the images my mom shared with me that are fueling my dreams of escape from life in a chair in front of a desk as of late.

yes, my mom went here. crazy. but i am trying to utilize all my absurd skills of imagination and denial to feel the same sense of  distance from regular life. here's what i 've come up with.

big sur: off-season hideaway of treasures (and a reader's paradise)

i am always scared to write about big sur, because i really don't want to share it. it's that good. i have been going for a number of years and have never once been during the busy season of summer. i have confined my visits to september through april and wouldn't change a thing. this time, i got to live the high life by staying with my parents and brother at the post ranch inn. check out the view:

yes, you can swim in it, too.

catalina, catalina

i was lucky enough to spend the end of december in two different california paradises. the first was catalina. here's the inside scoop on the island during the off season.