Late to 2019

First: Happy 2019!

Second: I've been here EIGHT MONTHS!??? 

Steve and I used to play a game where I could accurately guess the time (within a few minutes) at pretty much any moment of the day. From the moment I woke up to the moment I slept, I always knew the time. It was a fun trick I learned in childhood, but perhaps also an indication of how measured and meticulous my days have always been. 

Upon arriving in the UAE eight months ago, I simply turned off my internal stopwatch. Convenience aside, I wanted to know what it feels like to not to track every waking moment in the back of my brain. I assume it's a pretty normal (and only a tiny bit crazy) habit but I've been really trying to pare down on all the unnecessary brain buzzing in order to 1) focus on what's important, and 2) calm the F down. But that's the funny thing about ingrained habits - even when you want to it's hard to stop. I had to constantly remind myself to just enjoy the moments as they came without trying to count them, at whatever the hell time they occurred. And the result?

In short, it's different kind of life. One where I feel less controlled (in a good way), my brain is a little more free, my sleep is much more sound (sometimes I counted in my sleep), I never had any idea what time it is, and I'm late for way more things...like brunches, birthdays, and this post. 

But enough about my super weird habits that sound a hundred times worse when I put them in a blog post, it's time for New Years-ish things!

Let's take stock of the proclamations I made when I wrote this post at the beginning of 2018: 

1. Steven and I start living under the same roof again,    DONE!
2. I embrace all the things that scare me about starting something new,    I wouldn't say I've fully embraced all of it yet, but I'm pushing forward and starting something new in 2019. 
3. I read all the books I'm longing for,    I think my appetite for books will always exceed my ability to consume them, but I love that about reading. Last fall, I finally pushed through a mental roadblock and can finally read 'fun stuff' for hours at a time again. 
4. I balance all my cooking inspirations with not having 10,000 random ingredients on hand all the time, and    Ehhhh...I'd say 1/2 DONE (I have like 2 dozen items in my pantry right now where I'm like whyyyy?)
5. Phoebe makes peace with the all the squirrels (highly unlikely)    THIS IS THE SURPRISE WIN. Squirrels are not native to the UAE so we don't have any in our neighborhood. It's amaaaaaazing.

Dang, now I feel so accomplished, even if a tiny bit trivial.

Today, standing on the other side of 2018, the year feels bigger than I could have known going in.  Mostly, it was grounded in love - for better and for worse - in all it's humbling and terrible beauty. It's the year I put our marriage before my career and moved back to the UAE to mend our weary, long distance hearts. The year I finally practiced some long overdue self care, and in doing so realized I trusted Sven more than I ever thought possible. In many ways, it's another year where I learn how much lighter and brighter the road can be when it's shared. Yet also, forever the year our hearts broke in different, individual ways with Shawn's passing and then expanded and fractured in everything that came afterwards with and for Katie. 

In looking at the year ahead, I'm filled with so much excitement, and hope, and joy for things to still to come. For the first time since graduating college 10+ years ago, my year isn't scripted and I don't have an office with my name burned into it. It's thrilling and and a wee bit scary, but I'm so very full of optimism knowing that 2019 will be whatever Sven and I choose to make of it. 

Happy 2019 my loves.

*H

6 months: New Eyes

YOU GUYS - IT FINALLY HAPPENED. It took an entire 6 months (almost to the day), but the dark circles under my eyes have disappeared!

I know this is completely trivial, but I'm still so darn pleased. I think it means this break is as good for me as it feels (or at least that's how I choose to interpret it).

From now on, I will not participate in anything that jeopardizes my new under eye bliss.

Abu Dhabi Life: Friday Brunch

Our friends baptized their new baby this weekend.

In the UAE, it's also a good occasion for going to a big ol' celebratory brunch. And in true WASPy fashion, Steve and I love a good brunch. Before moving here we had fun trying quaint little brunches all over LA, Vegas, and Seattle. And even farther back, I have hilarious memories from the cheap bottomless mimosa brunches my friends and I used to seek out across NYC in the years right after college.

But in the UAE, brunch isn't cute, or quaint, or made for rolling out of bed and stumbling towards. It's an event that requires a little advance planning, usually reservations, time to get presentable (yoga pants not recommended), a round trip taxi ride (zero tolerance alcohol policy in the UAE), and eating and drinking way too much (both are all you can eat). Oh, and it's typically on Friday since that's the primary day off here and people tend to stay for the entire brunch time - 4 hours.

And you guyyyyyyyys, brunch here costs $125 - $180 per person.

Apparently, my reaction means I haven't fully acclimated. None of our friends seems to have the same reaction, or at least not anymore. Even Steven thinks it's fine.

But of course we wanted to support and celebrate with our friends and their new bebe, so we joined in. Steve and I opted for the non-alcoholic option but time crawls when you're drinking water and iced tea.

But 4 hours is a long time when you're stone cold sober and all your friends are several drinks deep.

So when Aimee handed me a mojito 2 1/2 hours later, I happily partook.

And like magic, the rest of the brunch flew by. And so did the drinks we had at our place, and the shawarma we ordered and happily ate with our hands.

The end.

Travel: Not Cyprus

When I initially booked our Cyprus trip, I thought this weekend would be full of good hikes, great views, leaping off waterfalls, and plenty of "Ahhhhhhh" moments.

And being totally honest, I also pictured being less than graceful in some of those pursuits.

But instead, today we woke up past noon and have spent the entire day as couch potatoes...in Abu Dhabi.

Sometimes our travel plans don't work out. It's usually annoyingly benign - like when I didn't realize Bahrain's Ramadan was super strict and we opted for Prague instead, or getting on the wrong train on our way to Medoc last year, or simply that something wasn't as good as I hoped. We don't dwell on it, but still a valuable part of the whole travel experience.

But yesterday, we had to cancel our entire Cyprus trip at 2am just a handful of hours before we were supposed to depart.

First, I got a text at 1:30am from the airline saying our itinerary had changed.

And when I checked the airline website it had been replaced by a press release stating they had gone out of business 90 minutes prior and ceased all flights.

Steve and I did some quick checks to see if the trip could still be salvaged - flying in on different airlines, or even re-routing to an alternate destination.

But in the end, we opted to just cancel the whole thing and use the vacation time for a later trip.

And then we ordered a pizza and ate it in bed with a bottle of Cava, while watching HP 7-1.

Booked: Cyprus in 2 weeks!

One of the best things about living in the UAE is its physical location - there are countless places we've never been within a few short hours (by plane).

I stumbled on some airfare to Cyprus that was just too good to pass up.  So we're going for 5 days! Lately we've really enjoyed keeping our trips more flexible, and road tripping through the picturesque locations.  It worked really really for us in Croatia and France, so we're sticking to that format for Cyprus too.

We've got our plane tickets, a car, and Phoebe is confirmed for boarding. That's pretty much all we need these days.

Image courtesy of PDX International Studies

Happy October 1st

When I was 9 or 10, my parents came home with a tiny block of triangular wood, cut in the shape of Nevada. My mom had written "Happy Oct 1st" on it with a blue ball point pen and triumphantly handed it to me after I had finished practicing piano. It was a simple gesture and the wood was mostly likely a end-scrap from a lumber yard, but I cherished it. For years, it sat on display in my parents' house - first on the piano, then the glass display shelves, and then a hallway table amongst family pictures. I'm not sure if it had the same meaning for my mother, but it always reminded me of her in a moment of genuine and simple happiness, so full of light and mirth. And even though that piece of wood is long lost, the memory is a lighthouse.

Twenty-five (ish) years later, and October 1st is one of the only family traditions I still hold close. I usually call my mom to bring each other a little joy, and then I do one simple and uncomplicated thing to make myself as happy as I remember her being. A few years ago, I treated myself to 2 pieces of pie and a bottomless cup of coffee for dinner. And one year, very early in my career, I left work early to read my book in the park and enjoy the fading sun - both of which were quickly becoming precious commodities.

To this day, being immersed in a book is still one of my greatest pleasures. There are entire parts of my brain/heart/life that only come to life when reading and I've passed months, maybe even years, of my life in this state. When I first moved back here I was so excited about all the books I would inhale, and had so many things lined up to read. I had dozens of ebooks checked out or on hold from the public library, a new and maxed out Kindle Unlimited membership, and about a dozen print books squirreled away in my luggage (because nothing can replace the weight/smell/feel of those pages).

But for months, I had difficulty gripping a story the way I wanted. My head was too crowded, too full of meaningless minutiae, and too accustomed to constantly being busy. The best I could muster were a few short spurts throughout the day - often times while my mind raced across 10, 15, 20 different topics. I can't tell you how many times I had to reread the same pages.

But now, after months of working at it nearly everyday, I am finally able to read and read and read to my heart's content. I've remembered the art of emptying my mind and focusing on just one thing at a time, and enjoying it. It's a long awaited and beautiful thing, and I am oh-so-happy to be here.

So today, on this Happy October 1st, I am going to order takeout and read all night.

BOOKED: November in Nevada and Christmas-ish in Venice

We're coming back to Nevada for ~2 weeks in late November! We're planning to spend 11-12 days in Las Vegas, Reno, and where ever my Dad is (he travels). It's going to be a little crazy like always but we're looking forward to soaking up quality time with everyone we've missed.

We usually have lunch and dinner scheduled with someone different every single day, and it's exhausting but worth it. We'll probably have to be a little regimented about our schedule/dates/times, which is hard since we always end up wishing there was more time. But hopefully it will be enough time to catch up on the latest that's happening with everyone (me):

while drinking all the craft beers (Steven):

and reminding the kids what their far-flung aunt and uncle are like.

And of course, we added a little extra trip, too.

From Vegas, we're heading straight to Venice, Italy for 5 days! We have some extra vacation days at the end of our trip that we can't spend in the US (boo taxes) and I really wanted to visit a Christmas Market somewhere in Europe on our way back. (In case you weren't aware I really love Christmas.) Most of my research into the more traditional locations like Germany, Vienna, or Strasbourg didn't really jive with the way we like to travel. They all sounded kind of magical to me (especially the Ravenna Gorge Christmas Market), but Steven thought most of them sounded kind of weird. 

But then I stumbled upon some descriptions of off-peak Venice - mellow, chilly weather, beautiful fog rolling the canals, super easy reservations and no wait times, and a Christmas market selling mostly traditional and regional goods. Sounds perfect.

photo credit: Jo Rodgers for Vogue

Plus, it means eating lots of glorious Italian food. SOLD.