30 September 2014

The Busking Experience

A re-occurring travesty is that one easily takes for granted where they live. This seems a little absurd because I live in Asheville, a beautiful mini-Boulder. Lots of mountain climbing, hiking, and kayaking available ... a huge amount of farm to table restaurants complete with vegan, veg, and gluten free options ... and most importantly, serious music options. Nothing particularly in the way of Broadway shows, operas, or symphony like what I enjoy, but the jazz, electronica, and general alternatives are very globally competitive .... including busking.

While I've been familiar with busking for many years, the attendance of a documentary opening at the Orange Peel was too intriguing for me to burrow in my little hole for yet another evening. Even more special beyond the documentary showing was the live performances of a few frequent buskers, and the attendance of so many buskers. I had no idea that Asheville did not require permits for busking and that it's a self-organized group of individuals who simply make it work. 

Yet more dimensions of Asheville to appreciate....







29 September 2014

Crash, Burn, and Escape

Just as a clue to over-driven, OCD, and perfectionist colleagues out there, it's not worth. Whatever has got you to the point where you start shaking when you open email, get randomly furious with completely innocent communication, and have an incapability to focus for more than three milliseconds (assuming you can normally focus), then you are officially burned out. Crashed. Done. Take a break - it's over until you do.

It's really funny, in retrospect, because when I did snap, several people apologised to me thinking they were the last straw. Really, it wasn't just one thing. It was everything. Something about maintaining two high responsibility roles at one location, several things going on in my consultancy, and collecting the data for my PhD just sent me over the edge. I take great pride in the fact that I acknowledged it, informed my boss and two managers who report to me that I had indeed snapped and needed sleep as well as time with my daughter especially.

Then, after two days of sleep and hanging out with Ellie (including roasting marshmallows in our fireplace with hot chocolate with steamed milk), it was time to even escape Asheville. But nothing as well known as Hilton Head ... it was time to find new territory, such as the Low Country between Charleston and Hilton Head.

While I heard that Beaufort was beautiful, I truly did not expect the mini-New Orleans experience. Founded in 1711, before Charleston or Savannah, this town is the centre piece of true history. A church that survived the Yemasee Wars, Revolutionary War, and Civil War ... a cemetery over 300 years old ... houses that represented a small version of the American District of New Orleans ... and a town centre that had excellent food as well as cute shoppes ... all near the ocean and midst islands everywhere, it was easy to find the town incredibly attractive.  The shopping included a wonderfully unique Lego instruction book for Ellie in the local toy shoppe and a gorgeous vintage Limoges oyster plate. That was actually quite a challenge. After getting rid of a lot of dishes, I felt some guilt over buying another ... but then this was 1) very uncommon dish, 2) a dish that I'd use constantly, and 3) really totally gorgeous! Fine. One of my inner voices thankfully relented so that I could stop rambling around the shoppe muttering to myself, and even more thankfully, the relenting voice was the one fighting the purchase :)


I realised, during this little escape, that Hilton Head ocean waters doesn't do much for me. It's so calm anyway. I far prefer the angrier waters found in the northeast down to Outer Banks. However, something that the area does provide in abundance is wildlife. Pickney Island nestled on the inland between Hilton Head and the Low Country is a gorgeous walking experience for tonnes of bird life especially. This particular snap is a favourite of mine (it took about 10 in a row to get this good one).






...and what ocean experience does not include the most amazing food on the planet? Well, one of the most amazing foods at least. The local Bluepoints are really quite good - very mellow with a slightly crisp finish. Add some horseradish with a touch of ketchup, and it can get out of control. My only problem is that fresh local oysters ruins me for anything less. However, it is a sacrifice that I am willing to make on a regular basis.


Garden Love

There are times when I question why we bought a rather large home and rather large yard with, well, rather large responsibilities for maintaining them! Combined with two neighbors who also maintains gardens, then you start seeing some very nice benefits to the established home life. Not that our lives are particularly established, but we can at least pretend to be in certain areas :) This beautiful scene can be attributed nearly 100% to garden activity, with the lemons and onions being the only exception. While Eric raged about there being only four tomato plants, we are now overwhelmed with them ... tomato and mozzarella ... tomato sauce ... fried tomatoes ... roasted tomatoes ... how many ways are there to cook with tomatoes? We're finding out. But really, the apple, or in this case, apples, of my eye are my lovely eggplant and butternut squash. Sadly Mr. Butternut is the only one of his vines to make it but I'm happy to report that despite the perfection of Mr. Eggplant, still more are coming on the vine. He has already contributed nicely to the dinner table with a veg lasagna. Mr. Butternut's final destination is yet to be completely determined, however likely my amazing squash soup. I love fresh garden veg!




Power Machines and Flowers

There is a weird dichotomy in my soul to love a tiny crocus and while also adoring the force behind large motors! In this case, they go well together as I decided that I couldn't handle another computer driven task and to own the refurbishment of my front yard. There's nothing quite so invigorating as to actually perform a physical task. Well, in this case the limits of my physical tasks was to draw some yard designs, dream a little, and phoned a landscaper to wipe out the current bushes for a clean slate. 


What I did not expect was that I had quite that much forestry as their large cart became stacked! Now there's literally nothing in my front yard, but I anticipate beauty by Spring with tulip and daffodil bulbs planted, a bit more landscaping planned, and Summer Snow ordered to start replacing the grass. My beautiful fat holly bushes already schedule for delivery and planting next week. My winter of watching birds should be excellent!

08 September 2014

Curiousity

Magazines are awesome! There is a unique excitement about going to a fun bookstore that stocks funky magazines and browsing them for a new find. A couple have hooked me completely. MISC (Movement, Intuition, Style, Complexity) is one that that keeps very happy on airplanes, lost in the worlds and perspectives that it continually gives me. In fact, I started subscribing to it ... another subscription worthy magazine is the Cake & Whiskey: The Sweet & Spiritual World of Business. I was hooked with the inaugural issue back in August 2013 while attending a summit for entrepreneurial women in Seattle. There are many other amazing magazines that I buy now and then, such as AFAR Travel Magazine and Orion Magazine, and then I often browse the Wall Street Journal Magazine that comes with my subscription to the newspaper.

However, I can always count on MISC and Cake & Whiskey to surprise me... they really give me the "oh my" thought and send my brain hurtling to another night of thoughtful sleeplessness that positively impacts me as a human, woman, and career person! In Cake & Whiskey's most recent issue (No 6), the Curious Creatures article nailed me. The context is that curiosity is essential, as it "plugs you into the awe of everyday life". This is a bit annoying to a person who has about zero curiosity in other people unless it suits her. The article even had the gall to quote a scholarly study from 2002 where the University of Buffalo found "the degree to which people are curious actively influences their personal growth opportunities and the level of intimacy that develops when they meet someone new."

Whatever. Obviously I'm the exception.

Moving quickly through this annoying article so that I can get to the funding resources article for women entrepreneurs, which suddenly seemed very interesting.

Oh, wait. Another killer statement. 

..."When curiosity is a guiding force in your life, amazing things happen. New friends, novel opportunities, big ideas. Be patient and persistent. The person sitting next to you on the plan might be the catalyst for your next big career move, but you'll never know unless you start asking."

Of COURSE I just had to be sitting on a stupid plane. 

Did I mention my lack of curiosity? An older lady, probably a bit boring, doesn't have a clue about what I did if she asked (nobody seems understand my job anyway), off to see her cute little grandkids in some god forsaken part of Montana.

Right?

I don't know if I was more bothered that 1) I was getting curious, or 2) it was bothering me that I was realising how nervous I was about broaching any conversation with a pure stranger on an airplane. After all, the millisecond anybody nods towards me, the ear plugs are activated.

Finally, after several minutes of struggling, I decided that the best option would be to simply not shut her down if she wanted to talk. Honestly, I have no memory of starting the conversation, but I would like to state for the record that I could not have been more pathetically wrong with my stereotype.

It emerged that a woman who looked to be in her lower 60s (was 73) was "popping off" to Paris to hang out with her girlfriend in their annual adventure. Wow. Did my grandkid visit concept ever get killed. Paris? Really? "Do you go often?" The response was "oh yes, for the last 50 years every year since we graduated college!" Following was a short explanation that life is meant to live, not just fritter away stressed out over details that won't matter anyway. I would like to add that I've never met a 73 year old individual who was so absolutely with it on modern times, offering real insights and perspective to my own future.

Thank you Cake & Whiskey. While I don't see myself plunging into discussions with strangers very often, I certainly won't resent the opportunities.

The Mini Love Affair

When agonized over finding the best fit of vehicle for my personality in 2009, it was with immense pride and love that I pulled Habanero out of the dealershipshowroom in February. Ticketed merely weeks later for speeding down a Virginia highway to my first PhD residency, Habanero had a great head start to the 150,000 mile journey for the next five years. She was our mainstay in Denver for almost two years, and later in Scottsdale for almost a year. Having literally traveled from California to Cape Cod, Canada to Florida, and so much between including Texas, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah … well, you get the picture.



One of Habanero’s most adventurous acts has to be slogging through several feet of snow to St. Elmo’s, a ghost town in Colorado that I was possibly a little over determined to do. Locals were a bit … dubious, but thanks to possibly a couple of tows, we survived, and we got to see ghost town in the most beautiful condition of nature: winter.




The other rather foolish but absolutely required adventurous act would be the beach on the farthest northern tip of the Outer Banks, North Carolina. Completely impervious to the recommendations of AWD vehicles, we went gaily along, until of course we hit a soft spot, and the real adventure truly started.

There are so many adventures to remember across the domestic USA. I dreamed of shipping her to Iceland for the Ring Road, and driving up to Alaska for a two month foray, but a certain long legged little girl said enough was enough. Turns out that she was getting really offended be forced into an eggplant position for hours at a time. My husband was just as crabby, and since Habanero was up for the multiple thousand dollar update for simply having that many miles on it, the timing was working out for the upgrade.

Sitting there in the car park in Charlotte, I had a flood of emotions overwhelm, which included screaming “I’m sorry Habanero!!! I can’t believe I even considered betraying you!!!” Then possibly running towards it, weeping, and throwing myself across her bonnet.

Hrm. Maybe not. A proper blog memorial will suffice.

Enter Peppercorn. Ellie leg approval has been reached. Eric’s need for electronic packages sated. Marian’s AWD and awesome engine expectations met. Finally a car that the whole family can agree on, thus I see a bright and long future together….with ownership only for 10 days and 3,000 km already clocked, Peppercorn is well on the path towards her own adventures to come J