Mental Time Capsule - October 3, 2010

So many things on my mind. Today is Birdie's birthday. Also known as Piper Bobo Lacy, she was my best friend in college. She was kind of like a twin soul. She is in Denmark visiting her dad right now. It's her favorite place.
I just finished a new book on my Kindle. It was called "The Happiness Project." I'm not usually big on the self-help books, but I liked this one. It got me thinking on changes I want to make. The author spent 12 months working on making different changes in her life. Each month she worked on something different, things like tackling clutter, money issues, marriage, parenthood, exercise, writing, unfinished tasks/business, etc.
She was pretty methodical about how she tackled her projects, she had spreadsheets and charts of everything. Although I don't imagine I'd be quite as organized as her with all of the charts, etc., I do like the idea of making lists of projects.
The projects I'd like to tackle are:
1. Clutter. I spent all day yesterday organizing my office and creating student files. Just a few hours of work and such a huge sense of relief at knowing where every single important piece of paper is for each of my students. An extra added benefit: I inadvertently came across some of the things coming up with work that I was wondering about and had questions about, like our upcoming student portfolios which are due in December. It does pay to be organized, and just feels so much better.
2. Exercise. I was going to start an expensive diet this week but we can't afford it at the moment as we are still paying my grandmother back for some wedding debt we got into. So I am going the old-fashioned route and starting an exercise routine. My sister got me a pedometer, and I have a goal of 10,000 steps a day, which is supposedly the magic number of steps (or so) that it takes not to gain MORE weight...so I guess I should probably walking a lot more than 10,000 steps a day, but it's a start. I will continue swimming (my average is two or three times a week) and I want to add zumba and yoga into my routine too. But I will start with the 10,ooo steps a day, and see how that goes first. My friend Meghan has volunteered to be my walking buddy. So far we have walked once and plan to walk again in the morning.
3. Taking care of my health.
I have had so many health worries for so long, something which has been exacerbated by the fact that I haven't had health insurance for the last few years. It been incredibly stressful for me to be uninsured for all of this time, and I couldn't afford to get check ups out of pocket, it was too expensive. So tomorrow I am finally going to the doctor to get caught up on all of my routine check-ups. It's such a huge relief to finally be tackling all of my health concerns.
4. Stop putting personal dreams and goals last. Start bringing the things I love and enjoy back into my life. Finding balance in life and finding time for everything that's important to me has been something I've always struggled with. A lot of times the things I love to do are pushed aside for more pressing tasks. Work is important, and needs to be a priority, as it has been. So does cooking and cleaning and daily appts., errands, emails, phone calls and other tasks. However, it shouldn't be at the expense of doing the little things I love to do, so I am making these things (or some variation there of) a priority for at least one hour a day: writing in my journal, reading one of my favorite books or magazines, writing letters, blogging more often, taking photos, walking Coco, connecting with friends by phone or in person, and doing more handmade crafts like handmade cards, etc.
5. Making time to see my nieces and friends and family. We had my parents for dinner last Wednesday, and I think we are going to make a tradition of having family over for dinner on Wednesdays. I want to have Rob's dad German and his stepmom Dina over next. People are so busy on the weekends that I think weeknights are better.
6. Start writing articles again. Rob and I have been on hiatus with our writing/photography gig with Valcom news, but we want to get back into it to finally do the review on One Speed, and next, a great little breakfast place that just opened up called Orphan. We need one more article in our current portfolio to be able to apply for BATW (Bay Area Travel Writers), which is a network of freelance writers in San Francisco, and a great place to find out about new writing opportunities, especially in the travel writing genre, which is our passion and most exciting prospect.
7. Learn the ukulele. My dad and stepmom just gave me a ukulele for my birthday, and I am really excited to learn a few new Hawaiian songs.
That about wraps up my thoughts for the moment.
Onward and upward,
Jeneka

Our Wedding Day

This post is going to be short on words and more about the photos, mostly because there are no words to describe the beauty, meaning and pure euphoria of the day. Our wedding day was truly a dream and exceeded my expectations in every way. It was undeniably the best day of my life. I was never one of those girls who was waiting for my wedding day for my life to start, and never will be that kind of girl. However, meeting Rob has added so much richness, love and other dimensions to my life that I am reminded that happiness shared can be happiness doubled.

I want to be like HER!

My friend Brea sent me the link to this blog, Here is Havana. Brea lived in Cuba for six years while in medical school at University of Havana, and met Conner Gorry, the woman who writes this blog. I love this woman's blog for many reasons. For one, she has a great sense of humor and a great sense of irony, two things I love in a writer. For two, she's an expat in Cuba, so she lives somewhere that constantly gives her great material to write about. Three, she's a travel writer, which is my dream of all dreams to be! When she's not blogging about Cuba, she writes travel guides to various countries in the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
I am inspired by people like her that aren't just talking about it but are living the dream. She reported on Haiti after the earthquake and also writes really knowledgeably about medicine in developing countries. Although I don't have much interest in going into medical writing myself, she's written some really fascinating stories on her experiences in writing about medicine.
Anyway, it's great to have people out there reminding me that it is possible to go for my dreams, because other people out there, like her, are doing it.
Thanks Conner Gorry, you are something to aspire to.

http://hereishavana.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/cuban-psyche-2010/

Sea Mail Art

There is an artist by the name of Elizabeth O'Donnell who lives on a tiny island off the coast of Alaska. The way she stays connected to the rest of the world is through mail art, and right now she is requesting that people send her mail art of the sea. All of the mail she gets will be posted on her blog, and will also be in a small showing on Kodiak Island. I think I'm going to send something in. I'm not much of an artist but love to do collage. Maybe I will do a sea-inspired collage and send it in. I love projects like this, art for the sake of art. She's been getting mail from all over the world. Some pretty great stuff too. What a fantastic idea.

http://theseamailart.blogspot.com/

Point Reyes

The weekend before last we went to Point Reyes for the first time. It was not only our first time there but also Baby Camden's first camping trip and her first time at the beach! Some highlights were exploring the lighthouse, coastal hikes, a beach picnic on a beautiful day, and good times camping out with friends. All photographs were taken by Robert Ossa, except the one of he and I, which was taken by Brian More.

Incredible

So I was on one of my favorite websites, Papaya, an art and stationary/print online store and blog, and they were highlighting this crAzy amazing booklover's site below. I was blown away. Hope you will enjoy it too, it seemed worthy of being passed along!

http://www.book-by-its-cover.com/

Rob's first trip to Santa Cruz

After not having been to Santa Cruz in ages, I ended up going there twice in one month. The first time was the bachelorettte, and the second time was with Rob, who was going there for the first time. The reason for the visit was to go over our vows with our ministers who are friends of my family that I have known since I was six years old.
The meeting went really well. It was apparent that Rob hit it off with them, and we had a really good time discussing all of the details of the ceremony, and catching up with them.
When we left their house, I took Rob for a walk on West Cliff Drive, a long sidewalk that winds along the ocean. We took a two hour walk along West Cliff, enjoying the sunshine and the views.
From there we checked in to our room and made some rum and cokes, then walked to dinner downtown at a Mexican restaurant called El Palomar. We walked around a little after that, then called it a night.
On Sunday morning there was a light rain which was a bummer because we wanted to take a walk on the beach, but the rain didn't last too long. We went to Capitola because I thought Rob would like to see the colorful casitas there. I guess it was our lucky day, because there was a group of ukulele players playing on a little stage in downtown Capitola, and they were playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," the song that we are getting married to.
After watching the ukulele music, we took a little walk on the beach and took some photos of the famous Capitola casitas, then headed to San Francisco to meet my mom to celebrate mother's day.
I didn't get to show Rob as much of Santa Cruz as I would have liked, but I think it was a good start. I want to go back and see more of the Pleasure Point neighborhood, it looks like it would be a great place to live. And Rob wants to go back and ride the roller coaster! So we will be back. Oh, and Coconut wants to go to dog beach there. Although we may not be able to afford to buy there, I could see us being very happy there for quite a while. Surfing at Steamer's Lane, riding my cruiser along West Cliff drive, taking Coco to the beach, and catching the sunsets would be pretty amazing. I'm keeping the dream alive. We will get there eventually.