Honeymoon: Patagonia!

Glaciar Francés

Travel, hiking and generally being outdoors are among are favorite activities. When we met, I was about to depart for fieldwork in the Himalayas, and I think Eric was intrigued by the adventure of it all.

Fast forward two years: sitting in an airport in Argentina on our way home from a friend's wedding, we decided to make lists of the places we'd like to visit. We each wrote down ten places we'd like to go, in rough order of importance. Comparing our individual lists, we found that Patagonia and Italy were near the top of both.

Lago Nordenskjöld

In the eight months that we've been married, I'm pleased to say that we've managed to visit our top two spots! We are fortunate that the academic schedule allows for long breaks between semesters, that we have two incomes, and that Eric was invited, fortuitously, to give some lectures in Italy.

Both of these trips came about somewhat serendipitously. I have to believe that part of the reason the trips came together this way is that we had clearly articulated our desire to visit these places, to each other and to the universe. Thus, we were ready to jump on opportunities when they presented themselves.

Cuernos del Paine

When a mutual friend starting recruiting people for a trip for a backpacking trip in Patagonia's Torres del Paine National Park, over the winter holidays, we jumped on board. I'd wanted to go to Patagonia ever since reading Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia, and learning about giant sloth and the wild lands of the estancias.

Joining the group trip meant sharing our honeymoon with four other women!* To preserve some couple time, we ended up visiting an estancia and touring glaciers first, and then meeting the rest of the group half-way through their hike.

Estancia Balmaceda -

where Turismo 21 de Mayo took us horseback riding

A boat trip across a windy lake took us to the base of Glaciar Serrano...
... which is sadly receding because of climate change. The glacier used to flow right into the lake, but now has receded hundreds of meters up the cliff, leaving an exposed scar of raw, bare rock. Locals say that the glacier is receding 10-20 meters a year.

The effects of climate change are being felt the most at the high altitudes and latitudes. Though Chilean Patagonia is at sea level, it is quite close to Antarctica and the South Pole. At these extreme reaches of the Earth, climate is changing much faster than at the moderate latitudes. Average daily temperatures have increased more than 1.8 degrees Celsius (over 3 degrees Fahrenheit!) over the past century.

The boat dropped us off at a small dock, where a Zodiac took us into Parque Nacional Bernardo O'Higgins, reachable only by boat.

Because of the cold and windy weather, and the near freezing water, we suited up like giant orange penguins for our ride in the open Zodiac. Even with all of our clothing (windpants over fleece pants and long underwear, fleece tops and down jackets), it was still cold in the Zodiac.

We walked to a lake at the foot of Glaciar Balmaceda,

and hopped into another boat to get a closer view of the serrated edge of the glacier.

After spending the night in a remote lodge, we rode the Zodiac up Rio Serrano into Torres del Paine National Park, where our friends were partway through their hike.

*One of them, who'd been on another couple's honeymoon, declared it The Best Honeymoon Ever. Two honeymoon, and neither was her own!

On doing what you must

The other day, the wise and wonderful LPC wrote a post called How To Live Boldly When You Are Scared as Heck.

She talked about how she'd always wanted to write. She has done many amazing, bold, seemingly scary, things in her life, but the thing that she wanted to do was write. Finally, the time was right: the children were off at college, her job had been misplaced, and she had the time and the courage to start her ever-enlightening blog.

The post resonated like few others have. I, too, have done some things that might seem to require courage (taking a year off before college to volunteer on a farm,* living in Kathmandu, solo treks), but writing regularly had always been the thing I wanted to do that eluded me.

Then yesterday, Sera's Broken*Saucer showed why I might need to become an Im-perfectionist. Perfectionism is the biggest enemy of writing. I know this intellectually - but emotionally, letting go of the need to "get it right" is tough.

Especially, perhaps, for a professor. We are paid to know the right answer. We reach this pinnacle of academic achievement by knowing the right answers, and convincing others that we are right. And by writing dense tomes, filled with obscure multi-syllabic words addressing serious topics (we'll come back to this in a moment).

The ideas for letting go of perfectionism were good. Even better was the link at the bottom of that page to 11 Irresistible Reasons to Write Everyday. This is stuff I need to know. Reasons that will keep me going.

Especially #1: Writing Creates Order. Writing is how I think and process, how I make sense of my life. I started this blog to do just that, but somehow the inversely related increase in work pressure and decrease in wedding pressure caused me to stop writing.

Now, I really need to let go of perfectionism and write everyday, because next up on my Life List is to write that dense tome that will get me a promotion. Really. In academia these days, you need one, or often two, books to get tenure. Let's just start with one, for now.

I've got ideas, data, 429 pages of my doctoral dissertation - all the raw materials to create a book. But this is honestly the scariest thing I've ever contemplated doing in my life. So scary that I've been reading mountaineering literature to talk myself down: if Ed Viesturs can face freezing, falling, and stinky tentmates on all 14 of the world's 8000 meter peaks, AND write a book about it, surely I can simply write a book. I don't even have to fear frostbite. Or hypoxia.

Finally, I read some concrete ideas on setting up your life to support your writing goals and avoid end-of-summer regret, when you realize that you haven't achieved what you wanted. (Though for writing, many of these suggestions could apply to any large project.)

All these reinforcements squashed the Dragon of Doubt, and unleashed rivers of words, the likes of which I haven't experienced since last summer when I was pounding away on my dissertation.

There you have it, my bloggy friends. I've publicly committed to this goal. I used Writing to Create Order, the by-product of which is a bunch of blog posts waiting in the wings for you.

Here's to a productive summer of doing what we must, perfectionism be damned.
(And if motivation fails, there's always the Professional Nag.)

*The gap year wasn't nearly so common when I was 18.

We are Fam-i-ly

I'm finding that what it means to be married - what it means for us to be married - is becoming clear little by little, in dribs and drabs, in small epiphanies, not all at once.

This slow trickle of realization wears away at the pre-programmed Stepford (or Desperate House-) wife tapes in my head that insisted I would immediately don an apron,* quit my job, and never leave the kitchen.

At the gym last night, we realized that we could get a 'family' membership, resulting in substantial savings if the year was pre-paid in full. A family membership. For us. Because we are a family.

The funny thing is, I've shared 'family' memberships of other types with housemates and friends. It always felt like a clever way to save money and pull one over on The Man. It never felt like a significant political statement.

*For the record: I rarely wear an apron when I cook. But I'm usually barefoot.

Old world elegance

I believe that's what we were aiming for here. It's not a common idiom for us - goofy is more like it - but rediscovering this image among the 944 (!) that Kate Harrison sent us makes me want to frame it.

Having just returned from a two week trip to Italy - Milan, Turin, Venice, Florence - we may now be slightly more in touch with our elegant selves.* Italians are unbelievably stylish and sophisticated. Everywhere we went, I was admiring the elegant ensembles of men and women alike. I never saw anyone looking sloppy or less than put together. California-casual doesn't promote such elegance - if you're not wearing flip flops, you're formal enough to go just about anywhere - but I'd like to absorb a bit of Italian style.

*A perk of academic life is being invited to give lectures in exotic locales, and getting your travel expenses paid! Eric scored a sweet deal when a senior colleague was unavailable for the engagement.

Dog bloggers?

It just dawned on me that most of the blogs I read refer to furry feline companions, if they mention beings of the non-human-kind at all. They have gratuitous cat posts, and show cat pictures when nothing else is going on. I've never really understood cat blogging. Did it start with LOLCats?

What does this preponderance (from an admittedly very small sample size) of cat people in the blogosphere suggest? Are all the dog people out running in the park with their golden retrievers, rather than sitting in front of their computers? Are cat people more likely to be homebodies, proximate to the the conditions for blogging? Are they more likely to be literate, and thus inclined to blogging? Are dog people less introspective, or less interested in sharing their thoughts with the world?

And what does this have to do with my lost blogging mojo? Have I lost the Muse because I'm a dog person who is actually temperamentally unsuited to blogging? Or because I'm a dog person minus a dog (slowly wearing down Eric on this front...)? Or am I secretly a cat person whose yet to get in touch with my feline self? (Not likely, that one.)

If/ when we do get a dog, I can promise plenty of gratuitous dog posts showing just how cute the little moppet is. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with my favorite tell-in-mixed company joke:
Why was the dyslexic, agnostic insomniac up all night?








Wondering if there is a Dog.

(Thanks for reading, if you're still around. I suspect the return of my blogging mojo will coincide with the end of the semester. Just one more week!))

Smart (& cheap!) wedding venue

I used to work in this university building with its gorgeous travertine facade. It's listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is in desperate need of seismic retrofitting, since it was built long ago.

(I still miss the large windows and sunny balcony of my former office almost every day.)

here

Each day, I'd walk past this ginkgo tree, ridiculously colorful with a showy golden display in autumn. (I miss the tree, too. These days, my walk to work has lots more panhandlers, and many fewer trees.)

here

Although I attended a wonderful graduation celebration on these steps, it never dawned on me that other celebrations could take place there, too.

here

Some friends will marry there in May, with a small number of family members in attendance, for only the cost of liability insurance. Genius!

A university campus could be just the ticket for a scenic, intimate outdoor wedding. (Why didn't we think of this??!?!)

Your wedding dress on Gilt

Filed in If We Did It Again: I'd totally be stalking Gilt* for a cut-price, re-wearable, luscious silk designer gown.

Though I love, love, loved my dress, it is purely polyester organza, not amenable to dying, re-shaping, or re-wearing. The magic is all in the architecture and cut, not so much the fabric.

But these....

Reem Acra

All for far less than a designer gown in a bridal salon, and eminently re-wearable.

Lucky size 4, this one's calling you!

Shimmering silk! Designer elegance! And the beading!

Spectacular Reem Acra

How cool would it be to through a fancy party on your tenth (or first!) anniversary and pull out one of these classically cool gowns. Yeah. That's style.

*Awesome designer fashions on sale, by invitation only. Email me if you need an invitation, and I'll set you up. I've gotten killer deals on a couple super cute summer dresses.