Ripped from the Headlines

How to get lost, on purpose, in your own head

Went hiking yesterday, did about 6 or 7 miles in very light patchy snow up towards Gertrude's Nose in the Mohunk Preserve. Went with a small group of people I didn't know and had some light conversation along the way, but mainly I like to go hiking to be in my own head, and I don't talk a lot during. One foot in front of the other, watch the rock watch the root, look up at the sky, admire the view.

Which, despite everything I could ever write you could never include the details of properly -- and while it is a lovely view it is an ordinarily lovely view up there; in late January, upstate New York you see nice things, but not extraordinary things. And I got to be in my head a lot, where when I let the thoughts loose to run around and bang into each other sometimes ideas form. And I get re-inspired to write.

I felt twinges of that coming to me as I walked, and wished I could immediately transport back to the computer and get down to business. But it's a process, and a process I haven't been able to do much of lately. I got very used to going through the world solo, one foot in front of the other, dodge the rock, avoid the root -- and spent some good times envisioning fictional scenarios. Now that life has changed and I'm happily with a second person, there's less time spent up in that imaginary area, which is a loss.

I have to wonder if that's partially creating the stagnation I've had with writing the last couple of years. Not enough time to let it spool out in my head before putting it on the page. Balance is needed, and maybe some more hiking.

Whatever gets you through the night

Is there anything better than a virtually unbroken night of sleep? (Does anyone literally have an unbroken one? I mean, where you don't even get up to pee?) I had that last night, just one quick up and then back down. When the alarm went (gentle NPR, no buzzer) I was in the midst of a hugely weird dream involving a hairy woman trying to put the moves on me, and preparing to get into my bathing suit, and I remember waking up and thinking, "What the hell?"

My dreams are the most creative part of me right at the moment. I think the brain is just a little too preoccupied with getting things organized in real life to worry about coming up with great stuff in the imaginary one -- that is, the story I'm rewriting. So I'm trying not to force it too hard. But right at the moment I'm planning to:

• Box up nearly all of our possessions (this involves getting boxes from local merchants)
• Organize a painter to paint the place next month
• Sell off/give away some of the furniture we don't want to move with
• Prepare to put my home of the last 13 years on the market

While at the same time:

• Organize flights to Italy in July for me, mom and M
• Organize a place to stay while there on the second leg for me and M
• Figure out great things to do while we're there
• Decide how to rent a car (should we bring our GPS or use their SatNav?)

And of course:

• Working
• Living
• Etc.

It's kind of a lot to juggle. So I'm going to dial it back a bit on the writing and just plan on picking it up when one of these things is finally moving smoothly. Maybe deciding that is what led me to that nearly unbroken night of sleep. I'll have another, thanks.

On a B road heading for the sea

Heading out of town this weekend, going up to Boston. Nice thing about the train is you can pack extra food and not worry about whether anything's going to be considered "liquid" or a "gel." I've made some more of the awesome Caveman Crunch (civilizedcavemancooking.com/grain-free-goodies/caveman-crunch/) and have dried fruit and real fruit and am taking salad. If all goes well we're supposed to have an empty fridge in the room. When you're staying in a hotel not just to sleep but to do most of your activities for three days, pre-packing seems to make sense. This will be the longest I'll be away from home since starting Paleo (not saying much, it only being Jan. 13 (Happy Luck Day!) but still.

The one "open" meal I'm allowing myself (we get three each week but it just hasn't seemed too necessary at this point) will be on Sunday, when we hit Redbones in Somerville. You can't keep me away from ribs forever! But as to the open meals: What I've decided at this stage (at least until we see how the scale is registering) is that rather than go a whole meal, something like salad dressing is something I'm going to leave open at the moment. It's a small amount, I don't use full-fat/sugar/what have you ones anyway, and the dressings Paleo provides that I've tried are thus far pretty wretched, with short shelf lives. So that's something I think is OK.

And that's my navel-gazing for today. On to Boston, where updates are less likely!