I want to walk Scotland.

I just have to find the vacation time to make this happen.

I have been completely absorbed in the Outlander series about a time-traveling British woman from WWII era and her life with a 17th century Scottish highlander. Sensational? Bodice-ripping? Yes and yes. But also really absorbing and quite historically rich. I've learned all of this stuff about 17th century Scottish uprisings and early American colonial history.

Anyway, now I've romanticized the Scottish highlands and want to visit. And then I see this in my Washington Post travel email. I need to go. I need to take 18 days for vacation and walk this. They say walk, not hike. I may not be the most outdoorsy, but I can walk for millions of miles. Just don't ask me to jog or run and I can go forever. AND you don't even have to camp - there are B&Bs, self-service cabins, hostels and inns all across the trails.

Courtesy of the Washington Post - check out the rest of the slideshow (!!!) You'll want to come on this adventure with me.

This reminds me of another incredible book I read quite a while back - It's Not About the Tapas (hm, by the looks of that Amazon link, Ms. Polly Evans writes a whole series of travel books. I will be checking those out...) - that made me want to bike Spain. But walking seems a bit more accessible. The author of the Post piece is a food writer for crying out loud. That makes him like me. If he can do it, so can I. I mean, the hardest bit on the trail only has a two-hiking boot difficulty meter. Out of five. This is doable.

I'll even compromise. the first leg of Brian Yarvin's trip is the long-distance West Highland Way that only takes eight days (or stages), according to my the impressive Scottish walks website.

The West Highland Way was Scotland's first long distance route and remains by far the most popular. Stretching for 150km from Milngavie on the edge of Glasgow to Fort William at the foot of Ben Nevis, the route offers a fabulous introduction to the Scottish Highlands. Those wanting to add an extra days walking could even begin in the heart of Glasgow, reaching Milngavie by following the Kelvin Walkway.

I can take a ten-day vacation. I'm thinking anniversary trip. Thank you, Outlander series, in your historically titillating excessiveness, for reigniting my wanderlust. I'm going to make this happen. Just give me time. And help me figure out how to somehow include a kayak excursion to further pique J's interest in this enterprise...

If you're into this travel fantasy (hey - it'll eventually become a reality!) stuff like I am, this WaPo newsletter had a Europe guide that also featured renting a house in France, cycling through southern Portugal and exploring Ukraine's ancient walled city. I have some more article reading to do :)

Oh! Also - A Town Like Paris. Another travel daydreamer's must-read. The author moves to Paris to work a Parisian government job (sadly, probably not so cushy anymore...) and totally immerses himself in la vie Francais.

Voyage

I love the holidays. But, as I'm sure is the case for many people, they are bittersweet. In addition to the joy I feel being around loved ones and eating food and looking at lights and glittery paper and ribbons, I also reflect on those lost. Bittersweet. On my way into work this morning, I heard this poem and it rung so true. Anyway, not much more from me today, just this:

Voyage

by Tony Hoagland

I feel as if we opened a book about great ocean voyages
and found ourselves on a great ocean voyage:
sailing through December, around the horn of Christmas
and into the January Sea, and sailing on and on

in a novel without a moral but one in which
all the characters who died in the middle chapters
make the sunsets near the book's end more beautiful.

—And someone is spreading a map upon a table,
and someone is hanging a lantern from the stern,
and someone else says, "I'm only sorry
that I forgot my blue parka; It's turning cold."

Sunset like a burning wagon train
Sunrise like a dish of cantaloupe
Clouds like two armies clashing in the sky;
Icebergs and tropical storms,
That's the kind of thing that happens on our ocean voyage—

And in one of the chapters I was blinded by love
And in another, anger made us sick like swallowed glass
& I lay in my bunk and slept for so long,

I forgot about the ocean,
Which all the time was going by, right there, outside my cabin window.

And the sides of the ship were green as money,
and the water made a sound like memory when we sailed.

Then it was summer. Under the constellation of the swan,
under the constellation of the horse.

At night we consoled ourselves
By discussing the meaning of homesickness.
But there was no home to go home to.
There was no getting around the ocean.
We had to go on finding out the story
by pushing into it—

The sea was no longer a metaphor.
The book was no longer a book.
That was the plot.
That was our marvelous punishment.

"Voyage" by Tony Hoagland, from Hard Rain. © Hollyridge Press, 2005. Reprinted with permission. (buy now)

Interestingly enough, my granddad was a ship captain. So was my uncle before he retired. My dad was in the Navy too. In her early twenties, Mom sailed from L.A. to Australia on the beginning of her great adventure that eventually led her to my dad in Spain.

My uncle posted this photo on his Facebook sometime this summer... it's of him on his ship in Vietnam. He met up with my dad there - he's in the reflection.

Granddad had Alzheimer's and many of my more vivid memories of him were in this state since I was old enough to remember. He told this amazing story about when he first left Norway to work on a ship, they still sailed on masted sailing ships. I'm sure it was part of some sort of hazing ritual, but when he was young, they dared him to climb up to the uppermost mast and balance there, entire ship and ocean below, on his belly. Crazy. Crazy what you remember when everything else is gone... Crazy how many life-changing moments in my family, on both sides, began with a ship.

And I thought the treadmills were cool

Found this in my daily design blog reading, oddly enough. Apparently a reader was reminded of this video thanks to a weekly "pets on furniture" feature they have. I love that pets on furniture feature. They all look pretty happy in their situations, and a lot of them look like rescue critters, too. From the slammer to the couch - what an excellent turn of events for them. Perhaps we'll take one of Chuck chilling when we get our new couch!

Anyhow - O.K. Go is the best, I've decided.




Also, some other things to make you happy -

Hyperbole and a Half: ever heard of her? Me neither. So I visited her about pageS and continued to die laughing. How completely, awesomely, unhelpful?

Seriously, the best -
Sneaky hate spiral. (this about sums up my last week.)
The alot is better than you at everything.

Collections.

I'm starting one.

Previously, I've collected Beanie Babies (not my choice; have you ever had a collection that people start for you, you receive one or two of, then others see and assume you wanted all along?) and snow globes (these are actually pretty amazing and make a quite the Christmas display).

I have admired these every time I come across them in a book store or an Anthropologie, but I never knew there were so many. Maybe some are only available in the UK? At any rate, this to me seems like the most worthwhile collection. They're classics, so I really should read the ones I haven't already anyway. And they would be so. freaking. beautiful. on a bookshelf in a fabulous living room. The day our living room is big enough for a book shelf.

Behold:Originally spotted here. Books I'd be proud to display! (Unlike the piles of chick lit that stack up on my nightstand...)

The Patrick Swayze edition.

I have a great deal of faith in faith; if you believe something strongly enough, it becomes true for you. I would like to believe [...] that there's life after death -- because if there isn't, why are we here? I don't believe that just flesh and bones can contain from the point of view of physics this very real recorded energy inside of us. Whether it's true or not, we need to believe it.

...Said Swayze in his June 2009 interview with Barbara Walters - the first one he ever gave after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

He was facing the cancer that kills four out of five people who are diagnosed with the disease within a year. He was skinnier than I have ever seen him on T.V. or in the movies - frail and jaundiced looking. Terrifying. And terrifyingly familiar.

Every time someone notable is diagnosed with the cancer that killed my dad, I can't help compulsively following the story.

Randy Pausch - the college professor who wrote The Last Lecture, becoming a YouTube and Oprah phenomenon before passing away this summer. Whose book my friend has loaned but which I have yet gotten the guts to read.




Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

There's also this guy on the radio, former journalist Leroy Sievers (had to look him up to remember his name) who I used to listen to talk about cancer in my car in DC and cry on my way to painting class in Alexandria.

And now, Swayze. Star of two of my absolute favorite movies as a kid - Dirty Dancing and Ghost. And of two of J's favorite movies - Point Break and Roadhouse (har har).

There's something cathartic about reliving stories like my dad's over and over again. Feeling the punch in the gut and the subsequent lost of wind to the lungs of hearing another person to have pancreatic cancer. Watching the news and RSS feeds for any news of the person's condition to hear how they're battling with the disease. Grieving all over again when the inevitable news of their death makes the papers.

And for me, casually asking the scientists and grant writers at the institute if they're ever going to do work on pancreatic cancer. There was a grant apparently, but it didn't go through.

I guess that's part of it - telling your story over and over again in the hopes that someday it will all make sense, then seeking out others like you who are going through the same scenario. And watching. And waiting. And wondering if this will be the person who triumphs over the disease.

According to the American Cancer Society, for all stages of pancreatic cancer combined, the one-year relative survival rate is 20 percent, and the five-year rate is four percent. And if Patrick Swayze can't make it, things don't look so good for less visible patients.

What a downer.

Something happened today, though. A group of Clearview Cancer Institute volunteers toured the institute came to tour. During my time with them, I learned that all of the group members are either cancer survivors or caretakers of those with cancer. And they are touring the institute learning what work we're doing here in the laboratory is on it's way to their clinic. This made me feel good - and also interested in looking into volunteering at CCI. More on that as I find out.

In lieu of favors at our wedding, J and I will be making a donation to the American Cancer Society for our loved ones lost, my dad and his grandmother who died of brain cancer a few years ago. A friend walked for my dad over the summer in a Relay for Life in Ohio and sent photos of his luminaries along the track. Things like these help; and talking, and following the stories of others.

If you ever want to hear about my dad sometime, ask me. I'll gladly tell you all about him. Or tell me about your story. Something about the telling and re-telling helps us process, I think.

I want to have a co-ed Patrick Swayze movie-viewing party to honor the life of another who should be celebrated for his living accomplishments more than the grace with with he faced death.

Yeaaaaah Swayze:

Vanity Fair does West Side Story

Another fun post. This one reminded me of two things:

1. A consistent appreciation of almost Vanity Fair photo shoot I've seen... enough so that I finally realized I should just go ahead and subscribe to the magazine. I need a replacement for the recent lack of Domino in my life, anyway, and
2. How much I need to re-watch West Side Story. Consider it added to the Netflix queue. (Which my movie picks seem to be dominating lately... sorry J.)

Anyway, here are some of the highlights. I recognized lots of faces... some of which I couldn't exactly place. I sense more Netflix adds in my future. Sorry J.

J.Lo as Anita, Camilla Belle as Maria and that guy from Lost as Bernardo

love this scene...

I totally agree with J.Lo's quote in the piece... Anita was always my favorite character, too. She had the best outfits by far. And dance moves.

Check out the rest of the slideshow!

Recovery.gov

Did you know that the massive U.S. economic stimulus plan has a Web site? And a logo?! I did not, until just now.

Going to have to check this out further when I am not up to my eyeballs in work projects because I am woefully under informed as far as the stimulus package goes.

Upon initial glance, though, I'm impressed with the site. I'm sure that a lot of it is pure PR, but as a PR person myself, I'm appreciating the language used on the site, timelines and graphs.

From recovery.gov:

This is your money. You have a right to know where it's going and how it's being spent. Learn what steps we're taking to ensure that you can track our progress every step of the way.

The site includes, among other things, a scrollable timeline with milestones, a place to share recovery stories, a link list of state specific recovery sites (only available in 12 states so far...), the full bill for reviewing and a message from the president.

Checking it out more thoroughly soon... What does everyone else think? Do you buy this? Are you skeptical? At this point for me, any sign of transparency and progress is better than nothing at all - and the approach taken here with an interactive Web site updated regularly is a great way to start.

Social musings... and TIME on FB and fogies

Among other things for work, I have been tasked with analyzing the major social media outlets and recommending which of them I feel would be a good fit for our organization, and at what level of participation.

Between Facebook, LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Digg, countless Ning communities, Twitter and the countless other outlets out there, I've come to a couple of major realizations:

1. In order to remain current in social media you have to be one of two things (1) young, with time on your hands and the confidence to play with each new wave or (2) an early adopter.
   
2. Becoming an effective early adopter of every. trend. out. there. requires time. Lots and lots of time. Like, full time.

While I am a devotee of social media (thanks initially to Robert French and a little class called Style and Design in Public Relations Messages), I do get overwhelmed. This is not my full time job. This is one aspect of a much larger job - and as the designated "social media girl" I am the only one officially charting these waters at the office for the organization.

Questions I'll work on - and pass along here - as I find answers:

• What new media outlets are the best for organizations? Specifically, non-profit, science heavy organizations? It seems to me a lot of social media (Twitter, online communities and others) are best utilized by individuals unoficially tied to an org.
• How much time out of my work day should I spend on these outlets? On which should I concentrate most of that time?
• Other than reading Mashable and Twitter... and about 500 marcom pro's blogs religiously, is there a good, consistent way to stay current with the latest technologies?
  

Staying current is key, and I am aware of this - but I also want to tailor these outlets to work for me (as an individual) and more importantly, for my organization. Any ideas or suggestions for a new approach? I'm overwhelmed!

...

Oh yeah - and I think I'm quitting Facebook soon -

TIME Magazine on Why Facebook Is for Old Fogies

My favorite is number three:

3. We never get drunk at parties and get photographed holding beer bottles in suggestive positions. We wish we still did that. But we don't. (See pictures of Beer Country in Denver.)

Funny, while I'm slightly irked about the fogies overrunning Facebook, I am envious that they (aside from the occasional, unphotographed, indescresion) have outgrown this phase. I have not.

Enjoy!

And, if you have some pointers for me about the former, please help!

Photo from the mentioned Time article.

Domino Downfall

Dear Friends,

This year, I thought I was being clever. For Christmas, I shared with many of you one of the happiest things to reach my mailbox each month.

I thought, "How wonderful! I might be the person responsible for my friends receiving something inspirational, engaging and entertaining every month... something - possibly the only thing - that's not a bill! So many of you live so far away, this would be the easiest thing to order and have delivered! I'll get them Domino Magazine - the best darn home décor/lifestyle mag out there!"

Little did I know that the whole operation would be defunct one issue after the beginning of their gift subscriptions. And my renewed subscription!

I am remaining optimistic about this rumor being just that until someone official confirms. (See my P.S.) But this particular trending topic in my Tweet Deck could very easily be true - this story details the hits shelter magazines are taking with the slumping economy. First we lost Blueprint (tear), then Oprah at Home (didn't even know about that one, honestly...). Then there are the job cuts at Southern Progress - with their publications and also the news that they are looking to sell their At Home houseware party brand. Some of us know about this one all too well, too.

This is all sad, but the loss of Domino saddens me the most. I mean, they had some style pages in their magazine, too! And a great website! Everything I saw in its pages inspired me! And they always had the best subscription gifts.

So, the point of this letter is to apologize if your Christmas present from me fails, like the rest of the global economy, this year. This was never my intention, and I am as sad as you that (if?) we won't be receiving Domino this year, or ever again.

This is more embarrassing than the time I offered to buy all of my friends gas station cappuccinos on that road trip only to realize at checkout that I'd left my wallet at home.

Friends, please forgive me the ill-fated gift of Christmas/Hanukkah 08.

I can only hope that I will be able to redeem myself next year.

Deepest Apologies,
Melanie

P.S. - After posting... It's confirmed. Women's Wear Daily confirms Condé Nast closed the mag this morning.

Greetings from the future Texas Republic!

From the WSJ and CitizenSugar:

According to Igor Panarin, the US is going to disintegrate by June 2010, breaking into six portions under the control of various other world powers.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Mr. Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

"There's a 55-45% chance right now that disintegration will occur," he says. "One could rejoice in that process," he adds, poker-faced. "But if we're talking reasonably, it's not the best scenario -- for Russia." Though Russia would become more powerful on the global stage, he says, its economy would suffer because it currently depends heavily on the dollar and on trade with the U.S.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces -- with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

This is hilarious of course, for lots of reasons. Numbers one and two being that Canada would gain control over the Midwest and Mexico the Southeast. I love Canadians, really. And I know that out of all of the US regions, Midwesterners are probably the most mild mannered. However, I have a hard time envisioning Canada taking part of any takeover, hostile or otherwise. Unless it was a takeover of a Tim Horton's. Or perhaps a hockey riot. But even that one I'd be surprised to see....

How we'll be divvied up:

• California Republic: Formed by the Western states, this area would be controlled by China or be under Chinese influence
• Texas Republic: A cluster of states in the Southwest would go to Mexico.
• Atlantic America: Eastern states, from South Carolina to Maine, will join the European Union.
• Central North American Republic: Northern Midwest and Great Plain states will go to Canada.
• Hawaii: The state will become a territory of China or Japan.
• Alaska: Putin will rear his head into Alaskan air space, making Russia the proud new owner of the great state of Alaska.

This is mainly a comical post. However, this last piece of info. is a bit of a buzzkill...

The professor says he's convinced that people are taking his theory more seriously. People like him have forecast similar cataclysms before, he says, and been right. He cites French political scientist Emmanuel Todd. Mr. Todd is famous for having rightly forecast the demise of the Soviet Union -- 15 years beforehand. "When he forecast the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1976, people laughed at him," says Prof. Panarin.

Pre-Christmas family extravaganza

So, today at lunch I'll be shopping for the first ever Pre-Christmas family extravaganza at our house.

We're thinking that Christmas Eve and Day will be a flurry of family related activites, so we're going to add one more to the mix tomorrow. A Christmas pre-party, if you will. Christmas' cool younger sibling celebration, perhaps. Um, yeah sorry. I'll stop there.

Anyway, I'm excited - J will be handling the big part - carnitas (yummmmy) braised in orange juice and various and sundry mexican spices.

I'm helping out with the additions, mainly, a salsa bar. And guacamole and queso and other dippy awesomeness. It's all going to be fresh and I'm looking forward to the adventure. Even though our only blending device is a hand blender (not a Cuisinart or an actual, live blender) I think that should cover my salsa making needs... right? Right?! Here's hoping.

So, fresh tomato salsa, salsa verde and a corn and black bean number will be available for garnishing the carnita awesomeness. Also whipping up a guacamole and a Velveeta queso (sweeet!).

Best of all will be the pomegranate margaritas and the (tentative) dulce de leche with ice cream! Sounds like a lot of boiling but I'm interested to see how it will work out.

That's the menu for our festive pre-Christmas extravaganza... A lot of it's kind of experimental so there's no telling how it will all turn out, but we're (and by we I mean J) pretty talented in the kitchen and if all else fails, the pomegranate margaritas will take the fams' minds off of the food. :)

I shall report back.

There will ONLY be one.

Twilight post, that is. Unless something else comes up that compels me to write.

I'm still kinda in the closet about my fascination with the teenybopper series, so I will make this short and sweet. Besides, Southern Soap Opera has this covered for all of us...

I read the first three books of the series after hearing a piece on Meyer on NPR talking about Twilight and her adult sci-fi book, The Host, that was released over the summer. See?! Hearing about Meyer on NPR makes it better. Orrr not. But regardless of how I got started, I did - and I am not the only fanatic over the age of 15. Twilight has become a phenomenon of pop culture, and it's worthy of the notice.

I picked up Twilight on my way to the West Coast for a two week vacation this summer and finished New Moon and Eclipse at airport gates, on lake shores and in rental houses before the trip was over.

I loved the dark, rainy Forks atmosphere (and that I could actually picture the scene as we've taken many a ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria, BC), I loved the whole normal girl being more incredible and talented than she gave herself credit for and I loved the message that (Mormon) Meyer sent to her actual demographic that you don't have to um, hurry, love. And the boys were cute. Hot vampires and werewolves...... (NERD ALERT! gah, I amaze myself sometimes.)

Not only does NPR agree, but Vanity Fair does too! Hooray -

"...the undisputed golden calf of the vampire cotillion is Stephenie Meyer’s “The Twilight Saga,” a blockbuster bloodsucker series that has helped fill the yearning void left by the boarding up of J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter wizard shop. Commercially, “The Twilight Saga” has given book publishing a blood transfusion, with sales topping seven million copies worldwide; it’s also a global sensation, translated into 20 languages. The physical properties of the books themselves may explain their popularity. They’re thick, chunky, promising a fat read—you don’t so much curl up with them as gulp them down."

Still not getting the draw? Here's more of the article. And photos of the beautiful people acting in the movie. That last part should help the few remaining detractors...
So, it's not just me, then. It's Vanity Fair. And NPR. And all of the morning news shows by now, I'm sure. And Katie. :)