New Mexico

Week before last, Jimmy and I went to New Mexico. It was a work trip for me, but we stayed over the weekend for a mini vacation. I really love the country out there and I assigned this particular site visit to myself, but somehow managed to overlap the first travel day with Yom Kippur. I felt really stupid and a low about it, but fasting while flying and running around airports just isn't feasible, though I did eat very little. Since we flew on SW that was pretty easy. Mostly I drank water and eventually had a yogurt before eating a real dinner. Sigh. 

The trip was a success and I was very happy to be out in Santa Fe and environs, though the altitude got to me a bit. I was frustrated that all the ideas about what to do and see came from me and Jimmy was always like, "just happy to be here." Come on--have an opinion! Anyway, it was fine, but something he promises (another sigh) to work on. 

Getting back to normal is a struggle, as usual. I owe many people phone calls. I want to talk to them and yet...it feels overwhelming. Work is overwhelming! Life is a lot. One fun/silly thing is that I've picked up my fountain pen habit again. When we do interviews, I take notes by hand and I dared to bring one of my favorite pens with me. It's not a super fancy one, but holds a lot of ink. I thought I broke it recently while trying to disassemble for cleaning, but I figured it out and got the pen working again. I used to never fly with fountain pens, but I read that it's fine and the trick is to keep the pen upright during takeoff and landing. I did that by clipping it to my shirt and it worked perfectly. So, small hobbies, small pleasures, and just keeping on seems to be what I can do right now. 

Grateful for: moving and working.