Prepping for Vacation

The anticipation is building for our annual sailing vacation. This will be the fifth August where we travel to the San Juan Islands in Rock Lobster, the third year where we continue on to the Gulf Islands and the second where we visit ports on the coast of Vancouver Island. We plan to be gone 10-11 days, rendezvousing with Trent's parents and siblings in Port Townsend on the return voyage.

Unlike a trip taken on a cruise ship, the days leading up to a sailing trip are anything but relaxing. Saturday night, I scoured the Waggoner Cruising Guide to make up a proposed itinerary (though the wind and current might have something to say about that!). Yesterday we spent six hours at Shilshole - reinstalling the jib track (which had begun to leak), scrubbing the cubbies of accumulated mildew so that we can breathe freely at night and wiring lights. I will admit that Trent did the more technical tasks, while I tackled the cleaning and kept the 25 screws straight with a screwdriver on the top of the deck while Trent screwed them in from below ("next", "ready", "next", "ready" was our constant refrain).

Trent is working today, while I have a shopping list with items like rechargeable batteries for our headlamps, empty plastic containers to fill with alcohol as fuel for the stove and ginger beer for our requisite happy hour Dark and Stormys. And of course food for the journey, keeping in mind that we'll want to explore new restaurants and cafes, as well as old favorites.

Tomorrow I'll bake breakfast muffins, make granola and maybe a quinoa or wheatberry salad. We'll load Rock Lobster with cushions (normally kept at home to avoid the inevitable mildew), the dinghy, anchor, folding bikes (our first year with them - Trent's just arrived last week) and hopefully remember passports, checks and quarters for showers and laundry.

And fingers crossed, we'll be ready bright and early Wednesday morning (Trent says that it would be best to leave no later than 3 to catch the current) to sail away.

Focus

I am a generalist. In my Girl Scout years, I probably had more Dabbler badges than any other type (not that I had very many badges, mind you). This tendency is probably the reason I fit in so well with public libraries. Each reference question sends me off in a different direction. With each school-age children's program I learn something new. No two days are the same. It's the same in my personal life - I love to read, cook, run, knit, bike, sail, write, draw, swim outdoors, sing, and play guitar. Heck, if I could, I'd build all of those activities into one perfect day.

Sadly, there is not enough time in the day to do every activity that I love and when I try to pack too many in, in the service of being "well-rounded", I find myself stretched thin, going off in too many directions.

Our organization's strategic plan lists the "core services" of our library - the things that we do on a day to day basis because of our values that make us who we are. We also have areas of "strategic focus" - items that are currently our next most important priorities. When we have the opportunity to try something new, we examine whether it fits in with either our core services or areas of strategic focus before moving ahead with it.

So earlier this week, I decided to give that model a chance in my personal life as well. Things like getting enough sleep, exercising and eating healthily are foundation habits or my "core services", while I am testing out choosing one or two areas of focus per month.

I don't have all of my upcoming months scheduled out yet, but August is now my month of knitting (one of my good friends has a baby due around Labor Day and I am determined to finish the baby blanket before then) and sailing, since our annual sailing vacation starts later this month.

I started my knitting focus on Wednesday and have been making great progress knitting on the bus, during work breaks and while watching Jeopardy. I'll be traveling for work this week and I am confident that I will finish by the time my plane lands again in Seattle.

Here's my draft schedule:
September - Running - step up training for November half marathon
October - Singing - start voice lessons
November - Writing - participate in NaNoWriMo
December - Cooking - explore new recipes (Trent is excited about this one)

What projects or hobbies are you focusing on?

Summer Reading

I have been inhaling books lately - finishing one book on the bus only to pull out a new one from my bike bag (chosen mainly due to its capacity to carry multiple books along with my other work). I swore earlier in the year that I would focus on memoirs and books with starred reviews, but I've been backsliding - the advance reader's copy shelf at work and the review journals and book blogs I follow offer too much temptation. And I justify it by telling myself that our upcoming sailing trip will be too fraught with adventure to read much - I'm just making up for upcoming lost reading time. Ah well, it's not the worst habit to have, especially if I can share my favorites with friends and family:

Fiction
Somewhere Safe with Somebody Good by Jan Karon
I started reading the Mitford books as a new librarian and was charmed by Episcopalian priest Father Tim and his small town. The last two Father Tim books take place outside of Mitford and I've missed the quirky characters there. This latest volume feels like a homecoming of sorts.

Bertie Plays the Blues by Alexander McCall Smith
The latest in the 44 Scotland Street series, a perfect one for distracted summer days, as it originally was written as a serial. A worthy entry, I always enjoy poor beleaguered Bertie's interactions with his helicopter mother.

The Farm by Tom Rob Smith
When your father tells you your mother is mentally unstable and your mother tells you your father is plotting against you, who should you believe? A wild ride

Non-fiction
The Art of Urban Sketching by Gabriel Campanario/Sketch Your World by James Hobbes
I envy people with travel sketch books filled with memories of their journeys. My drawing ability stalled after the fifth grade (probably because that's when I stopped drawing) - but I finally decided that I can do something artistic just for fun. These two volumes inspired me to go out and draw my world using art supplies I already own. They've tempted me to check out an urban sketching outing sometime in the near future.

Thrive:  the third metric to redefining success and creating a life by Arianna Huffington
A reminder to savor time with friends and family along with practical tools to get to the point where you can comfortably do so. I've tried the desk meditations from calm.com and found them extraordinarily relaxing.

An Age of License by Lucy Knisley
I really enjoyed Knisley's earlier graphic novel memoir Relish and her latest did not disappoint. This is probably where my renewed desire to draw came from. Lucy travels to Europe for a comic conference and explores with her new Swedish lover. I also have a renewed desire to visit the continent.

What are you reading?