Rhoneisms

On a recent trip to the mall with my wife, Bethany, we decided to pop into the Anthropology store there. I saw this book, A Modern Way To Cook by Anna Jones, sitting on a shelf and it immediately caught my eye. I picked it up, flipped through, and waved Bethany over to discuss. “This looks like a really nice vegetarian cookbook!”, I said. Explaining further, “Fairly simple recipes organized by time to prepare, snappy writing, and beautiful pictures.”

“We have that one, I reviewed it on my site months ago. It’s on the shelf in the kitchen.”, she returned. I put the book down, somewhat sheepishly, now having revealed I’d never noticed it and did not remember her post.

When we got back home, I found it and spent a few minutes digging in. In my goal to eat more healthily with more vegetables and low carb, I found several easy and delicious looking recipes I’ll likely try right away. The very first recipe in the book, a one pot kale, tomato, and pasta dish, is one I plan to make as soon as possible (I’ll use whole wheat pasta for mine).

My wife’s review is longer and arrives at some different takes than mine here. That said, I find it not only compelling and useful but a beautifully executed cookbook that I’ll likely use frequently.

One of the more frequent requests I get from my readers is an update to a video I made back in 2009 detailing what products I used to maintain my goal to travel as light as possible.
I’ve resisted doing an updated version with specifics on clothing and gear for a number of reasons. For one thing, product offerings and availability changes too frequently. Many of the items I use I purchased several years ago and are no longer available. So telling you what I use is next to useless. Also, what I take often changes based on the conditions and environment I might find myself in. For instance, what I pack for a spring break vacation will be vastly different than what I pack for a speaking gig. Not to mention what works for me, as a middle aged male, does little service to my female readers.
Most of all, traveling light is less about products and more about methods, choices, and principles:

• Get clothing that is lightweight, durable, easy to hand wash in a sink, and that dries quickly. Many of my faves are from Travelsmith, Patagonia, and REI,
• If you’ve done the above, there’s only two sets of clothes you need for most short trips — Those you are wearing and those that you plan to wear tomorrow having washed what you’re wearing at the end of the day.
• Pack clothes that are versatile — solid colors you can easily mix and match. 3 tops and three bottoms are nine potential outfits if the colors, style, etc. are complementary.

• There are only two types of luggage, carry-on and lost. Most airlines charge for checked baggage anyway. Avoid both the potential loss and the near-certain cost.

• Like I said, you’re going to be washing your clothes in the sink unless you are lucky enough to get an AirB&B with a washer dryer. Therefore, get some single serve travel detergent packs. The ones behind that link are Woolite — gentle on clothes — and come with a handy rubber sink drain stopper which is also recommended for times when the built in stopper fails. Or, if you really want to go full hippie ninja, get yourself a bottle of Dr. Bronner’s and use it for every-friggin-thing. Also, a travel clothesline for hanging up the wet stuff to dry. I like this one but there’s plenty of good options out there.

• Invest in good shoes. Shoes that are as versatile as the outfits and are appropriate for most occasions. But, more importantly, ones that you can walk for miles in. Because, we do a lot more walking, in general, when we travel. In modern airports, distances can often be counted in miles between the curbside and your gate. My favorite travel shoes I’ve had for years (like I said, not worth mentioning the brand because they’re no longer available) and I could write a whole post of their own about where they’ve been. They’ve seen some miles and adventures and are not showing a single sign of stopping.

• Finally, a good sturdy bag. One that can take a beating. I prefer the handsfree convenience of a Backpack but something with a good slip-free shoulder strap can work too. These days, I switch between a GORUCK GR1 and 32L Kit Bag depending on the circumstances. Love them both.

I hope this helps. If I can think of anything to add to the above I may do so at a later date. Further questions are always welcome but, if you really want specifics on products and I did not convince you with the above on their usefulness, you may want to search for past posts I’ve written on the subject.

I’ve recently re-adopted something I learned in a high school creative writing class. I’ve been keeping a Field Notes notebook in my back pocket and capturing stray interesting thoughts that pop into my head and things I overhear from others (conversations, movies, reading, etc.) There’s no specific reason or purpose for these random snippets, for now. Just listening, observing, waiting, and writing down anything that catches my attention. Our writing instructor at the time told us that, mostly, these things will remain meaningless and go unused but, perhaps, one thing in there might be exactly the line you need to turn a good poem into a great one or the first line of conversation for a character in a book or even the first sentence of the next Great American Novel. She said one may not even make that connection for many years but, if it only happens once, the whole of all the capturing will be worth it for that single line.

The other lesson is that it causes one to be more attentive to the world. The senses become naturally heightened and one is much more mindful when anything is potentially worth the ink in one’s pen.