Pre-Roadtrip Prep

I’m re-doing the henna on my hands and packing today. My friend G and I are leaving tomorrow on a road trip. We’re headed across Nebraska, down through Cheyenne, WY, and into Colorado northwest of Fort Collins, CO, where we’ll spend three glorious days at 8000 ft at a meditation retreat. ‘Cause that’s what stalwart prairie people do – henna their hands and go on meditation retreats.

We’re planning to tent it one night going out, and one or two nights coming back. We don’t know where – we’re winging it, and that’s about as carefree as we get at our age. In the olden days, in spite of Grandma’s warnings about clean underwear, my road trip packing would include a gee-tar, an extra broom skirt and halter top, a bag of sunflower seeds, and a bottle of Boone’s Farm. But I’m middle-aged now. Fear and Caution are my sad and constant companions. So my dining room table is covered with stuff to take along, anticipating every possible contingency.

I have quite a list of things to get done before I go, too. I started my first batch of homemade wine Monday, with the help of Miss V., my WS (wine sponsor). It’ll make six gallons of “that damn Merlot” (if you haven’t seen Sideways yet, and you ever drink wine, see it now). In vintner parlay, my bung is bubbling. That sounds obscene, I know, but it means the yeast is doing its thing. I made this batch from a kit, learning the ropes as I work my way toward wine made from our wild plums. Before I leave in the morning, I’ll need to instruct Ray to watch my bung bubble while I’m gone.

I have a meeting in the Big City today, gearing up for some summer copywriting work for the ad agency I used to work for. Ad agency folks have an unusual kind of dark collective humor that I’ve really missed, so I’m excited to get back at it for a while. Then I’ll run errands in the City to pick up the first-aid kit necessities I’m missing and a “thief” for testing my wine once I get back.

Then I’ll clean parrot cages, water plants, feed outside birds, peacocks and barn cats, weed, mulch, and pack, pack, pack. By the time I get everything done, drive to Colorado, unload, we’re comfy on our meditation cushions, and I’m in the throes of caffeine withdrawal, I’m just hoping I can stay awake long enough to meditate…

(pics of teacher Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and the Great Stupa of Darmakaya from www.shambhalamountain.org)