– –

I imagine watching me prepare for any major life event is a hilarious sight to behold. I am such a wreck of a human being – running around doing errands and going to appointments, trying to pack, getting to the airport, pulling my hair out fretting about what I am forgetting and as of late, schlepping Kimba around along with all her crap  – during these times when I am preparing for something, specifically travel. This is odd because I travel all the time, or at least it feels this way, so you would think I would have it down by now. Nope. As organized, efficient and effective I am as a producer, I am equally as unprepared and scattered when it comes to my personal life. When I travel to India, the friends I stay with in Delhi always laugh because I show up on their doorstep after traveling 7000 miles by plane, but have no idea where I will go next. Or when I will go. And I certainly don’t have train tickets booked. This is hilarious because you’re lucky to get a train ticket booking in India a month in advance, let alone at the last minute, as everyone in the country travels by train. Yes, I am scatter-brained and unorganized. Yes, I procrastinate beyond what is reasonable. This generally lands me in a situation like yesterday, where I showed up at the Costco contact lens booth with a prescription slip for motion sickness patches and, upon further inspection of my purse, an old glasses prescription. I then ran home and brought back the wrong prescription yet again. No contacts for me. Or how about the two incidents in the last 24 hours I have had to completely empty my purse in public looking for my car keys (which were in my hand) and my validated parking slip (which was in the back pocket of my jeans where I “checked” three times).

What is so frustrating is this – I am not packing for one trip. I am packing for three – beach time, boat time, Guate time. All three trips are very different and will require different clothes and such, but they all have to fit in one backpack, kids, because as of today I will not be returning to Cindy and Bob’s for a while. By this time in August I will be in Guatemala. The next three days will be spent in San Diego settling Kimba in with my brother, Rich, and his girlfriend and taking in a little R&R with Cindy and Bob at The Del. Please excuse me while I do a little skip in excitement. Please excuse Kimba if she finds the nearest warm corner and takes a nap. But nevertheless, packing enough beach-attire, kitchen clothes and god-knows what I will need in Guate into a backpack proved a challenge for me. I finally threw my hands up today and went Tim Gunn on myself – make it work. Stuff things here and tuck things there and oh well if I can’t get this pair of shoes packed, they sell shoes everywhere I’ll be except the middle of the ocean, and in that case I am pretty sure the fish don’t mind if I don’t have my strappy sandals.

I do have to say though I had a stroke of tech-organization genius today though. I was right in the middle of freaking out about how to transport all of my wires and little gadgets like thumb drives and camera chargers when I spotted a traveler jewelry organizer with little zip-up compartments I was planning to leave at home. I quickly dumped all the jewelry out into a Tupperware container and stuffed it in my underwear drawer (no better place for my heirloom pieces and precious stones!!) and the jewelry case proved to be a perfect solution to the “many little things” storage problem. But the real genius didn’t come until I was working in the back seat of the good ol’ Ford on the way to Yuma. See photo below –

You see? Now I have all my things like media card readers and iPod cables close to me; the backseat is now my own personal office. I can’t wait to try it on the airplane to Guate.

(Kimba on her way to her new beach home)

Breakfast during these times and fast and furious – I turn to smoothies with freshfruits, almond milk and protein powder. I try not to fuss about it too much and rather just go with what I have in the fridge. The base is always almond milk and protein powder and from there I just use my judgment. One morning it’s Vanilla Cherry Oatmeal and the next it’s Chocolate Almond. Yesterday’s was an attempt to conquer the growing amount of cantaloupe taking up space in Cindy and Bob’s fridge. Smoothies containing melons tend to be lighter than the Chocolate Almond, say, which I attribute to high water content in anything from watermelon to honeydew to any of the heirloom varieties I see in the market these days. And as my last day in Phoenix was looming around 105 degrees, this morning melon blast was cool and refreshing. Now, packed and already on the road, I can relax for a few days at least before I have to repeat the packing process again for The Islander. Oh joy!

– –

Morning Melon Protein Smoothies

Active time: 5 minutes; Serves 2.

1.5 cups cantaloupe, sliced or cubed

8 strawberries

1/2 cup blueberries

2 scoops vanilla protein powder

1 cup preferred dairy of choice (almond milk here)

Juice from 1 lime

5 ice cubes 

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Divide into two glasses and serve. Enjoy!