Yup, it’s Wednesday. It’s been a few days since I wrote, so here I am… though I don’t know what to talk about. Yesterday was so exhausting and stressful waiting for the verdict in the Chauvin case. I am glad about the outcome. Not justice, precisely, but accountability for sure. It’s a long road, and yesterday helped.

That’s all I feel like writing about that, at the moment. I’m having a better day so far, today. I had a really nice conversation with my Mom. I love video chats, it’s so nice to see her face. She recommended a book: The More of Less by Becker, and I used one of my audible credits to get it. Maybe this afternoon I’ll take a walk, and begin listening to it.

My weight was down a bit this morning, which was a relief. It had been a few days since my last weighing. I’m not sure how often I should weigh. WeightWatchers suggests once a week, and Noom had you weight every day. Weight is not as important to me anyhow, the important thing is that I begin to get healthy, and with some hopes that I can gain some stamina before our big trip in the fall. Ok, so I am really really out of shape. I can’t afford to go to a gym, but I did discover a streaming service with workouts called FitOn. LOL ok signing up for the service is a good start but I can’t expect results if I don’t actually WORK it. I don’t fool myself that I’ll ever be Jane Fonda (ok, really aging myself. Denise Austin? Kathy Smith? I’m old), but If I can take hikes of several miles without collapsing at the side of the trail, that would be good. I think I have time to build up at least a bit of stamina. For my readers who have the discipline of regular workout habits: any advice?

I am almost done with the two Coursera classes I’m taking now. One is on the Positive Psychology of Seligman, taught by Seligman himself. Very interesting. The other is the second course of my creative writing certificate, this one focuses on character. The next course I’m going to start, once I’ve finished one of these, is a course on memoir. It’s a specialization of four courses, and I want to finish it before my vacation. I think it will help me on my blog, to keep bringing you interesting content here.

I’ve written four paragraphs and nothing yet about the trip! We’re planning on finishing off booking our return trip tonight.

Here’s a lovely video of Olympic National Park I found on YouTube. I am glad we are spending the most time there. Our first driving day will be very long: Madison to Bismarck (our Northern Route). But the second day will get us to Cody, WY outside Yellowstone where we will be staying for three nights. Our next stop will be at Moscow, ID (where Nathan and his family lived for a year when he was eleven). Then on to Quinnault Lodge for a week, then home back going the Southern route back east. I’m very excited about the trip, as I’ve said before, it’s wonderful to have something to look forward to. Plus, I’ll finally meet Erica, Sam’s friend. I’ve already warned her that I intend to hug the stuffing out of her, and she reassured me that she likes hugs, so it’s all good. I hope they’ll be able to take a day to come to visit us in the park.

I have started getting books to listen to on the journey. We decided our theme was going to be Native American Mysteries. I have all of Anne Hillerman’s books on Audible, and Nathan hasn’t read them. I love that she decided to keep writing about her father’s iconic characters, Chee and Leaphorn (I’ve read those several times), but that she also brought to fore Bernadette Manuelito as a main character. She has a brand new novel out in the series, Stargazer, which I am saving for the trip. But she now has I think six books in the series and I figure we can listen to all of them. We’ll be in the car a lot! I also have the first books from the Wind River series by Margaret Coel. She’s very good too. I was going to get some of the series by the Thurlos, but they surprisingly have not been made into Audible books. Hmmm, I wonder about The Kate Shugak Books by Stabenow, those are so good too. Oh, nice they are on Audible. Maybe I’ll download one or two of those, too. I still have credits available. We’ll have tons to listen to. And we have Sirius XM, too. And, I suppose I shall have to talk to the man. 32 years of marriage and we still find each other interesting.