I haven't written about Sepa Island yet, although you may have seen the gallery pictures.

We traveled to Sepa on my birthday, Saturday the 17th. We arrived at the trash and oil-filled Jakarta port at about 7:15am. We took a two hour boat trip to the Thousand Islands (kind of North and East of the main Island of Java). We flew past wooden fishing boats and huge oil tankers to open sea, in no view of land. I of course, strategized about how to save Nick and myself (at least) if we went down--memorizing the locations of passed boats or strips of land. Very Chuck Norris of me, I know. Also my control-freak side pretending like I could do anything about that little boat sinking in the open Indian Ocean.

Sepa is sort of like an Island camp-ground. Like Jan said, it makes  you feel like you're at summer camp. There are little dank cabins all around the front end, facing the beach. In the middle of the cabins is a little shop, and the hut where food is served. We did nothing on Sepa--well, except the three main things I have concluded you do on an Asian Island (clearly my biased opinion):

1. Lay on Beach

2. Snorkel in the most beautiful clear water you've ever seen, with stunning coral reefs just yards from shore

3. Listen to a beautiful but tone deaf Indonesian woman (no older than 20 and no more than 80 pounds) sing the wrong words to American pop songs. Also throw in the occaisonal Japanese tourist (preferably a 60 year old scuba diver) doing the same.

In the evening we toasted my birth and Nick gave me a beautiful red robe-made out of silk-that he snuck off and bought in Bali. I love robes, fyi.

The next morning we laid (or is it lay?) on the beach for a while longer, and took our 2-hour boat trip back to the city. It was a wonderful time.

Most likely, it's about 8pm your time on Sunday night. I am writing at 8am Monday morning...but I'll take you back to last Thursday and Friday, to tell you how we spent our down time in the city. Jakarta is big and loud and polluted. You can see the smog. No exaggeration. Intermittently throughout the day you hear the call to prayer, where mosques all over the city  pray over loudspeakers. In the evening, sitting on the balcony for a little wine and end-of-day chat, you don't do much chatting because the call to prayer is so loud! The outdoor pictures you see in the new Jakarta gallery are views from there. 

Thursday morning Nick, Jan, and I traveled to a large open air market a few miles away to look for a zipper and some buttons. I found this beautiful fabric in Bali and roped Jan into helping me make a dress over these past few days, so we had to go searching for the extras. As you may have guessed, there are no "Jo-Ann's" here.  

For the most part, Thursday was a stay in and relax kind of day.

Friday morning we headed out to the Social House for brunch. All of the beautiful places to eat here are located in these massive malls--with escalators everywhere--Chanel, Gucci, whatever you can think of related to high-end shopping they've got it. We spent a while walking around the mall and then headed home for some exercise. Nick has been playing tennis with the pro here. He's a little Indonesian guy, it seems like he's three feet shorter than Nick, but MAN is he talented. 

We decided to celebrate my birthday Friday because Saturday we were scheduled to visit Sepa Island--where there's not much more than a beach. Nick surprised me with flowers, and the housekeeper made a beautiful chocolate cake! We didn't have any candles, so we used a pillar candle. It worked well, since the cake was baked in a bundt pan.

We ended the evening with Thai food at Faces, one of Rodney's favorite spots. We shared mussles, green curry, shrimp pad thai, and lots more! Spicy and delicious.

Stay tuned for a post on our time at Sepa Island. Nick and I are off for some brunch, shopping, and a tour of the local sites.

Sorry for the delay in information. We've been in Bali with no access to internet or TV. Well, actually, Nick went to an internet cafe the other day, but I was getting a massage at the time, so no blergging was going to happen there. Internet or Massage? Not too difficult of a choice.

Day 1:

We flew into Bali on Sunday morning, which is a little over an hour flight from Jakarta. The runway is literally ON the beach, so as you descend, you start to think "this might actually be a water landing." It is not, thankfully. We then took a one hour cab ride to Ubud, an ancient city in central Bali. Ubud is beautiful, with remains of Hindu temples, jungle scenery, and lots of rice paddies. We stayed at the ARMA resort, where they greeted us with a "welcome beverage" (iced ginger and cinnamon tea in a glass wrapped in a banana leaf and tied with an orchid), took our bags, and upgraded us to the family villa. 

The family villa is two free-standing rooms with an infinity pool in between. The rooms have outdoor bathrooms (refer to the gallery). You can take an outdoor OR indoor shower, stepping across rocks in a tiny fish pond to get to the outdoor shower. Each morning they deliver an English-language newspaper, and you walk just a few steps to an open air pavilion where you're served a complimentary breakfast--anything from eggs benedict to french toast. One morning I even had honeydew melon juice. 

ARMA has a museum on its premises (which sadly, we were too busy to see), but it allowed us to attend a Balinese dance ceremony on the first night. It gets dark here right at 6, and the show started at 7:30. The costumes were beautiful, the men and women covered in makeup and making subtle movements with their hands, feet, and eyes to convey the spirit of the music. 

Day 2: 

After a leisurely breakfast, some souvenir shopping and lunch at a Thai restaurant, we took a long walk up to the rice fields. After weaving through hundreds of tourists, gelato shops, stray dogs, and then a deserted trail, we came out on what seemed like the top of the world, the rice fields. They're as green and peaceful as you can possibly imagine. Old, tanned Balinese farmers greet you on the trail, carrying their sickles, and smiling broadly. You're confronted by the poverty of the farmers, the delicacy of their homes, and the little money all of this hard work probably brings them--and yet they smile--and you believe their lives are better than yours because it is simple and uncomplicated.

Day 3:

Jan, Nick, and I hired a driver to take us from central Ubud, down to Kuta beach. Kuta beach is not far from the airport, and Jan says its "where all the Australian kids go." The beach is beautiful and hot. The waves crash wildly and the sand is not fine. In fact, it looks like couscous.  We returned from the beach after only a few hours, in time to get a foot and hand massage ($8.50 for an hour). 

We took a walk toward the Monkey Forest (yes, there's actually a monkey forest, which I avoided like the plague), and ended up at a beautiful restaurant for dinner. Afterward, we went to hear live music (a Balinese group singing American rock music--"Sweet Home Bamalama" being one. The music was good, but here in Indonesia, they don't always know what they're singing), and had cherry hookah and a few beers. The perfect ending to our vacation in paradise. 

We arrived in Jakarta yesterday around 11:00am. We flew Air Asia, which is probably comparable to Southwest. The flight attendants,  (dressed in bright red) walked around asking if we wanted "pizza and grapes, pizza and grapes?" We didn't. 

Nick's dad picked us up, and after getting settled, we walked around the corner to a Vietnamese sandwich place. We sat outside, fighting exhaustion as we relaxed with a beer and crunchy french bread.

In the evening we ventured out to a tapas party, hosted by some Embassy people. We even met a couple from Chicago-who knows a friend of ours! Small world. 

After the tapas party, Jan and Rodney took us to their favorite pub. It's an expat bar where "Big Donny and the gang" play classic American tunes. Everyone who works in the bar greeted us. The musicians even come down off the stage when they take a break and give you a floppy fish kind of hand shake.

Interesting tidbit: I am apparently exotic here. Yes, it does sound funny. But, they think people who are (blindlingly) white and blonde are rare! (Which, technicaly, we are in short supply here). Anyway, I tell you this because I think it's why one of big Donny's gang dedicated a song to me. Ha! I was also mercilessly peer-pressured (mostly by my family) to get up and sing--which Big Donny encourages. I promised to do it next time we go.

Anyway, we're off to Bali tomrrow morning. See pictures in the gallery of our first day. 

Sitting in the Singapore Airport. We've been here for almost 8 hours, so...running out of things to do/ways to be entertained. We've already slept at a Starbucks, done a crossword, read, checked email, and brushed and scrubbed as much of ourselves as much as is proper in an airport restroom.

Over the last day of travel I have jotted down a few things I wanted to share with you--for your future adventures in Asia:

1. DO NOT immediately give away your complimentary pillow because you have a Neck pillow, and you think that will suffice. You may need said pillow, later, for your butt.

2. Despite what I said before, don't take a sleeping pill. You will just be made sedentary by the drugs, but still not be able to sleep, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to get comfortable in a middle seat.

3. Delta has really awesome free in-flight movies.

4. Bring (and wear) a SARS mask. All the cool people are doing it.

5. Someone is likely to ask you if you understand English after mumbling something incomprehensible to you in said language. Try not to say something rude and offensive in response.

As of now, we're taking pictures on a wind-up disposable. Yep. We have lost our camera and Nick's parents are letting us borrow one when we get to Jakarta, but we bought a cheap disposable for use on the way. Those pictures will be posted (weeks later) after being developed, scanned, and uploaded. Undoubtedly half of them will be black or blurry because we no longer know how to use this kind of technology. I keep wondering why I can't see what I'm taking a picture of--then I remember I have to look through the little clear box. So yeah. 

More soon.

So let's just pretend that I didn't already write one post today. That way I can tell you about my sleeping pill incident. I just want to make up for lost time, which means writing when inspired, which means likely every 20 minutes.

In case you haven't gathered this from my posts in general, I'm not the medication type. Nick says I read too much Natural Solutions, and maybe I do, but I think it is good practice not to pop pills with every ailment, but instead try to deal with issues in a more holisitic way, using food, exercise, and spiritual practice. It's amazing what a little mental health can do for your physical self. 

Anyway, that being said, I decided that in order to maintain my mental health for 24 hours of travel--much of that being in the air--I would buy some sleeping pills. Yes, alter my phyiscal state with drugs. I can't believe it either. Being that bedtime tea really messes with me (I have these crazy vivid dreams), I thought it would be best to try the pills one night before leaving...even though lately I've had ZERO trouble sleeping. Last night was the night. About midnight (I made myself wait until then because I had a glass of wine and it said "don't take with alcohol"), I took a HALF pill. About 2 am, I finally dozed off.

THAT is because, for two hours, I lay in bed, freaking out about my choice to add chemicals to my body in larger quantities than normally produced. How can that possibly be good for you? Add melatonin to make your body think it's tired? BAD! But lemme tell you, at 9:30 this morning when I finally dragged myself out of a restful sleep, I realized why people do this, and I'll be taking another half pill with me on that plane.

Today is Labor Day, although, Nick says it's not a holiday for the unemployed which is (sort of) us. You probably know Nick and I are looking for full time work. Two graduate degrees and not much else in this house.

We're packing up the apartment to move on October 1, and packing our bags for our trip to Indonesia, which will begin in less than 48 hours. Woot--that's really the only appropriate thing to say in this case. I know it may seem irresponsible, but We. Are. Doing. It. Yes we are. We're traveling halfway across the world to an island paradise because we can. So, take a look at the BLERG between September 7 at 8:30am and September 21 at 4:53pm. You will not want to miss our adventures!

This post is labeled "nothing" because it's not really about much, and because I like labels. Also, it's labeled New York Times(NYT) because we've taken up a new NYT hobby--the crossword.  I was feeling a bit stressed last night, and as a constructive "bring her down" kind of tool, Nick pulled out an old NYT crossword (Monday of course, so we would easily feel a sense of accomplishment) and we worked on it together. It was an awesome rush! Ha--yes, I'm being serious. Yes, that makes me a complete nerd.

So, I printed 9 more crosswords for our trip. This will likely get me through 2 hours of our 24 hours of flying. Luckily I also have 5 books, lots of NPR podcasts, and of course--in flight entertainment. What I mean by this is (hopefully) a crappy rom-com Nick won't want to watch that I can put on my personal screen. And I'll start to feel very special with my in-flight entertainment provided on a personal screen, my bag of pretzels and my cranberry juice (which I'll still carefully sip even though the flight attendant will have loaded it with ice for who-knows-what-reason, and it will turn to cranberry water before I'm done sipping).

So, until tomorrow friends.

P.S. Hope you like my new photo--I decided to go another direction--not the "this is the picture in the back of a book jacket of a serious author look" but "this was taken at a bar and is a wine cork mustache look." 

Today it's a rainy Good Friday. Appropriate I think. I am thankful for this day, although I feel like the use of the word "good" lends a tension to the celebration of Jesus' death. It's weird that bad can be good.

Life is regular. It hasn't  changed much since I last wrote. The title of this post is "Right on Time" because, here I am, reliably, writing with just about one month between every post. I think about writing all the time. There must be something psychological about the timing. Not sure.

Nick is brewing beer today, and I'm going to walk with a friend to a resale shop to search out a pair of cowboy boots. I'm going to wear them for my sister's wedding...I mean, once I find a pair.  I almost ONLY shop resale these days. It's really the best way for me to feel like my clothing purchases are not directly contributing to the use of child labor in other places around the world. It's really terribly sad that corporate greed has lead us to this point. It has pushed us down the road of (not to get Marxian here) devouring everything that puts itself in the way of profit maximization.

We had a guest speaker in my Workforce Development class yesterday who has been running his company for almost 50 years. He's a (green) chemical manufacturer who really believes in respecting employees. All of the factory workers are full time. They work from 7-3 because they asked to make hours earlier in order to get home in time to be with their kids after school. The factory is full of natural light and plants. They made the machines to be quiet, just so people could talk and interact easily with one another. I could go on and on about the things they've done to retain employees and ensure they are working in a place that is respectful of them as human beings. He just kept saying, "It's not about having a good heart,, making sure people are happy with their job is just good business, it makes us money." If only everyone knew that. If only we could stop putting subjecting others to terrible, unhealthy, substandard jobs to make sure we get our cheap goods. If only we cared about more than ourselves. The 80 year old owner of Portion Pac gets it. Do you?

Thanks to my mom, I'm reading No-Impact Man. It's this book about a guy who lives one year (in New York City mind-you) with his wife and little girl, doing his best to create no waste and no negative impact on the environment. The premise alone should intrigue you. It did me. Waste is a part of our daily life. You probably don't think twice about using a tissue or throwing away a dirty sponge or even...using toilet paper. No-Impact Man does. He must. The book gives a look into how he does this and how it changes his family. I love a lot about it. I love how it encourages simplicity, creativity, living and being instead of buying and being entertained. However gross this may be, I do wish he'd go into more detail about the whole toilet paper thing. And you know, that was my first thought too, but he kind of implies that they aren't using a bidet either.

It has made me think a lot about the waste we create. I've started my compost again. I got new worms from a friend after the others climbed out of the box in agony, lacking oxygen or something. That' s a start. I'm going to try and get back to the no-paper towels policy too, and just use Nick's stained and cut-up undershirts for the messes you can't fix with a regular kitchen towel. There's so much we can do, and it DOES matter what you do and what you DON'T. The earth is our home, and in my view, a beautiful creation of the Lord's. We should take care of it--there's a motivation for liberals, conservatives, people with belief in a creator, and those without. Find your motivation. Use it. Make a change.

Something No-Impact Man says in the middle of the book that really hits home for me is this:

To my dear Blergspot:

I hope one day to have more time for you--or at least that the time I do have will not be filled with desperate sleep or barely enough energy to load the dishwasher. I hope one day just to have down time that will drive me to the point of asking, what do I want to do with this day? I want to make time for myself and things that are important--even when it feels like all I really have time for is finishing that last article, or paper, or data set. I refuse to say I don't have time. Instead, I just don't make time. I guess that's it, my dear blerg, I have not made time for you. You're last on my list. The list is overwhelming. I can't believe I even thought of putting it here--for all to be bored with. No, I won't. 

I will say this, tonight, I'm making time for fun. Margie's Candies with some friends and then home to watch the Oscar-nominated Film, Winter's Bone. (I think I've watched 6 of the 10, now. So close.) 

For now this is my lesson: to be content in the chaos; to look for joy in it, and never to say I don't have time.