Family Vacation Memories

I just saw a brilliant commercial by Disney. First off, the background music is "Good Life", which is a great travel inspiration song anyway. The theme of the commercial was that some people recognize that there's only a short window of time to make family memories, for kids to "meet their heroes". Presumably, those people go to Disney in a timely fashion.
My parents never took me to Disney as a kid. I'm not gonna lie; it's still kind of a sore spot. In fact, to date, I have only been to Disney for one day. At least it was the Magic Kingdom, right?
Furthermore, I have still never been on a plane with my parents. None of our family trips were extravagent or exotic or far away. Maybe that's one of the things that makes me appreciate New England so much....there were so many places to see and go within driving distance. Most of my family vacation memories are from Cape Cod, New Hampshire, New York, and Newport, Rhode Island. And despite the lack of mouse ears or princesses, I wouldn't trade those trips for anything.
What was truly great about the Disney commercial is that it got me thinking about my childhood memories and how so many of them come from those family vacations. So their pitch is spot on. To this day, when we get together for family events we still talk about those memories. Like the time we saw a water snake on while walking through some sea grass and my mother pretty much pushed me out of the way to run. Or the time we went to the White Mountains for my brother's high school leaf project and his friends tried to steal my cousins kittens by tucking them in their football jackets. Or the April school vacation that I got chicken pox while we were down the Cape and my mom put concealer makeup on me and took me to the movies anyway.
As a person who values travel and worries about doing all I can now before I have kids, a take away from this for me was that the trips don't have to be to really different places to be awesome. And that it's usually the unplanned, small moments that stay with you years later. That's really comforting to me.

Random Updates

1. For Valentines Day Hubby made me chocolate covered strawberries. I am kind of the devil in the morning, as I have previously noted, so I was grumpy when he woke up at 6:15 am and grumpier as he tried to find clothes. I'm almost certain I expressed said grumpiness. A couple hours later as I was beginning to stir, I yelled at him for still being home. In my world, I sleep until the absolute last moment I can, having factored in the exact time it will take to shower, make food, etc and get to work so I don't understand how he gets out of bed only to be awake at the house! Turns out on this morning he was downstairs hand dipping fruit for me to wake up to. So cute!
2. I pulled off my Valentines Day gift, too. I don't have any pictures right now and my finished product is nowhere near as picture worthy as the one on the original blog I found the idea on but I was still proud. The original idea included sanding the cards to make them look vintage, which I skipped. It also included printing the reasons you love the person (and I figured out the 52 reasons were not for the weeks of the year but for the cards in the deck) out on cardstock via an excel spreasheet or something. I also skipped that because it's not my skillset or style. So I bough name tag badges and stuck them on the cards and hand wrote my reasons. Problem is the name tags came in sets of 25 so I could only write up 50 reasons (it wasn't just that I didn't want to buy the third pack of nametags; they were out! I swear!). I ended up having to go to 2 different stores to get my single hole puncher and my book rings, both of which were like 4 times the cost at Office Max, where I ended up, than they were at Target, which was sold out. My hand really started to hurt from all that punching but I was so excited to share my 50 reasons that I busted through it.
3. I randomly found a West Elm store in my area...the place that sells the antlers. I feel really lucky to have seen them in person because it answered any lingering questions. The larger ones look really cool but the smaller ones, aka anything less than like $75, looked weak. And they felt weak. Like if I dropped them they might disintegrate.
4. Having not given a book update in a while, I can say that's because I haven't been wowed lately. I just finished Matched and Crossed. They were really hyped up and I'm just not sure why. They feel a lot more focused on the romance than the dystopian society. I liked them but they weren't the kinds of books that make you want to cancel plans to keep reading.
That's it for updates today!

Wacky or Wonderful?

You be the judge....is this wacky or wonderful?
Pros: Antlers are huge right now. Funky. Interesting. I have had a window with these paper mache sets from West Elm up on my computer for days so I must really need them.
Cons: They are expensive. While I would like to splurge and get a clear animal shape, the only real options I would allow myself are the small set for about $20 or the medium indistinct one (in the middle of the pic) for about $30. Also, I'm not I have any space cool enough to house them. But isn't that why I need them? To change the coolness factor?
Here are some more shots to inform your decision...

Further evidence of Circadian Rhythms

rhythm. when is the last time you wrote that word? what a weird word to write. it doesn't feel right at all.

anyway, i know next to nothing about circadian rhythms but i think i believe in them. the basic idea is that our bodies are all different in their wake/sleep/high/low pattern. basically, you are naturally a morning person or a night owl because your body prefers one or the other. not being a morning person in a world that clearly values them and their circadian rhythms over mine, i feel comforted by some research that justifies that i am not more lazy or less motivated than my hubby and/or mother who can wake up at 630am after only 5 hours of sleep and smile at the world. how's that for a run on sentence?

my job start time changes from day to day as does where that day begins. one day recently i had to be in a court 33 miles from home before 9am. scheduling like that hurts my brain and my soul for days in advance and i genuinely feel the residual impact for days in its wake. but what can't be cured must be endured so i woke up extra early, pulled myself together and got in the car for my monster commute. i averaged 28 mph for the first hour and it took another half hour to get the remaining 5 miles. given that at least half of this trip was on the highway, this is just coo-coo pants. along the way, i almost got in a head on collision with an aggressive suv pushing the boundaries of his traffic line in 4 lanes of traffic on a road that really fits 3, saw a man run across the street barefoot while carrying his boots in his hand, and made up at least one new curse word. did i mention i don't drink coffee? so there's nothing that is really a logical fix for these kinds of mornings.

the following day, still tired from the day before, i at least got to sleep in a bit because i was scheduled to work a meeting that would run until like 9pm. i had every intention of making it to an am yoga class but am workouts are kind of like gnomes to me: i have no evidence that they actually exist because i never see them. instead of yoga, i caught a little of the view as i got ready. that is one show i could never be on! their "debates" get really anger filled. at first i thought "why are they so angry so early in the morning?" and then i realized it's probably about their circadian rhythms. maybe elizabeth hasselback or whatever her name is should argue with larry king instead.

Happy Valentine's Day!

What would February 14th be without a Valentine's Day post? Last year I focused on the commercialismness of it all and how little I believe in embracing that here. Similarly, this year I vetoed flowers/gifts early in the month and recommended that we make each other's gifts.

Why? We have more exciting and noteworthy things to spend our money on than empty expressions of love that every store pushes on you. That's not to say that those things are not wonderful and welcomed for a lot of people. Personally, though, I would rather get flowers for no reason than because they were front and center at Shaw's. AND in my mind I justify that any holiday or special occasion that we don't go big on siphons money to my main priorities: travel and decorating.

Also, I have been spending more time on Pinterest lately. You can find me here if you are so inclined. One of my friends posted a "pin" to an idea I was really taken with. It's a book of 52 (for the weeks in the year) reasons I love you. THIS seems to be the original blog link. If I am able to pull off its creation between tonight and tomorrow, I will let you know:)

In the meantime, I am super excited to see what Hubby will come up with. It's kind of fun to anticipate what he is even thinking of when I say "make something". My first thought was cupcakes or some other literal translation such as making food. But yesterday he was asking what percentage of the gift he had to make and gave the example of "what if I give you a basket filled with lip gloss but I made the basket?". 1. He def does not know how to make baskets. 2. As much as I love lip gloss, the percentage of unmade items is too high, I decided.  Can't wait to see what he pulls off.....

Skinny Jeans

I finally bought skinny jeans. It's a trend I have been avoiding, hoping it would go away. While leggings are totally acceptable, skinny jeans are too close to "pegging" your jeans circa 1987. But I was really left with no choice; the store I like to get my jeans from which, admittedly, is really marketed at teens, ONLY sells skinny jeans. Oh, wait, or superskinny jeans. I even asked for some flares or bootcuts they might have in the back. Oh no, they don't even produce such antiques anymore!
This is when it dawned on me.....I have finally reached the age I have dreaded since I was a kid. I'm officially that girl lady. The one who clings to the fashions that were "cool" when she was young. I always felt bad for the women still wearing scrunchies but now I realize I could be classified among them for yearning for my flare cut jeans. I'm sorry but flare jeans were so much more slimming for the masses than so called skinny jeans. If there were a way to petition to bring them back, I would carry it around on a clipboard and harass strangers to sign it.
But since that's not an option, not only did I buy a pair of skinny jeans, I also bought a pair of "jeggings". Yup. Jean Leggings. And I have to sing their praises...they are exactly how I thought pajama jeans would feel! I kind of want to live in them.
It's totally sad that not only do I shop at the same store preferred by my 11 year old niece but I think I bought the same jeggings as she did. Is this what a female mid life thirtygirly crisis looks like?

Washington DC

Lincoln Memorial

With all of the political conversation happening with the upcoming Republican nomination, it seemed like a fitting time to show some pictures from a trip to Washington DC that hubby and I went on.
DC is a great city to visit. It was hubby's first time there so we hit up all the beautiful, awe inspiring monuments. It was a sweltering day and wearing flip flops for the miles of walking it entailed was troublesome but it was still magical because of all the history and pride that you can't help soaking in.

Spot where MLK Jr gave his famous speech. You have to pour water on it to make it stand out for a a picture (just to explain what that is in the image)

To me, Arlington National Cemetery is on of the most beautiful places. The rows of matching headstones for the soldiers is both overwhelming and powerful and shows the solidarity of those who fought for our country, even in death.

This is the Challenger monument, dedicated to the flight crew who died in its explosion. I was particularly touched by this event because Christa McAuliffe, the teacher and first civilian chosen to go into space, was from my hometown.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

When we were there, soldiers were adding flags to the headstones. It was extremely moving.

Washington Monument

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the Old shall become New again

I'm in home decorating mode. I generally vacillate between living in this mode and travel mode. Since I have a trip booked for next month and the newest issue of HGTV magazine arrived in my mailbox over the weekend, it only makes sense that I am thinking of new ways to make the house look nicer.

Subscription infor here!

While I am trying to slow down and savor the magazine, one of the pieces I have gotten to featured an old rotary dail phone on the wall. It looked really cool and I was thinking I was in need of one of these. As an aside, did you know that if you have a landline phone and dial 911, even if you don't say anything/aren't able to, it goes to your local police and they will come out to check on you. That's a really helpful safety tip and we pay for a land line but don't have a phone connected because we live off our cell phones. So that is part of the thinking behind my need for a cute phone in addition to its simple cuteness. One of the things I love about this magazine is that they don't just show you pretty pictures, they give you the specifics on where to find the items, what the paint color names are, etc.

So this phone was located at www.oldphones.com. I went to check things out and found this. A rotary phone, like the one I grew up with on my parents kitchen wall, will now cost you about $100!! Whaaaaaaaaat! It makes me think those Storage Wars guys are right and that my dad is a smarter guy than I give him credit for by saving absolutely everything under the sun. Come to think of it, they probably have their old rotary phone in a pile in the basement somewhere!

Superbowl: Football or Commercials?

Ok, I'm inspired today. No more ranting about the future generation or telling you what I'm going to write about. Today we get serious. We talk about commercials.

I am among the many who get excited for the Superbowl for the commercials, I confess. If you think about it, that's some really amazing marketing that I'm watching hours of programming just to see what comes on when the "main event" is taking a break! This year is a bit different because I am a New Englander and we have loyalty pulsing through our veins. So even though I am not a big sports watcher, I become a Patriots fan in such a competitive rivalry soley based on honor. As the New England Patriots are in the Superbowl this year, I will have to pay attention for more than a few minutes at a time to watch commercials.

Even though I need to eat a few more chips on Sunday to keep up my energy for longer television viewing endurance, I am admittedly still really pumped for the commercials. In building toward the #1 commercial that I am thrilled to see air, let me tell you about some other commercials that bring joy to my life.

In Superbowls past, the Snickers adds that featured Betty White and then Roseanne Barr truly spoke to me. It is a wise marketing exec who knows that people my age have buying power and also that our hearts are closely tied to our histories. Those histories involve The Golden Girls (who everyone on the planet knows I adore) and Roseanne. Making Betty White talk trash during a football game or showing Roseanne whining as she is most famous for doing, is the stuff of commercial gold.

More recently, my favorite new commercial is from Doritos. Have you seen the one where the guy is eating Doritos as work and the other guy says something like, "you forgot the best part" and sucks the cheese residue off his coworkers finger? So gross and so awesome. Later in the same commercial, another coworker wipes Dorito cheese on his pants and the guy sniffs them. Genius. Because who among us has not licked Dorito cheese off our clothing? Oh, I mean our fingers. Woops.

For the main event, please enjoy a link to this commercial spoof of Ferris Bueller. If this doesn't make you pumped for Sunday's big game, you have no soul. Good day to you.

Ch Ch Changing

That title is from a song. Do you know it?

Do you know any songs with the word ennui in them? I do. If you do, too, please share!

But to the point, I'm thinking this blog is changing again.

It has been my experience that for a blog to have a reader base there has to be a theme. You know what you are getting. You read that blog when you are in the mood for it's stated theme. Fine.

I have tried that and found myself feeling claustrophobic, in a sense. What word would Lucy from Charlie Brown's gang use to describe feeling trapped by theoretical confines I, myself, created? I have enjoyed writing about travel and will continue to do so but what about everything in between trips? For a while, I thought the in between would be filled with my pursuit of home loveliness and personal domestication. And sometimes it is. But more often the in between, the real stuff of life, has no theme. Life, at least mine, is an ongoing balance of work vs play, should vs want, mind vs body, etc. "Aspiring to the Middle" was always about finding a balance between the different parts of my life, which sometimes clash up against each other. And my goal has long been to be successful in all sorts of varied arenas, not to be the star in just one. So really, it makes sense that trying to box myself in to just talking/writing about a couple of topics felt yucky.

As a result, I hereby reclaim this blog. It will be not just about travel and home but everything and anything in between. As Cartman from South Park would gloriously say, "I'll do what I want". Some days I might write about television because it's all I can think about. Like last night I stayed up until 3:30 am, unwise the night before staring my new work week, so that I could watch multiple episodes of Downton Abbey and be up to date. And sometimes I might write about the books I like, a funny experience I had, or something more serious like a cause I am passionate about. You won't really know what you are getting if you choose to read.

But I'd encourage you to think of it like reaching into a goody bag of candy you filled at the bulk candy aisle of Wegman's; you will like whatever you pull out. Most of the time. Unless you get a stomach ache. Because I would argue that I am one of the quirkiest people I know and I think that makes me endlessly interesting. How's that for modesty? Even people who have known me for decades don't always get it right when they try to guess what I will think about something or what my reasoning behind something is. My brain works differently. My view of the world is different. And I hope that variety will entertain you, even if you don't see it coming.

So there you have it. Recreated.

Reality TV: A social experiment

Back on my soapbox and my concerns for the future, today's topic is reality tv.

Now hold on, my dearies. I have not gone all righteous on you and abandoned my own personal love for this genre. In fact, if viewer's choice awards were reversed and the shows got to vote on their favorite viewers instead, I like to think I would at least get an honorable mention from a handful of the slimiest reality shows. In fact, I once earned a gift card from VH1 for sharing my opinions about the shows I Love Money and Rock of Love. Little did they know I went and spent it on real, live books! Oh, the irony.

So now that I have stated for the record that I flat out adore reality tv and find even the people who should be receiving substance treatment on Jersey Shore to be heroes in my quest for escapism by Thursday night, I would like to express some of my fears for the future generation. I admit that as a thirtysomething professional with advanced education and a life dedicated to eradicating violence in intimate relationships, I have actually used some of the catch phrases from the creme de la creme of reality shows to try to start a fight. Having seen a lot of fight scenes and heard the language used to escalate them, it all started to sound normal in my head. Thankfully, on these shows, post-fight, everyone goes back to being friends and such is the ending to my tale, too. My point is that if it could sink into my head, what is it doing to teens who don't know what life before dating competition shows was like?

To expand, I'm slightly less familiar with all of the "extreme" kinds of shows but, of course, have seen a few here and there. How do these looks at the private lives of strangers impact still forming minds? Will my niece or nephew become hoarders? Or extreme couponers? Or will the world watch as they struggle to lose weight? While it's great to break down barriers of shame, certain behaviors that people in the past may have kept under wraps are now being glorified. I love Teen Mom (sorry) and I've lost more than a few hours to Storage Wars but with the distance of adulthood, I watch in awe that people put themselves out there, not with any assumption of normalcy.

It IS really interesting to get to see how other people live and think, sure. But combine this voyeurism with the public chronicling of Facebook (from yesterday's rant) and how do kids today learn about boundaries?? How do they know what is private? Sacred? What is worth looking at just to see and not to take a picture of to post online? As the national treasure Betty White said when she hosted SNL, 30 years ago when someone wanted to show you a slideshow of their vacation, you groaned whereas now we look at other people's pictures without even letting them know we have done so.

What a funny world we live in, right?

You probably shouldn't read this

I always have an excuse for not writing more frequently. Today's is that I believe I'm coming down with a mild form of social Tourette's syndrome. More and more lately I seem to say or do, impulsively, the most inappropriate things. Of course I mean no offense when these incidents occur but they leave me turning them over in my head for days, wondering if my audience clung to how wrong what I did or said was as much as I am. Honestly, I just thought of giving you an example and I was too mortified to even 'fess up.

This extends to the written word. I have probably already offended you and for that, I am sorry. The things I feel most compelled to expound upon lately are definitely things that should not be written down and made public. They are the kinds of things you might not even talk to your best friends about unless you were trying to make them laugh at you. Toilet humor has taken custody of my brain.

Whenever this happens and all I can think about is how I could wax eloquent about what happens in the bathroom or something of the like, I think about Facebook. Reasonable jump? I think so. Here's why: with no intended offense (but, as mentioned, that's probably a moot point by now) to all the wonderful parents out there, when you post about your child potty training couldn't you change the settings to only share with your family and immediate circle? What is this generation of children going to be like, having their every intimate move documented for the world without their consent? This is a legitimate concern of mine. I am truly curious about the long term sociological impact of social media on youth. As adults, we have some level of choice and consent regarding the information we share but kids, either the ones whose parents are posting about their uti's or the ones who have grown up not knowing any differently, are going to have an extremely different social development that any other generation. In a lot of ways I'm sure this is great and these kids will be way smarter and all. But they may also end up in with some funky social fallout. All I can think of is that they might end up in adult diapers. I think that's another example of my problem, manifesting itself.

So anyway, that's my rant for today. Thoughts?

Tragedy at Sea

I would be totally remiss if I didn't comment on the still unfolding tragedy of the cruise ship in Italy. Problem is I don't know what to say! How do you begin to capture the horror of what that experience must have been like for the passengers? And how do you wrap your head around the totally unnecessary actions of the captain that caused the accident? Of course, we can't even get started on his response to all of it! I feel for all of the families of those still missing. It's just so terribly wrong to be taking a vacation, a break from how hard life can be, and then experience something far worse.

Last night on the news they posed the question of how this will impact people's decisions to cruise or not cruise in the future. For anyone who had fear before, I'm sure this seals the deal. Other people made the valid point that there are car accidents all the time that don't scare us too much to ever drive again. And even though plane crashes are rare, they are more common that what we are seeing happen with this cruise ship but people still fly, albeit most of us with a healthy dose of anxiety. On the flip side of the coin, I'm already noticing deals on cruises popping up in response.

As someone who has cruised multiple times in the past, I know I will cruise again. I feel safe on board. Maybe too safe, to be honest. I recently heard of a sexual assault that allegedly happened onboard a cruise line and was flabbergasted that I had not even thought of such a thing happening, even though in my daily life and work I think about those things all the time. I believe this horrible incident is the result of one person or a small number of people in positions of power using terrible judgement. Therefore, I put faith and hope in the fact that it would be unlikely. And so I could cruise again.

I'd love to hear other people's opinions. I don't know how to overstate the deep sadness and empathy for the fear and loss involved in this, first and foremost. But it's a normal human experience to think of how this will impact us or the travel experience, in general. In the meantime, let's all pray that some of the missing are tucked snugly in emergency blankets on a beautiful coastline without phone access.

My Blogaversary!

Last year over this weekend I started my blog. I once read somewhere that most blogs don't last through the first six months so I am happy to still be typing away! While I'm still not always sure of the balance between what I want to write vs what someone might want to read but this blog makes me happy and that counts for something.

Because lists trump all, here are some things I have learned in this first year of blogging:

1. Most of the time when I come home from a trip, I don't know how or want to say more than " it was good" when people ask. Similarly, it's actually really hard for me to write about all the amazing experiences until a good amount of time has passed.

2. I have been stunned by how judgemental people are about travel. Blogging is one of the only outlets that seems socially acceptable to talk about where I've gone and what I've done. That's just not right.

3. It's been interesting to note how much I feel like I have to censor myself while blogging. So many experiences that impact me involve other people who may read things about themselves they wouldn't love. So I choose not to write about those things. But it's a shame because those are the stories that are the most fun to tell!

4. Usually, living life is so fun that I forget to document it.

5. I LOVE reading the blog stats and seeing that people from all over the world have read my words. I really wonder how they find me, why they read me, and what they think. It makes me want to sing "It's a Small World After All".

6. A lot of the things that I want to write about have nothing to do with travel or being domestic at home. But they don't fall into one "other" category either. Conversations with friends are the best source of inspiration.

7. The past year has been awesome. Sometimes writing about it helps solidify my gratitude for the options I have in life. And I'm extremely grateful for everyone who takes time to read this blog. I especially love to read your comments. It's a blessing to be able to write and communicate with the world. I hope the next year of blogging will teach me even more!

Ode to 2011: 11 Events that defined my 2011

So I'm a week late with my farewell salute to 2011.....well, I'm late in actually posting it. As part of my job I run a Speaker's Bureau and we met on Thursday night. My coworker provided a writing prompt that helped me to reflect on what I wanted to say to summarize the year. It was a take on something that had been posted somewhere else onlline that highlighted the 11 events that defined 2011. I decided to make my own top 11 events of the year.

1. Glaciar Hike in Iceland.

2. Flamenco Show in Seville, Spain

3. My first trip to classic Europe.

4. Traveling with my parents for my mother's first trip out of the country to Bermuda.

5. Swimming with the Dolphins.

                                     

6. Canyoning in Costa Rica.

7. Seeing the Tower of London after all my reading about it.

8. Hiking Rio Celeste.

9. The New Kids on the Block Concert at Fenway Park.

10. Accidentally biking 72 miles on the Cape Cod rail trail and beyond.

11. Making my first from scratch apple pie to be served at Thanksgiving dinner.

Ultimately, 2011 was a huge year for me. I got to travel for 6 weeks out of the year and see some truly awe inspiring sights and, more importantly, have some life changing experiences with people I love. It will be a year I never forget. Can't wait to see what 2012 will bring....