“I’m Irish, too,” I said to the cab driver on my way to Dublin from the airport after a few days in Lagos. “You were born here?” he asked, raising an eyebrow with his toothpick in his mouth. “Well, no, but I’m Irish, my dad’s 100% Irish.” “Oh. You have Irish ancestry,” he responded, looking back at the road, uninterested in chatting for the rest of the ride.
“That’s a cookie monster cloud!” I remember saying at age three from the window seat on my first airplane ride ever in one of my earliest memories. I remember thinking that the outlines of different fields when we were closer to the ground were the outlines of different states, as if that’s how state borders worked and as if that’s how many states we were flying over. The rest of the trip I remember mostly only from photos.
I rejoined the real world a teensy bit this month – working 40 hours a week and commuting to the nearest coffee shop across an under-construction bridge that takes 20 minutes to cross is no joke. I’d completely forgotten what it was like to have a job but it’s a good one to have. As I mentioned in my March Recap, I am working temporarily to help launch a new travel website. I’m super excited to show it off to you when it’s made public, but that also means I’ve had less time to work on my own stuff, though I got a lot done right when I returned from Europe to at least bring you new posts in the beginning of the month.
I played with Barbies until I was way too old to do so, because I loved making up stories and drama between my Barbies and my younger friends’ Barbies. My Barbies had to use human socks as beds and sneaker boxes as cars, but I had a friend who had the Barbie dreamhouse, a red convertible, and that elusive pink jeep that everyone wanted. I hadn’t thought about that pink jeep for almost two decades, but this September, there it was in front of me – lifesize – and I was going for a ride.
Even though I’ve already posted my 2016 Travel in Review post, it would be neglectful for me to not post a December 2016 recap, since my monthly recaps are something I’ve kept up since January. I didn’t visit any new places in December, but I still saw lots of friends and family, and that’s important.
Oh, November. Oh, November 2016. How things have changed. A week in Bangalore, two weeks in Goa, and one week back home in South Jersey. I still feel like I’m adjusting to being home, even though it’s been over a week already. It was not a normal week since it had Thanksgiving, unpacking, and jetlag, so I’m allowing myself this adjustment. This means I’ve been spending a lot of time snuggled up in bed or on the couch or on the floor with the dog in my lap. But I’ve also been doing a TON of work, so look forward to more regular posts instead of “when I get to them” posts on this site.
If you’re in Las Vegas, Nevada, and want to see something other than a fake Statue of Liberty or the inside of a casino, drive ten miles south to visit Ugo Rondinone’s public art exhibit of Seven Magic Mountains. The exhibit launched in May 2016 and will only be up for two years, so start planning your detours from your bachelor/bachelorette parties and corporate conferences now.
Coming back from a trip is always tough for me. Myanmar – where I’d been for four weeks, and my first adventure since quitting my job to travel – was especially difficult, but there is something to say for coming back to America. This time when I came back, I didn’t settle into my old routine, because, well, I don’t have a routine anymore. A week after I returned, I went off to the Southwest with my family to explore more of America – which is already great, for the record.
I’m leaving New York City this week. I’ve been here for seven years and there’s still so much I haven’t done. I haven’t eaten a Cronut. I haven’t performed with my guitar at an open-mic night. I haven’t auditioned for a Broadway play. And until a few weeks ago, I hadn’t been to Red Hook, Brooklyn.
This year is really creeping up on me. I can’t believe I’m already 31.083 years old. A quiz on Facebook yesterday told me my heart was age 20, my soul was 92, and my body is 18, so there appears to be even more confusion about my age than I thought. But when hanging out with lifelong friends as I had the pleasure of doing many times this month, it doesn’t even matter how old I am.
By the beginning of April, I already had something scheduled every day of the month and I was stressed out majorly. I eventually realized I could skip out on some of the events, but there was still a lot to think about. Because of this, I didn’t get a chance to work on this site as much as I wanted to. But I did get a chance to explore a new island, spend time with family and friends, and listen to the newest Justin Bieber album {well, three songs on repeat} 1000 times.
Spring is here! Kind of. I always joke that March comes in like a lion and out like a lion, unlike what we learned in elementary school that March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. (It’s not a very good joke.) It is still windy as heck in Tribeca, but if you’re brave (or bad at dressing for the weather), you can start switching to skirts and dresses without hating yourself too much for your early AM outfit decisions. Aside from my legs shivering a little over the last few days, here’s what else I got into in March:
Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to go on a trip with my lady frousins for the second MLK weekend in a row. Last year, we visited Charleston, South Carolina to eat our faces off and to have the be-Yeezus scared out of us by ghosts in a jail. This year, the crew headed to Austin, Texas to eat just as much, but with zero ghost encounters on the agenda. Here’s what we were able to fit in our bellies:
For being a short month, February has been a little wild. I’ve overused the word “wild” to describe everything in my life the past few weeks, including the weather. Up one day, down the next. Luckily, everything is on the up and up right now, including the temperature. I started to take regular yoga classes again, mostly in an attempt to tone up my arms before I’m in a bikini next month, but also to RELAX a little, though it’s hard in a studio where your mat is always touching the mat of four other people. I also started my French 2 class with Fluent City, which I will complete just in time to help me out with my April trip. Here’s what else went on in February:
I can’t believe everything that’s happened since December, which at this point feels like it was 3 months ago. This month was packed and I was super productive – yes, I am tooting my own horn, but I’m proud of running at 10,000 miles an hour recently. I don’t even know how I did all of the below and still managed to fit in the entire series of Making a Murderer, a repeat viewing of all seven seasons of 30 Rock, my last two events as a TriviaAD host, my French lessons at Fluent City, and two and a half books.
10 miles behind me 