The Hit List - Off the road

Most of us love to travel, right? Hitting the road, leaving your cares (and work) behind, seeing new things. Ah yes.

It’s all so romantic and exciting.

There’s nothing like a wee expedition somewhere (anywhere for that matter) to get the blood pumping and the mind expanding.

I’ve had some mad wanderlust since I was a young ‘un. A combo of intense curiosity about the world coupled with a desire to escape a very unhappy childhood stuck in rural hell made me desperate to travel.

So I did.

I haven’t been to some of the places that I assumed I wanted to go but I’ve been trekking around the country for most of my adult life. I’ve lived in a few different places and I’ve eaten some mighty interesting (both good and bad) meals.

I’ve been to some cities so many time that I know some of the routes and secrets better than the locals.

It’s been a whole lotta rambling around.

But something has been shifting within me. I now have a list of “travel requirements,” which rules out a lot of junkets: no travel to any place where I need vaccinations (I’m superstitious about them), no danger (lived in NY in the 80’s – had enough of that), no hot climates (I don’t do sweating), and nothing rural (see childhood above, plus I MUST have wifi access so I can work). I’m getting off the road more and more.

Does this limit me? In some eyes, yes.

But there’s another reason that things have swung in this direction: I’m happy. I no longer have to be somewhere else to find myself or to feel peaceful and whole. I have nothing to escape. More importantly, I now have the people that I love most around me. Why would I want to be anywhere else?

From The Sample Room: Smoked trout cake with micro greens and horseradish cream. I’m eating well in Minneapolis.

Other stuff:

Admission. I have a crush on Russell Brand. It’s this kind of brilliance and no bullshit that I love.

Man Servants? I’ll take a double!

Cosmo reports that black cats are being abandoned because they don’t look good in selfies. (Husband thinks this report is bull.)

I love me some Ruth Bader Ginsberg. I hope she lives forever and never retires! Go get ’em, Ruth!

The New York Times is working overtime to get the word out: legalize weed. I said this a few years ago: it will be legalized in my lifetime. This is the push forward.

Love this video of a young man who asks to borrow a homeless man’s bucket. How many times have you walked past someone on the street and just walked on by?

Sorry, Whoopi, but I do NOT agree with your sentiment here. WRONG on all levels.

How many times has Samuel L. Jackson said the mofo word? Here ya go. (No one says it as well as him.)

This story about the man with a face transplant was very fascinating to me.

Did you know that there is a hidden arrow in the FedEx logo? I didn’t know it until I read this post.

I’m part of a cool new project with my buddy, life coach Debra Smouse: The Midlife Midwife Project. We’re talking about women and aging with some very smart and sassy friends. My post: The Dare. How one dare got me to stick with gray.

A good tarot reader is never without a deck, right? Except I found myself in that predicament this weekend (I’m on a wee road trip). Quick run to the local bookstore and I almost bought Mystical Cats Tarot, which is so darn cute I can barely stand it. (I went with a standard The Rider Tarot Deck instead. Yes, I am boring like that.)

What I’m Grateful For:

Witnessing two people I love get married this weekend

Fancy pants dinners

Meeting new people

Time off

A weekend with my honey

Reliable cat sitters

Soundtrack for 8/2/14: “Wings of a Butterfly” by HIM – I have had this frigging song stuck stuck in my brain for days on end. HELP.