My 25th half-birthday just passed [for the tenth time in my life]. I remember when I was just a kid [of 30], I all but declared my birthday a month-long public holiday by hopping around the States to new cities each week, shamelessly throwing myself parties with different groups of family and friends [all whom had no idea I'd already thrown myself, like, 3 parties before that one], and excusing myself from any and all degrees of bad behavior [cuz it my birfday, bish].
(Putting the a$$ in cla$$ since 1981)
But times, they are a-changin'. This year I spent my birthday month mainly reflecting on the lessons I've learned from my last year's adventures and coming to a sad realization of the incredible backlog of posts I've accumulated by neglecting to regularly update this space. While discussing this blogging paradox with my sister, she told me to quit blogging. She said, "after all, it's not really a travel blog if you're not traveling anymore." I don't have a good response to that, so instead, here's a picture of her with fire engine red hair cutting cheesecake for a few of my closest friends at another 30th birthday shindig I threw myself.
I am realizing now, that I don't have a smooth segue into the rest of this post, so I'll just get on with it already...
SUMMER SUMMER SUMMERTIME / PARTY IN THE YOU. ESS. EH.
In case you haven't noticed, I am completely comfortable taking LONG vacations from work. I encountered exactly zero problems laying low in Thailand for three months in the Spring of 2015. However, despite my love of leisure, there is always this looming reality that even if I budget my travels like my wallet is hanging by a shoestring, at some point my funds are going to run just low enough that I will inevitably have two choices: 1.) begin selling seashell necklaces on whatever beach I'm currently inhabiting or 2.) get a "legitimate" job.
Luckily, I had the foresight to predict this inevitability early on in my travels and applied for summer work in the States from the comforts of my beachfront apartment on Koh Samui. I landed a job almost immediately at a private club for the summer season on Martha's Vineyard. I'd never visited Martha's Vineyard before, but it seemed to fit perfectly with my current island fetish, so I happily accepted the position and fully relaxed [read: guiltlessly spent most of my money] for the remainder of my time in Thailand.
As you may recall from a previous post, I concluded my travels through Thailand and said a teary farewell to my favorite partner-in-crime, Sanoon. Although we didn't have any idea when we'd next be in the same place at the same time, we promised to only be apart for three months. It took a small leap of faith to separate without a concrete timeline, but I trusted that he liked it, since he went and put a ring on it, and off we went to our opposite corners of the globe.
I had a solid month to get from Thailand to Martha's Vineyard, so I happily took the long road home [read: booked a 56 hour transit from Bangkok-->Bahrain-->London-->NYC].
LONDONTOWN-ish
Halfway through my epic transit back to the States, I made a 21 hour pit stop to visit my life-wife, Maiwenn, outside of London. I met Mai when I first moved to Koh Phangan in 2012. Between our mutual love of Ashtanga yoga, Pilates, Muay Thai and cutting mad shapes till dawn at parties in the jungle, we became the best of buds.
We became so close in fact, that at one point my mom was convinced I was a lesbian. There's nothing wrong with being a lesbian, and I suppose if I were, my first choice would be Mai, however our deep love for each other continues to remain of the platonic variety.
Although Mai and I only lived in the same place for less than two months three years earlier, thanks to our steadfast commitment to Skyping regularly, reuniting felt like no time nor distance had passed at all. However, some big changes had occurred for both of us over the three years we lived away from Koh Phangan. One of the biggest changes for Mai was the birth of this amazing nugget one year earlier.
My 21-hour visit with Mai filled my heart with love and my belly with vegan superfoods [check out her super awesome raw food yoga and Pilates retreats to personally get a taste of what I'm talking about]. My time with Mai was a bit too short but none too sweet, and before I knew it, she drove me back to Gatwick Airport,
(Still figuring out this whole Beyonce wind hair thing)
where I somehow managed to walk all the way from the airport entrance to my gate without ever stopping at a security check point. It was surreal to walk completely unnoticed through a major airport, and just as I was beginning fantasize about my future as a CIA operative a la Ethan Hunt [or whatever the female version of him would be]
I was quickly welcomed back to reality by being chosen for a "random" screening, emptying the entire contents of my lil backpack for the entire gate to see. I guess that one-way ticket from Bangkok to NYC, with unusually long layovers in Bahrain and London raised some red flags [or maybe they figured I hadn't taken my shoes off for security yet].
NYC, WHAT IS IT ABOUT YOU?
I checked out clean [obviously] and boarded my last flight without another hitch, landing me several hours later in NYC. Always happy to rest my tired traveling toes in the comforts of my old city haunts, my lil backpack and I wearily boarded the Air Train-->LIRR-->Penn Station and hopped in a taxi that took full advantage of my discombobulation by driving me in circles around midtown until I angrily caught wind of what was happening. A $40 cab ride for what should have been an easy crosstown transit left me HAngry as hell, so I decided to cool my jets by indulging in a vegan burrito. I'd been dreaming about Mexican food for the last several months in Southeast Asia, so I laid down my pack at my dear friend Courtney's apartment and went out in search of a Mexican cuisine fix. On an avenue where every third restaurant was a Mexican eatery, I was shocked to find people spilling out of every single one of them onto the streets.
Then it occurred to me...It was Cinco De Mayo.
So I got a falafel.
I spent the next week acclimating to Uh-Merican life by visiting with friends and family,
And soaking up the city vibes at some of my favorite neighborhoods and museums,
All while staying present enough to notice the signs around me,
and feeling utterly grateful to return to such a magnificent city.
THE GOOD LIFE
My week in NYC flew by, and I suddenly found myself on the next leg of the summer as I headed back to my parent's house in Nebraska. Nebraska's well-deserved state motto is "The Good Life," and returning home felt just about as good as it gets. While there, I basked in the comforts of home [read: ate a lot of my mom's food and wore pajama pants way too late into each day].
I visited with some of my oldest and dearest friends in the world,
(Surprised that Sanoon and I had no engagement photos, my preschool-pal Shannon decided to step in and help create some seriously awkward special shots for me)
Practiced loads of yoga in my parent's delightfully sunny greenhouse,
And celebrated my mom's retirement from 25 years of teaching at the same elementary school I attended as a babe.
I even had a chance to connect with new friends whom I randomly discovered shared the same ex-...periences as me.
(Don't worry, it was a small experience ;p)
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
Since I was already in the neighborhood, my family and I took a quickie road-trip to Denver, where I saw more friends and family,
(Does this sweet face look familiar? It's none other than my Thai/French partner in crime, Marie)
and visited the epic Pikes Peak on a misty day.
Even with a little bit of rain, nothing brought down the highs we felt from being surrounded by those purple mountain majesties [or perhaps it was all that legalized marijuana...just kidding, I was with my mom, and she happens to be a proud member of MADD and other such Nancy Reagan-esque groups- which I think means she is thoroughly unamused by this tangent.]
Anyway, back to the rocks...
(Nature can be so blasé unless you throw a yoga pose in there).
We spent one final night in the Mile High City before saying a fond [and sober] farewell to Colorado, and road-tripped back to Nebraska with enough time for me to repack my lil backpack and fly off the following day to my next island adventure...
WHO'S MARTHA, AND WHERE'S ALL THE WINE?
I had never lived in New England before, so I approached this new adventure with very few expectations. However, the moment I arrived, Martha's Vineyard completely seduced me with her colonial charm.
Fragrant gardens peppered the entire landscape and scented the air with the sweetest perfumes of summer.
The towns looked like they fell out of a Colonial storybook, with mom and pop shops sprinkled up and down the cobblestone streets and colorful gingerbread homes harkening back to the days when Jamaicans populated the island.
(Fun fact: there are no chain restaurants on Martha's Vineyard except for one Dairy Queen. And as you can see, it's the cutest damn Dairy Queen there ever was.)
I loved riding my bike to different beaches and towns around the island and and soaking up sunshine on crystal clear days while watching all the other tourists freeze as they attempted swimming in the 65 degree Atlantic waters. [B*tch please, after several years swimming in equatorial tropical waters, I was not about to hop into anything less than bathtub temperatures.]
(On second thought, maybe all I needed to enjoy a swim was a hotdog and condiment floaties like these brave youths. Hindsight is 20/20.)
 |
     
Did I mention there were mermaids?
I even had the chance to celebrate my first 4th of July in 3+ years!
   
('Merica! F*ck Yeah!)
I rented an attic space down the road from the private club I worked at, in a 100-year-old house passed down to the great, great granddaughters of one of the founding father's of Martha's Vineyard. Aside from the sisters giving me a gorgeous place to lay my head each night, they warmly shared their vast knowledge about the history of Martha's Vineyard while baking me brownies once a week, and letting me hang out with Mr. Magoo, their standard poodle with the least standard haircut in town.
 
(Mr. Magoo's blue mohawk stood apart from the seemingly required uniform of brightly-colored sailboat shorts and Vineyard Vines American-themed t-shirts worn by most of the male summer residents on the island. **See below**)
 
(#proof)
Although it may not look like it from this post, I honestly came to Martha's Vineyard to work. My job teaching yoga and personal training on the island kept me busy, but I still made time to maintain my own yoga practice,
And enjoy sunny days on the beach and live music or dancing in the evening with friends.
      
(Channing Tatum, what?!)
 
One of the highlights of the summer, was a visit from my super-cool, super-friend and circus-star-extraordinaire, Megan, aka @missmacaroni,
whom I met years earlier in Chicago acting together in a riveting production of "The Three Little Pigs."
(The three-month continuous run of that strange show felt like living on acid every day of my life. #nightmares)
After
So you can imagine my excitement when I got the chance to see her on the Vineyard.
We spent much of our time together exploring the many Vineyard gardens,
  
Chillaxing on beaches,
 
Making new friends,
 
Eating summer fruits in the most non-sexual ways possible,
 
(Again, her poses are far more impressive.)
And getting into a whole bunch of other tomfoolery in the evenings [of which I honestly don't have too many pictures to share].
 
A COUPLE NIGHTS IN PARADISE
Although the Vineyard was a ton of fun, I still leapt at the first opportunity to get off that rock, so I made a late-summer trip to Washington State for
     
(My seriously-sassy niece showing me how hiking is done. #werk)
stunning glacial lakes,
 
fragrant fields of wild flowers,
 
and tranquil wetlands.
  
As always, the beauty inspired my usual jumpshots for joy,
Which in turn, inspired my niece to do the same.
 With my heart full from sharing the wondrous beauty of Paradise with my family, we returned to Seattle where my sister treated my niece and me to the most American thing we could possibly do in the summer...a baseball game. I don't really follow "sports things," and I'm honestly drawing a blank on who even played in that game, but I had fun absorbing the energy of the crowd,  Watching a unicorn play the bucket drums, 
Hanging out with my niece and sister,
 And enjoying this American's Favorite Pastime at America's Favorite Pastime, 
(Chowing down on an enormous amount of Pad Thai noodles).
THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
After my fun weekend in Washington with the fam, I returned to Martha's Vineyard where I quickly finished up my summer contract. I said a fond farewell to my Vineyard family before making a few final pit stops in New York and DC to soak up the big city vibes and see my friends before my next big international adventure.
    
But before my final jet-set, I made sure to head back to my parent's house in Nebraska for one last month of soul-time with my nearest and dearest in life.
   
I even had time to squeeze in a daytrip with my dad to Kansas City and see a football game.
I can say with almost 100% certainty that out of 75,000 people at the Chief's Stadium, we were the only two tailgating with vegan tempeh bacon sandwiches and drinking kombucha.
(Whatever guys, kombucha has trace amounts of alcohol in it. I know cuz my mom told me, and she was MADD about it ;-p).
Despite losing the game, my dad and I had a great day, and we drove back to Nebraska with just enough time for me to repack my lil backpack before bidding a final farewell to my loved ones and embarking on the next bout of international adventure for the year in....
ABU DHABI....
WTF?!
I just have one thing to say about that for now...
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment