When Life Gets in the Way of Life

Dose of Vitamin Sea at Stump Pass Beach State Park, Englewood, Fla., April 2016

Soaking Up Vitamin Sea at Stump Pass Beach State Park, Englewood, Fla.

Holy cow. Can’t believe it’s April already. The first quarter of 2016 is over and I feel as though I haven’t accomplished a darn thing. Why? Because I purposely did not plan any travel for January, February and March because there were other thing I wanted to accomplish:

Finish editing photos from last year’s cruises with Viking to Portugal and Germany’s Christmas markets.
Write blog posts about the Viking River Cruise to the Christmas markets.
Create and send out my Christmas card (yeah, I know Christmas was in December)
Purge my home. (Okay, if I sat down to watch an episode of “Hoarders,” this would be done already.)
Work in the yard.
Clear out my email inboxes (at publication time I have at least 42,000, but who’s counting?)
Write a couple of chapters for a guidebook.
Clean up my blog.
Become more connected to my community and create solid relationships with people.
Pay down debt.

VISIT FLORIDA #90 at the 12 Hours of Sebring, March 2016.

What Did I Accomplish?
I can’t lie. I’m feeling a little guilty because I barely made a dent in what I wanted to accomplish. Life got in the way and was distracted by things called sleep and having a social life. I feel as though I became slugarella when it came to this blog and was treading water through life yet, I:

Become more connected to my community and enhanced relationships with people. I realize I should not care what others think of me but I have a feeling people think I like being single and traveling alone. Sure, traveling has it’s perks but I want to share my life with someone and by not traveling I was able to participate in local events to connect with my community and spend more time with friends. I also took more Sunday morning bicycle rides along the Cape Haze-Pioneer Trail from Englewood to Placida.
Paid down debt. Because I wasn’t traveling, I saved on expenses such as the pet sitter (not reimbursable during business travel), fuel, airport parking, accommodations, air travel and other travel-related services.

Here Come the Mummies at FunkFest 7 in Punta Gorda, Fla., March 2016.

In addition, I also:
Took in more Vitamin Sea by jetting off to the beach around sunset. Sometimes I strolled the beach on a Sunday or Wednesday evening. Didn’t matter which day of the week, I decided I need to take advantage of the paradise I live especially others save for years to vacation a week or so in my backyard.

Finally experienced Here Come the Mummies (and now I understand the following) and rocked during FunkFest 7 in downtown Punta Gorda.

Attended my first major race car event, 12 Hours of Sebring as a guest of VISIT FLORIDA, which was an event sponsor and sponsors VISIT FLORIDA #90.

In addition, I volunteered with the Ringling College Library Association’s Town Hall Lecture Series and met Amy Tan, Robin Roberts, Sir Ken Robinson, Jim Messina, Karl Rove, Sharyl Attiksson, Gen. David Petraeus, and Michael Eisner.

For My Next Act
I’m hoping to kick back from traveling and figure out what I want to be when I grow up in the upcoming months. I’ll be concentrating on relationships, my home, working on the guidebook and jumping into new ventures, which I’m REALLY excited about. Sorry, can’t share what those are right now but trust me, they’re both kinda nifty.

My next trip is to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, later this month. Yes, Vietnam. See, I won a ticket on Turkish Airlines through a Twitter competition they held last fall to promote the new service from Miami to Istanbul. The ticket is valid for anywhere they fly and for some odd reason, I have always wanted to visit Vietnam and now it’s going to happen. I’m not sure how much posting I’ll be able to do but expect blog posts and images on Flickr when I return.

On the downside, I have a little medical situation to address – somewhere along the way I’ve hurt my right shoulder and meet with an orthopedic surgeon soon to determine what’s the best way to address it. I have at least one tear and possibly a second. *sigh*

Overall, life has not turned out the way I thought but I’m doing the best I can. Life is good, my friends, and hope it’s just as good, or even better, for you.

Thanks for being here!