T is for Travel

Skagway, Alaska
Photo Credit: Doree Weller

On a regular basis, I’m happiest at home, but I do like to travel to break me out of the rut.  I like doing new things and seeing new places.  I feel like it wakes my brain up and makes me more creative.  When I go somewhere, I try to immerse myself in the experience, which can be difficult for me, as my default setting is, “Please don’t talk to me.”

It’s not that I hate people; it’s just that I mostly prefer my own company.  I like to read and I like to make up stories about people.  When people do inevitably talk to me (I have no idea why; I’m told I appear standoffish), I do enjoy hearing their stories.

My favorite thing about traveling is to see new scenery.  I love landscapes and skies, trees and water.  I love taking pictures of beautiful places, interesting buildings, and things that are broken and decaying.  I love pictures of animals and paths.    I love to look around at everything.  I know I look like a tourist, but I don’t care.

Travel takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary.  I remember the first time I went to Arizona to visit, I was enamored with how huge the sky way.  There was just so much of it, stretching in every direction.  Before going there, I never knew you could see so much sky at one time.  After 7 years of seeing it, I became numb to it.  I no longer looked up in wonder every time I went outside.  But then I traveled to Texas, and there were trees!  Everywhere!  I had grown up in Pennsylvania, so trees weren’t new to me, but after 7 years of no trees, they were new and exciting again.  My eyes had missed the green.

Travel helps me to appreciate what I have, and to enjoy different things.  While I admire people who do lots of traveling or do exciting things like backpack through Europe, it’s not for me.  After a week being somewhere else, I’m ready to come home.  Like Dorothy, I believe there’s no place like home.

Open Letter to My Pets

Dear Furbabies,

I just read an article on Facebook that really hurt me.  It was about a dog who had been shot for no reason, by a stranger.  His parents took him to the vet, went outside to discuss the cost of surgery, and never returned.  I presume they couldn’t or didn’t want to afford the cost of surgery, but I just can’t imagine leaving any one of you to wonder if I were going to return.  I’d never do that.  When I bring you home, it’s forever, for better or worse, and I mean it 100%.

I know that I’m your whole world.  I know that because I see the way you look at me, the way you greet me at the door when I come home.  The way you snuggle against me, or nudge my hand when I’m not paying close enough attention to you.  I know that I’m your only source of food and water, but what you want from me more than those basics is my love and attention.  Sometimes I get busy or stressed and don’t think about it the way I should.  I’m sorry for that.  It doesn’t mean that I love you less; it just means that I’m human: selfish and flawed.

Even if I don’t always give you enough attention or playtime, I promise you that I love you and will never leave you behind.  I’d rather live with you in a cardboard box than alone in a mansion.  I’ll be with you until the end.  I’ll make the hard decisions when I have to, because that’s what I took on when I brought you home.  Whenever that time comes, I take comfort in knowing that you, and all the ones who’ve gone before, will be waiting at the Rainbow Bridge.

It doesn’t matter what happens: there will always be room for you in my life.  That’s a promise.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

This one is appropriate for me this week.  I was on a week-long cruise to the Eastern Caribbean, and I had a great time.  However, I was so happy to be home!  I’m not sure if it was the lack of communication (I’m too cheap to pay international rates for talking, texting, or internet), or if it was being on a boat, or just being away for a week, but I was thrilled when my plane touched down in Phoenix.

Now I’m back… home sweet home.  Where the cats vomit, the dogs whine, and nothing ever stays clean for more than 5 minutes!  Home sweet home… where there’s good memories, lots of love, and so many things that I enjoy that they clutter everything.   Everywhere.  🙂

Visiting Home

I lived in Pennsylvania until 5 years ago, when a job offer for my husband sent us to Arizona.

There are many things I love about Arizona, and many things I miss about Pennsylvania.  I don’t miss the humidity.  At all.  However, I miss many things that go along with the humidity.  Tall, leafy green trees.  Streams and rivers.  RAIN.  I went to Dorney Park with a friend, and it rained while we were there.  She ducked under it and tried to stay dry.  I soaked it up.

One of the things I miss most about living in Arizona is my dog.  When I moved out, she couldn’t adjust, and ended up staying with my parents.  She’s 13 1/2 years old, pretty ancient for a dog her size.  We shared a Rita’s gelati (another thing that AZ doesn’t have).

I’m getting ready to fly back to AZ today, and I’m happy to be going home, but I’m also going to miss PA.  I’m not sure when I’ll be back.  It’s hard to leave home.  PA will always be home, no matter how much I love AZ.

H is for Home and Hope

There are so many good “H” words, but at the same time, too many!  None of them blew my skirt up with the “I have to write about this” moment.  Most of the time, I just browse around until the proverbial light comes on and I say, “Oh, that’s the one.”  In fact, in case you can’t tell, that’s actually what I’m doing now.  No matter what the title says now that you’re reading this post… the truth is that as of this moment, I have no idea what my topic is going to be.

Happiness?  Hygiene?  Hate?  Hippos?  I asked my Facebook friends for help (hey, that’s an “H” word!) and they came up with hair and hymens.  Seriously.

When in doubt, keep it simple.  I went with Home and Hope because they’re two of the most important words in existence.  In my opinion, it’s hard to live without either.  Some people have a talent for “home.”  That is, no matter where they find themselves, they can make it home.  Some people need a building to be home.  Others a person.  Some, just an idea.  For me, I need my books, my babies, and my laptop in order to be at home anywhere.  Otherwise, I’m just passing time.

It’s hard to live without hope.  Without hope, life is a never-ending series of hardships.  With hope, it can always get better.  It’s what keeps us going to casinos, and passing on stupid chain mails because who really believes that if they share that photo, they’re going to get money in 4 days?!?

Oh, sorry.  I think I got off topic for a second.  In any case, hope and home are important.  My wish for all of you is that you have something to call home and something to hope for.