An American in Venice!

I LOVE to travel. I think many of us do. Travel offers the chance to see visit new places, experience new cultures and learn about the history of the world.

In the last year, two of my friends and their spouses have gone on Around-The-World trips. You can read about the adventures of Margaret and Ryan here and Melissa and Roger here. I've long wanted to do the same thing, but it's difficult to find the money and time to treat myself to an ATW trip.

Imagine my surprise when my mom accepted a 3 month assignment in Italy and invited ME to come along!  I'm in the middle of a relocation from Atlanta to Detroit, so I've recently quit my job and am in process of selling my house. For the first time in my adult life, I find myself completely flexible. My mom barely finished asking the question before I shouted YES!

We're talking Italy, you guys!  The land of mozzarella!  I dream of the vineyards of Tuscany, the Amalfi coast, Florence, Venice and Rome, sweet Rome!  Italy...home of countless museums, sculptures, art and ancient ruins.  The Sistene Chapel! The Vatican! The David!

I'm so excited I can hardly think of anything else.

Once my feet hit the ground again, I realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity.  I'm going to make excellent use of my time abroad. I plan to use my home base of Italy to explore Europe. My ambitious plan is to travel Italy, plus take trips to France, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovenia, Hungary and Croatia. If I can manage to see all 10 countries in 3 months, I'll be thrilled!


I'll be living in a town called Vicenza, about 35 miles west of Venice.  I found a beautiful 2 story apartment with a great kitchen and private outdoor garden.

kitchen

You don't see green kitchen cabinets everyday in the U.S.!

kitchen

 our private patio

Our view 

 Pretty sweet digs, huh?

So, dear readers, for the new few months, this blog will turn into a travel blog.  I cant think of a better topic to write about than life in Italy and my adventures in Europe.

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Until next time....caio!

                                             

Happiness by swiping a card

I'm not happy, dear readers.

I'm in a holding pattern, waiting for things to fall into place.  I've decided to move back to Michigan after 14 years away, but first, I need to sell my house. So, I'm waiting for my house to sell. And I'm waiting to quit my job. And I'm waiting to find a new house in Michigan. I'm just...waiting.

Last week, I met a few old friends at a local pub. Over our autumnal beers, we started talking about happiness.  One of them told me the story of a woman I'll call Mary. Mary was a powerful, driven consultant in Manhattan pulling in $200,000+ per year.  She was great at her job, successful, full of ambition.

One day, Mary decided she wasn't happy and decided to quit her job as a consultant. Instead, she went to a local health club and got a job at the front desk swiping access cards & saying "Welcome to XYZ gym." After years of ambition, achievement and responsibility, Mary dropped out of the rat race and found what she'd been missing...happiness.

I'm excited to move to Michigan and spend time with family and friends. But as I think about my future, I'm not sure that I want to simply move to Detroit, get a job, buy a house, renovate houses, or do any of the things I've done before. I'm not sure I want the same life anymore.

I've made my career the focus of my life for 14 years and I've been very successful. Like Mary, my career has been a huge part of my identity, a defining characteristic of who I am. So what does it mean if I don't want to do it anymore...?

Sitting in that pub last week, my friends encouraged me to do what Mary did - to take a break. To do something that makes me happy, no matter how mindless or ridiculous it may seem to others. To find my own equivalent of swiping health club membership cards.  In the process, we all deduced, I just might find happiness again.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'd planned to take a short break anyway, but now it'll be a break with purpose.  I'm going to pursue happiness in all it's forms.

I've started making a list of things I want to do, but haven't had the time:

• take dance classes
• blog more
• write a book
• write another book
• finally attempt Julia Child's beef bourguignon recipe (it takes all day)
• run more
• meditate daily
• volunteer
• take more photos
• organize my photos
• do craft projects
• scrapbook
• learn to sew
• read more books
• learn a foreign language

...and the list goes on and on. 

But first, I'm going to get lost for a while. Maybe I'll spend a month in Italy. Or France. Or Greece.

I want to be somewhere I've never been, with no agenda, no "to-do" list, no responsibilities.

Life is short.
It's time to get happy.