Where am I now? #4

I retired from my rustic rendezvous just before noon yesterday, then coaxed my courageous little Roxy (my car) up and through some mountains. I could practically hear Roxy's sigh of relief as I cut the engine after pulling into the driveway of my newest destination.

Where am I now??

Here are your glimpses (aka hints)...

Not quite sure where I am/what these are??

Wanna know for sure? Click here to Find out!! -- This link will take you to the clue-answering post only!

The FULL STORY -- This link will tell you where I am at present, as well as where I've been! (in case you haven't checked up on me in a little while!)

Where am I now? #3

So I've kinda been slacking on the whole "periodic updating the regular blog" thing. It's certainly not for lack of update material...quite the contrary, actually! I've been busy exploring, and could never find enough time to sit down and formulate a new post to keep you readers of my "original blog" up to date! Sorry about that!

Anyway, my last update here at Meryl's Describetions found me wandering the quaint streets of Santa Barbara, CA. Since then, I've actually traversed north quite a ways... I've already been to and through Davis, California, visiting my cousin Mollie.

So where am I now??

Here are your glimpses (aka hints):

Not quite sure where I am/what these are??

Wanna know for sure? Click here to Find out!! -- This link will take you to the clue-answering post only!

The FULL STORY -- This link will tell you where I am at present, as well as where I've been! (in case you haven't checked up on me in a little while!)

Where am I now?? #2

I departed from beautiful Carlsbad late yesterday morning.

Where am I now??

Here are your glimpses (aka hints)...

Not quite sure where I am/what these are??

Wanna know for sure? Click here to Find out!! -- This link will take you to the clue-answering post only!

The FULL STORY -- This link will tell you where I am at present, as well as where I've been! (in case you haven't checked up on me in a little while!)

Chimes of freedom

Guess where I am????

Hint: I recently presented a very thorough de-scribe-tion of my plan to road trip up the West coast. Remember how I neglected to mention anything about where I would be going on my extended excursion, other than the evident locations witnessed by this map?



I also mentioned that I would be documenting my coastal journey in full, as well as maintaning frequent updates so that all my friends and family can keep track of me!

And I'm going to hold up to that, starting...

NOW!!!

I departed from The Valley of the Sun yesterday afternoon.

Where am I now??

Here are your glimpses (aka hints)...

Not quite sure where I am/what these are??

Wanna know for sure? Click here to Find out!! -- This link will take you to the clue-answering post only!

The FULL STORY -- This link will tell you where I am at present, as well as where I've been! (in case you haven't checked up on me in a little while!)

She's gonna miss me...

It took me right up to the last minute, but I finally got everything packed for my trip!!




Or so I thought...
 

All The Way Home

In the next few days I will be embarking on an adventure...a road trip up the West coast!! I intend to leave within this week...though the actual departure date depends my efficiency at tying up the loose-ends of the preparation. Leaving in a timely manner necessitates the implementation of some serious organizational skills.

Which should be a piece of cake.

Since, you know, I'm an overwhelmingly organized person.

Cough. Cough.

In reality, it will require a Herculean effort on my part to stay on top of everything. But I'm SO excited about this trip that, other than taking the time to write this blog entry, I've remained remarkably on task. I still have a slightly-daunting To-Do list to get through (the progression of which was hindered by my recent one-week-stint in NYC), but I'm determined to stay on schedule. My dates spent in a particular city are pretty solidly set in stone, because many times I'm visiting with friends or family. That doesn't allow for much schedule-flexibility...or rather, it would be incredibly rude of me to insist upon it.

 

Anyway, remember how sometimes I like using pictures instead of words to display something important? Well, here's what my road trip “itinerary” looks like:

Obviously that's a very vague portrayal...I did that on purpose. I'm going to be documenting each leg of my coastal journey and updating frequently, so that y'all can follow along!

More on that later!! For now, here's a little Q&A I put together for some of your more general inquiries:

Why are you going on the trip?

Because I can, and because I feel like I need to. I graduated from college over a year ago, but I feel like I've been standing in the same place ever since, not moving forward and unable to move back. After declining to return to my former nannying job for another school year, I fell into a lifestyle slump. My future job prospects were dismal, I was still living at home in less-than-perfect conditions, my Costa Rica plans had fallen through...I felt like I had nothing to say for myself, no worth to my name, and I was itching to make a change. I had always intended to spend part of this last year traveling, going away in order to come back to myself. Getting lost so I could be found. After thinking my options over, and taking a few precursory pilgrimages out to California, I finally started to feel like my life was headed in an encouraging direction. So I followed up on those feelings, and now I'm standing at the Starting Line of what promises to be a great adventure!!

When are you leaving?

Thursday, August 27

How long will you be gone?

The trip rounds out at just a few days shy of 5 weeks! I should be back in The Valley of the Sun in late September/early October

How many cities will you be visiting?

15, possibly one more depending on events and scheduling

Are you going by yourself?

Yup, I'm a solo flier! I need the time to reflect and explore my life and it's options, and this is a great way to do so.

You're terrible with directions. How will you find your way around?

I consider this road trip an “orientation” challenge. By using a simple compass and a handful of maps, I am resolved to find my way around with as few wrong turns as possible!

Your birthday is towards the end of your trip. Where will you be? What are your plans?

As it stands, my birthday is also the last official day of my roadtrip. By then I will also have my mother in tow (we'll meet up somewhere in the northern hemisphere of the Golden State a few days before my Big Day), so I'll have some company...more details to follow!!

So there you have it! If you have any other questions, comment or send me an e-mail, I'll happily answer them or direct you back to my blog at the appropriate time!

Good Eye

As a writer, I have a sharp eye for typos (and poor grammar). In fact, in college I gained the reputation of Grammar Nazi.
 

In my opinion, English majors should be mandated within every job market, not just journalism or publishing. Every company should have a trained eye on hand to prevent embarrassing grammatical oversights, or even just awkward wording/phrasing.

For example:

This sign (seen in a family-friendly neighborhood) could be a warning that there are "slow" children playing nearby, or asking that approaching drivers decrease their speed due to the presence of said children.

 

This sign (on the main doors at my grandma's assisted living facility) made me laugh out loud. If the door is automatic, why would it need to be pulled on to open? 

 

I want to be the copyeditor for whatever company creates these signs!

Spontaneity is the spice of life!

Yesterday Andrea and I had a chat about our college days, how we both miss the convenience of living just minutes away from frivolous friends and fun. Our conversation's culmination went something like this:

Andrea: "No one is spontaneous anymore."

Me: "Let's do something then, I'm not doing anything. Pottery painting, Tempe Marketplace, 30 minutes?"

Andrea: "YES."

Slightly longer than half an hour later, there we stood in front of my favorite pottery painting place, As You Wish. We took pictures to document our spontaneity, because that's how we roll. My favorite picture is the one where Andrea looks like a tourist in her own home town:

Since it was about 3,000 degrees outside and we were both roasting, we hurried inside. Andrea had never been before so I quickly explained the painting process, and we got to work!

The evening was A BLAST!! Which brings me to the other point of this post: the importance of being spontaneous.

Since graduating from college a year ago, one of the toughest lessons my friends and I have had to learn is that “real life” has a very structured schedule, which severely inhibits the freedom of whims.

Frequent discussions about such an injustice brought forth vehement rantings such as these:

"All I do is work."

"I don't have time for anything because I work all the time."
"By the time I'm off work I don't have energy to do anything else."

Though all inferences were indirect, the keywords of every discussion were Lack of Spontaneity.

There is no time to be spontaneous anymore.

Which is a shame because in my mind, spontaneity keeps life fresh, invigorating. It gives you something to talk about. To dream about.

Since I know you're wondering, here are some of my favorite Spontaneous Adventures of my College Years:

All 3 of us got a piercing!

Stuck and squelching at Mud Falls

Midnight mealtime outings to Denny's!

AZ state fair! Road trip!

There were plenty of others, and even if I didn't come away from them with picture proof, the memories are as vivid as any photograph. Late night card games in dormitory hallways. Home-made snowcones. Trips through the belly of a self-serve car wash. Even community trips to the grocery store. Each of them transpired simply because.

In a world of overtime and over-inflated work ethics, spontaneity has lost its valor. But it's value is still ever present. Who hasn't said any one of these things:

"I wish I could just pack up and head out."
"Wouldn't it be nice to get out of here for a few days?"

"Hey, that looks/sounds like fun! Too bad I have to work."
"We should just go."

And then sighed, simply because you knew that your stickler of a schedule superseded any spontaneous soirées.

Well, I hereby challenge you to "just go." The next time you get the urge, or a friend calls to complain, just go. Do something exciting, maybe even unprecedented. Give yourself an hour, an afternoon, a day, just to enjoy being where you are and who you're with. I guarantee it will be worth it, and you will find yourself saying what Andrea said to me at the end of the night:

"It was just what I needed."

Me, too.

So, go on. And then tell me about it!

That was Wicked awesome!!

It's no big secret that I am a musical theater freak lover. Therefore, I have no qualms about this shameless plug:

If you have not yet seen Wicked: the Musical, you are seriously missing out. It is the exceptionally creative backstory of the two witches from The Wizard of Oz, Glinda and Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West). The musical is based on the novel by Gregory Maguire.

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Me at Wicked in Los Angeles, CA, at the Pantages theater (May 2008):

After the show, I went here:

 

And I got these:

By palling around with these people!:

The amazing Caissie Levy (Elphaba)

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The fantastic Megan Hilty (Glinda)

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The winsomely handsome Kristoffer Cusick (Fiyero)

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

The felicitous Michael Drolet (Boq)

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The ebullient Marcie Dodd (Nessarose)

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The wonderful John Rubinstein (Wizard of Oz)

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The dynamic Joanne Worley* (Madame Morrible)

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The amiable Timothy Britten Parker* (Dr. Dillamond)

*I took pictures with Ms. Worley, but my camera malfunctioned. I forgot to get a picture with Mr. Parker. However, thanks to my savvy skills with the Paint program, I still got my photos! (Betcha didn't even notice till I said something, did you? hehe).

And because I am a writer, I couldn't let the photos stand by themselves. Behold, my “Wicked comic strip,” using a plethora of inside jokes from the production. I had a blast making this, and cracked myself up plenty of times in the process. For those of you who know the local wonders of Flagstaff, there is another plug...can you find it??

Wicked: the Musical is still on tour, and it just so happens to be playing in the Valley of the Sun through the month of July! You should all go see it...it will be a thrillifying experience!!

Your Own Worst Enemy

I am on a personal quest to lose weight (although is it really personal when your doctor also recommends it?). So far I’ve done pretty well, having lost nearly 25 since November 2008. I would still like to drop another 15, but and the journey beyond the plateau is so far proving rather treacherous. Every health article I’ve read says that the last 10-15 pounds are the toughest to lose, and I’m finding that to be frustratingly accurate. And it's not just about physical motivation anymore. It's every bit as much about staying emotionally strong through the setbacks. That's getting harder, too.
In an unusual twist, instead of my typical prolific de-scribe-tion, I opted to illustrate it for you instead (you’ll understand why I stick to words, lol):

*click on the picture for a bigger view*

Of course, a true visual artist would not have resorted to such a prosaic practice such as in-picture-narrations, but since I’ve never labeled myself as such, I’m exempt from any such restrictions :-)

But in all seriousness, I’ve really been struggling with overcoming the different (primarily emotional) trials that accompany the weight loss process: the cravings that practically bludgeon you to death, leaving you battered and bruised as you reach for the refrigerator handle; the leaden guilt that sits in your stomach afterwards, the wounded warrior. I find myself making excuses not to exercise, when I know perfectly well that I’m just being lazy. Or worse, I don’t even bother with making excuses, and simply do nothing about the sluggishly sedimentary lifestyle I’ve so easily slipped back into. Too easily. It’s embarrassing, frustrating, and the gateway to a depression I’ve been battling for years. There’s a dragon sitting in front of that gate, and it breathes two different fires: one propels me forward, nipping at my heels and encouraging me to keep moving, keep climbing that mountain until all the extra weight is gone and I’m standing at the peak of my success; the other fire burns me, flushing my face and filling me with the firey shame of failure. That second fire immobilizes me, melds me to the side of a cliff from which it feels there is no escape.

Anyway, I recently came across this nifty weight-loss ticker thingy, and I decided that it was time to up my ante. If I got the general blogosphere involved, if I garnered up a number of witnesses, I would have no choice but to get the weight-loss show on the road. Gotta give your audience something to see, after all! (Though, on that note: I will not be posting any before-after pictures. At least not part of a set. The ‘befores’ will remain stashed away in the recesses of a past I do not care to dig up. The ‘afters’ will come as I see fit to post visual tidbits of my life. There’s such a post coming up, actually, as soon as I find the time to get everything in order!).

So now I have my very own weight-loss ticker clock! Here it is…

Keep checking back (I’ll try to remember to post when you should do so) for updates on my progress. Now that it's officially summer vacation and I have more daily freedom, I'm determined to catapult out of this rut and hit the ground running (or biking, or jumping on the trampoline, or heading to zumba class...). Wish me luck! (I'll need it).