Category: travel

Beauty in the Grid

I normally don’t get window seats on airplanes because it is too much of a hassle to have to continually ask someone to move when I have to go to the bathroom. However, this trip I was lucky enough to sit in seat 1A on a Regional Jet which is both a window and an aisle seat. There were only six passengers on a plane built to hold almost 40 so it was a nice and relaxed atmosphere in which to fly home. Continue reading Beauty in the Grid

Feeling the Sun

Walking out the door, I groaned at the six inches of snow that covered the ground and the three fresh inches that were currently encasing the car in snow. My cab was waiting and I didn’t have time to scrape the car for hubby who’d be coming out in about an hour and would have to scrape the accumulation off the windshield before he left for work.

Continue reading Feeling the Sun

Packing for Bliss

Organizing stuff is not my strong suit as anyone who has ever seen my desk or my house would be able to tell you. I’m great at organizing parties and projects, but not so good at making sure I know where everything is and that I have everything I need. My lack of personal organization has bitten me more than once when I’ve been traveling and gotten somewhere only to realize that I didn’t have deodorant, shampoo, or toothpaste. I travel often enough that I’ve been inconvenienced on more than one trip by not having everything I needed so I decided that it was high time I got organized.
I firmly believe that life and stuff should be modular so that you can pick up the one module that you need and pack it without having to pack all the junk you don’t need. So with that in mind, I figured out that I needed to pack the following “modules” when I traveled:

Suitcase Stuff

  • Work out gear

  • My lunch box

  • Toiletries

  • Office Supplies (this gets transferred to my purse when I go into the office)

  • Clothes

Purse Stuff

  • Electronic gear

  • Medical supplies

  • Travel Documents

  • Shopping bags

I came up with a list for each of these items and I make sure that everything on the list is in the kit before I put it goes into the suitcase. Each of my lists is highly personalized because my kits/ modules need to fit my life; however, I’ll share some of the basics to help you build your own kits. Most of my kits go into my suitcase, but I always carry my medical supplies, my electronic gear, and my travel documents kits with me.

Work Out Gear

What I pack for workout gear varies depending upon the trip and how I think I’m most likely to exercise. For instance, this trip I’ll be staying at a hotel with an outside pool and it’s too cold to swim, so my swim suit will stay home. My exercise options will most likely be walking or doing yoga in my room, so this trip I’ll take shorts, a t-shirt, and socks, my yoga mat, and sneakers. If I end up walking, I’ll wear street clothes so I don’t need to pack any sweat pants. I have a big enough yoga bag that the shorts, t-shirt, and socks can go right inside so everything is handy. My pedometer always is with me so I can track my steps each day.

My Lunch box

My lunch box is the most essential of my travel modules because it helps me make sure I can eat healthy on the road. My kit includes a tea cup, a knife, fork, spoon, cereal bowl, a small cutting board, tea, honey, and a few other small things. It all fits into a plastic shoebox that I got at Target that fits perfectly into my suitcase. By making sure I have the utensils that I need on hand to eat healthy, I have a better chance of success.

Toiletries

Although most hotels have soap and shampoo, I always like to take my own so that I’m sure I’ll have shampoo that doesn’t dry out my hair. I also use business trips as a chance to indulge in soaps and lotions that I don’t normally use at home so my toiletries kit has some good soap and expensive lotion so that I feel pampered on the road. My toiletries stay in a thick plastic bag so that if something leaks it doesn’t get all over everything else in my bag.

Office Supplies

Most people, especially those traveling for business, don’t often think to travel office supplies as the assumption is that since you’re going to an office they should have everything you need. However, after one two many trips getting stuck without a stapler, tape, scissors, or other essentials, I soon learned that I needed to make sure I had my own basic office supplies. My little black bag contains the basics, please note cards and stamps in case I have time to write notes home, highlighters, and a notebook and pen to make sure I can capture notes if I need to. My bag also contains a small spice jar filled with ink cartridges for my fountain pens, paper clips, staples and some small binder clips. Because TSA gets a little cranky if you try to bring scissors onto a plane, this one travels in my checked luggage until I reach my destination, then it goes in my purse. My little black bag of tricks also contains a change purse with a few dollars and change enough to get a soda or something from the vending machine in case no one has change.

Clothes

Typically the purpose of your trip are going to dictate what clothes you take, but I’ve found a few simple rules of thumb for traveling. If you’re going to a location where the travel is business casual, don’t pack sports coats or suits as they are bulky and unwieldy. In most environments that are business casual, a light sweater or polo shirt works. Also don’t get into the trap of thinking that you need a pair of pants for every day. I’m going to Chattanooga for a week and I’ve packed underwear for the week, two parts of pants, a pair of jeans, and four tops. I’ll go right to the plant from the airport, so I’ll wear the clothes that I’m going into the office in on Monday to save packing another outfit. In terms of shoes, I typically pack one pair of flats and a pair of heels. You can look nice and put together without packing ten suitcases full of clothes.

Electronic Gear

We live in a digital age and all of our electronic accessories need to be powered up to operate. All too often, I’ve gotten somewhere and realized that I’d forgotten the charger for my computer or cell phone and then had to go running all over town to find one. I found a really cool floral cosmetics bag that I use for my electronics gear. It contains my computer charger, my phone charger, a USB cable to connect my phone to my computer, headphones, and a Webcam so I can communicate with the folks back home if need be.

Medical Supplies

I know the term medical supplies makes it sound as if I’m carrying a defibrillator around in my purse and that is so not the case. However, I’ve found that it’s helpful to have the basics on hand. My medical kit, which is a fun little pencil kit that I picked up at Borders contains lotion; aspirin or other pain killers; echnicia and goldenseal tablets to help ward off infection; hand sanitizer, which doubles as a wound cleaner, band aids, zicam for the sinus infections I always get when I’m traveling, and sinus medicine. I used to carry a few more things in my medical supply kit, but these were the things I was always using.

Travel Documents

I hate standing behind people who are fumbling for their documents when you get to the airline check in so I wanted to make sure I never became one of those people. I also hate having to track down receipts when it came time to file my expense report so I purchased a cute little bag at World Market that holds my passport and has a pocket for me to stick all those pesky receipts in. Since it goes with my travel stuff, I know that the receipts in the bag are all travel receipts I need to file.

Shopping Bags

One of my goals is to reduce the number of paper or plastic bags that I use as they always end up getting thrown away, so I always make sure that I have a couple of reusable shopping bags tucked in my purse. They are making convenient ones these days that roll up to a small size and have their own packing case so they’re easy to stick into my purse.

As I look over this list, it seems as if I’m packing everything but the kitchen sink and maybe I am; however, as my packing has evolved over the years, I’ve found that all of the above are truly necessary in order for me to function on the road without having to constantly run to the store to get something I forgot. Since I started, packing for bliss I’m a lot happier when I travel as I’m a lot less likely to have forgotten something.

Home Bliss Home

I’d been feeling a full blown sinus infection coming on most of the week and all I wanted to do when Friday rolled around was to get on a plan and get the heck out of Dodge (well, actually Chattanooga). Unfortunately, one of the worst snow storms in recent memory was bearing down on the South and by 10 am, all flights into and out of Atlanta, where I had a connection, were cancelled.

The first three phone calls to Delta were greeted with the announcement that “All circuits were busy.” I managed to get through on the fourth try only to be met with the announcement that Delta wasn’t answering the phones due to extreme weather. I finally got my travel agent on the phone about 11:00 and was told that Delta had rebooked me on a Saturday flight. I groaned and asked if there was any other way to get home. There was a 3:15 flight for $1000, a 12:15 Delta flight connecting through Memphis that I might be able to make, and a 5:55 American flight. I told the customer service rep to get me on the Delta flight and flew out of the office with barely a goodbye.
Traffic was light and I made it to the airport by 11:30, but unfortunately there were no seats available on the flight. I returned my rental car and tried getting American Express on the phone to see about getting onto the American flight. After 10 minutes on hold, I decided I’d try my luck with the American Representative at the airport. The Southern beauty behind the counter told me that there were seats on the flight, but suggested I talk to Delta to see if Delta would be willing to transfer my ticket to American. She said the man working the Delta counter was a very nice man and would most likely be wiling to help me out.
I headed over to the Delta line and when I made it to the counter, I asked the gentleman if it was possible to transfer me to American. He said that they really weren’t supposed to do that for weather, but when I told him all I wanted to do was get home, he took pity on me and worked some voodoo magic to transfer my ticket to American. We walked over to the American counter and finalized the deal. I thanked my savior profusely and Delta earned my respect for having employees willing to actually help people and not just spout corporate policy.
The next five hours were spent watching the snow dust down upon the tarmac and working on my laptop while I waited for my trip home. Finally, 5:25 rolled around and it was time to board. I texted John that I was finally on my way home and then settled into enjoy the trip.
Arriving in Chicago, I found my luggage and headed out to the kiss and fly where John and Luke were waiting. Ahh, home blissful home.

French Bliss

I picked up a copy of My Life in France yesterday at Barbara’s Bookstore at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. I had some time to kill while waiting for John’s surgery to be done and after all the hype I’d heard about Julia and Julie, I was curious to read about the real Julia Child. At the time, all that I knew about Julia Child was that she cooked French food, had been in the OSS, and had a TV cooking show.

My earliest impressions of Julia Child came from coming across her TV show on PBS when I was a child and, sad to say, from the Saturday Night Live skits. I hate to admit it, but somehow I gathered that she was rather opinionated and snobbish and not someone I’d like to know. I’m not exactly sure how I drew that conclusion, but suffice to say she wasn’t someone who interested me until the whole Julia and Julie thing came about.

Picking up the book, with the picture of Meryl Street as Julia on the cover and thumbing through it, I was impressed by the humlity and humanity I saw reflected on the pages. I started reading it when I got back to John’s room and I found myself getting drawn into Julia’s foodie adventures. My mouth watered as she described the butter laden treats she learned to cook in France, I felt saddened to read about her having to leave her beloved France, and I cheered for her as she found a publisher who actually got what she was trying to say.

I recognized my own opinionated nature and love of travel in her stories and I was charmed as she described shopping in markets and learning to cook from scratch. I empathized with her in her search for herself in Paris. For although, I was the one with the career while John stayed home, I know how difficult it was for him on Okinawa. It’s hard to be the one following your spouse around to the far corners of the earth. I especially empathized with how hard it must have been for her to go from having a career of her own with the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) to being a dependent spouse.

Some of the recipes Julia cooked, such as the beef bourguignon look as if they would taste incredible, but some of the others like the aspics I’m not sure I could ever bring myself to try. I know that someday soon, I’ll be getting a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking and expiremienting with some of the recipes she cooked. Even if I never become an international celebrity or public foodie, I’ll at least have the bliss of creating and eating wonderful food.

Foodie Bliss

I always thought foodies had to be super obsessed and obese people whose entire lives focused on their next food fix. However, over the past year some careful blog reading and introspection has taught me that being a foodie isn’t about quantity, it’s about quality. Despite living in the land of plenty, we live in a world that is obsessed with the quantity of food we can shovel into our fat little faces (and yes, I get to say fat little faces because all too often, I was the one doing the shoveling).

From seeing folks eating at all you can eat buffets, you’d think that they were seriously thinking that they didn’t know where there next meal was coming from. I’ve been there done that as I used to be a devotee of Ponderosa, Old Country Buffet, and all the other feeding troughs masquerading as restaurants. The funny thing is that even when I was the one at the trough, I was thinking to myself, “So this is why Americans are so fat.” America’s a society truly believes in more more more when it comes to food and that mentality is sticking to our thighs, our butts, and any place else that flab sticks.

We’re taught at an early age that cleaning our plates (even if the food is tasteless, fat filled, junk) is a virtue and that leaving anything behind is a mortal sin. Who among us hasn’t heard about those starving children in Africa? We reward ourselves and our kids with food and then wonder why we’re all fat.

My first glimpse that food should be about quality and not quantity happened three years ago in Amsterdam where I savored perfectly ripe strawberries with two pieces of perfect chocolate. I savored that meal and it filled me up and satisfied more than any of the stomach busting trips to the buffet I’d taken in my life. That lesson came back to me over the past six months as I’ve started reading foodie blogs, shopping for fresh foods, and really taking time to savor my food instead of shovel it in.
Being a foodie is really about enjoying what you eat and making it meaningful. It’s about eating that perfect strawberry when it is perfectly ripe. It’s about savoring a perfectly cooked chicken and enjoying every morsel. I guess the first time I realized that food should be savored and enjoyed and not shoveled. The best part is that being a foodie doesn’t mean I have to give up anything, if I really want a fast food hamburger that’s okay, as long as I savor it and enjoy the experience and knowing I can have my cake and blissful eat it too is pure joy.

Tropical Bliss

I found out last week that I needed to fly to Miami on Saturday and stay through Tuesday night. It sounds like a lot of fun to jet off to a tropical hot spot in November, but the reality of it was that I’d had a nice quiet weekend planned. I was going to have lunch with an old friend, scrub the house down, do my Thanksgiving shopping and just generally chill out. Unfortunately, in today’s economy when duty calls you have to go because decent jobs are tough to come by.

My flight from Chattanooga landed about 6:00 pm on Friday so I had enough time to run out and do my Thanksgiving shopping, do my laundry, and repack my bag before it was time to fall into bed. Saturday morning I headed off to pick Sean up at school. We had a nice lunch together and then he dropped me off at the airport. Once I was in the air, I had time to reflect upon how this might not be such a bad thing, after all even though we were working there should be time in the evenings to hang out and chill out and just relax. I’d done my research on the hotel and found they had a pool and a great patio with inviting looking sofas so maybe I could spend a few hours hanging out by the pool and reading or writing.

Those fantasies were not to come to fruition until Tuesday morning. My new boss had most of his new team on the ground and together for the first time and he wanted us to hang out together and get to know each other. I like my new boss and I like my new coworkers, but I also love my me time and heading into the holidays I knew it was going to be in short supply and that sofa on the patio looked so inviting.
My me time finally arrived on Tuesday morning when I arrived downstairs 45 minutes before we were supposed to head to the office. I didn’t see any of my coworkers at breakfast so I didn’t feel guilty heading outside to claim one of the big comfy overstuffed chairs for my own. I leaned back, took a deep breath of the warm tropical air, closed my eyes and listened to the fountain. I felt all the tension ease out of my body as I enjoyed my brief tropical respite. After a few minutes of relaxing, I called a friend and enjoyed a good gossip session about all the insanity happening at work. Once our gossip session ended, I pulled out my trashy novel and spent 20 minutes soaking up the sun and reading.
Although I didn’t get all the me time that I’d hoped for, that 45 minutes of tropical bliss was more than enough to recharge my batteries and give me the boost I needed.

Cuban Bliss

Three days in the semi-tropical paradise known as Miami made me believe that Latin Americans really know how to cook. In the three days we were there, we gorged ourselves on awesome Cuban, Brazilian, and Peruvian food. I missed Texas de Brazil the first night in town, but my team is pretty congenial so two of my teammates took me out for a late Cuban dinner and I had beef with onions and black beans and rice, the food was incredibly tasty and even though it was late out, we indulged ourselves in a little Cafe Cubana.

I’m not a coffee drinker, but I will always swill down the incredibly sweet, rich coffee favored in Cuba. It is made like expresso but with sugar added to the brew and it is potently rich. It is usually served in very small cup or shot glasses and it is meant to be savored. Drinking it fills your body with a very intense rush of caffeine and more than one cup will give you the jitters and a serious headache. One of my friends and I both made the mistake of downing three shots of Cafe Cubana in less than an hour and although we both suffered for our over indulgence, it wasn’t enough to make us give up the Cafe Cubana.

We headed back to the Cuban restaurant for lunch the next day and indulged in a feast fit for all of our senses. I indulged in flank steak with chimichurri sauce, ceviche, and plantains. Chimichuri sauce is a mix of parsley, olive oil, and red peppers that is drizzled over the flank steak to create the most amazing flavor. I’d first discovered Chimichurri sauce in Chattanooga of all places and I’d been a fan every since. I often make my own and drizzle it over steaks, but it’s never quite as good as what you get in restuarants. Ceviche is fish cooked in lemon juice and it becomes the most amazingly tender fish you’ve ever put in your mouth. I’ve learned to love certain types of sushi, but I loved ceviche from the first bite I put in my mouth. Plaintains are to Latin America what potatoes are to Ireland and they are served in a variety of ways from mashed like potatoes to fried to cooked with a little brown sugar. We indulged ourselves in sampling all the different ways that plantains were cooked.

Our food fest continued throughout our visit to Miami and on my last day in the land of sun and cigars, one of my good friends took me out to a Peruvian restaurant and we enjoyed a feast. We had Peruvian corn, which has much larger kernels than typical US corn, a wonderful cheese sauce with potatoes, and ceviche. The food was all fresh and tasted delicious and while we were at lunch we talked about life, love, and the wonders of self discovery.

All in all, the food, the fun, and the sun were all blissful in Miami.

Welcoming Bliss

I’ve been traveling the last two weeks and arriving in Chattanooga this week, I was fortunate enough to witness a father’s homecoming. I had no idea how long he’d been traveling or where he’d been, but I did know that he was loved and honored because after he cleared security, two little girls screamed Daddy and launched themselves into his open arms. Homecomings are played out hundreds of times a day at airports, train stations, and homes across the country and despite their similarities, each one is special and unique.

Witnessing these two little girls welcome their daddy home, got me to thinking about how wonderful it was to come home and be welcomed with open arms. To know that someone loves you unconditionally and is really glad to be reunited with you. Reflecting, I realize that I take homecomings for granted and don’t acknowledge how fortunate I am when my loved ones come home to me or when I come home to them. My daughter flew home from DC several weeks ago and I didn’t take the opportunity to tell her how glad I was that she’d gotten to have the experience of going to JEA and how glad I was that she came home.

As the days tick down until the holiday season, thoughts of family fill the air and I realize how lucky I am to have a husband and two kids who love me and who are glad I’m home. I might not get the cliched homecoming, but I know I have folks who love me and are glad I’m home and in the end that’s really all that matters.

Tech Bliss

Technology gets a bad rap as you hear everyone talking about how we’re disconnected from our fellow human beings because we’re so wrapped up in technology. How we’re texting during conversations, how we’re talking on cell phones all the time, how we’ve become isolated by technology. However, what everyone fails to mention is that at the other end of those texts and phone calls is a real live human being that we’re connecting with. Personally, I feel more connected than ever because technology lets me share my experiences as I’ve having them, versus after the fact.
Caitlin is one of the biggest Beatles fans in the world and I was fortunate enough to be able to visit Abbey Road two years ago and due to technology, I was able to call her from Abbey Road and share the experience with her as it was happening. If I would have had a camera phone, I could have snapped a picture and sent it to her instantaneously. That is the power that technology has to connect people.
I connected with one of my oldest friends from outside of Koldinghus castle in Germany. It was incredibly cool to call her from the castle and tell her all about Denmark and share my experience with her. Because I usually end up traveling alone, it is wonderful to be able to share my experiences with people as I’m having them.

Technology also keeps me connected to my kids as they travel. Caitlin is in Washington D.C. this week and we’ve been getting text messages from her all week updating us on her trip. We’ve also texted her and when we ran into one of her friends at a restaurant we texted her and said, “Vlad says hi.” At first she didn’t believe that we’d actually run into him, but once I snapped a photo with my camera phone and sent it to her phone, she said to tell him hello.

Sometimes when you’re out and about you see something that makes you chuckle and you want to share it with someone. I was out the other night and came across a copy of the book, “Things Drunk People Say.” It made me think of an associate of mine who has a penchant for calling people drunk and saying stupid things. I was able to snap a cover of the book cover and send it to another friend with a note, “Does this remind you of anyone?” Maybe it was mean, maybe it was catty, but it was real and genuine and it let me and a friend share a virtual chuckle.
I agree that some of us are addicted to our Crackberries and spend way too much time checking our work email, but there is true bliss to be had in technology to connect with our loved ones and share what’s going on in our world with them.