About Me

Living life one dream at a time.

Words of the Wise

"What after all is a halo? It's only one more thing to keep clean."
-Christopher Fry, The Lady's not for Burning

"Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, 'I'll try again tomorrow.'"
-Mary Anne Radmacher

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be. That's why people are so cynical about it. It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more."
-Erica Jong

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the World. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won’t feel unsure around you...We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us; It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. As we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
-Nelson Mandella, 1994 Inaugural Speech

"Until this moment I had believed forgiveness to be a special virtue, a beneficence God expected of good people. But it wasn't that at all. Forgiveness was an instinct, a desperate impulse to stay connected to the people you needed, no matter what their betrayals."
-Monica Wood, My Only Story

"If neurotic is wanting two mutually exclusive things at one and the same time, then I'm neurotic as hell. I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days."
-Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar

"The most important things are the hardest to say. They are the things you get ashamed of, because words diminish them—words shrink things that seemed limitless when they were in your head to no more than living size when they're brought out. But it's more than that, isn't it? The most important things lie too close to wherever your secret heart is buried, like landmarks to a treasure your enemies would love to steal away. And you may make revelations that cost you dearly only to have people look at you in a funny way, not understanding what you've said at all, or why you thought it was so important that you almost cried when you were saying it. That's the worst, I think. When the secret stays locked within not for the want of a teller but for the want of an understanding ear."
-Stephen King

"Have you even been in love? Horrible, isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens your heart and it means someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses. You build up this whole armor, for years, so nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life...You give them a piece of you. They don't ask for it. They do something dumb one day like kiss you, or smile at you, and then your life isn't your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so a simple phrase like 'maybe we should just be friends' or 'how very perceptive' turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It's a soul-hurt, a body-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love."
-Neil Gaiman, Sandman: The Kindly Ones

"Being always overavid, I demand from those I love a love equal to mine which, being balanced people, they cannot supply."
-Sylvia Ashton-Warner

"What I need is someone who will make me do what I can."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson


"You know, when you crawl that far down into the abyss, you really shouldn't bring stuff back up with you. Some things are meant to live in the dark. Your blog is like one of those fish with no eyes. Only slightly more disturbing."
Sunday, February 8, 2009

Taking the left at Albuquerque

6:10 PM | Posted by Christine | Edit Post
For the last month or so, I've often found myself longing for the annual summer camping trip. The peace and quiet, the warmth of the sun, and the complete freedom from the everyday worries are just what I need to bring me back into focus. No phone, no computer, no bills to pay, and no work to do - just the ability to relax and enjoy each moment.

I've also been thinking that this may finally be the year that I take A on the long-awaited trip to Costa Rica - but it's become more and more obvious that right now is not the time for someone in the financial industry to take a $5,000 vacation. Call me crazy, but I figure it's probably best not to spend a ton of money - for all I know, I may not even have a job at this time next year.

So Thursday morning, as I was sitting in my office looking out over the mounds of gray snow that covered the city, I made a realization.

I don't have to go to Costa Rica, but I do have to get away. I need sun. I need warmth. I need a break from the daily suicide watch over our stock price, and I need to stop worrying about what the markets and economy are doing to my psyche (and that of my clients).

I'm not rich by any means, but I have a little bit of money. I can splurge just a little. I can afford....something.

That something is a deal on a Travelocity last minute weekend trip to Puerto Rico. I'm going with P & A, and we're leaving this coming Saturday morning. Three full days and nights in Isla Verde, complete with hammocks on the beach, palm trees, a rain forest tour, and moonlit kayaking through the bioluminescent lagoons.

I will not be bringing my blackberry.

My laptop will be staying home, feeling abandoned.

I will bring my phone, but will only turn it on if I fall into a well and find myself haunted by the ghost of Ponce de Leon.

I am packing two decks of cards, a crossword puzzle book, my camera, and enough sunscreen to prevent A from spontaneously combusting.

I will drink rum.

I will nap on the beach.

I will follow the guys to whatever stupid-ass historical sites they want to visit when I'd rather be drinking rum (hey, I'm a giver.)

I will find a place to sit outside one night and listen to live music under the stars.

I will buy fruit I've never heard of, and wear a very silly straw hat.

I will learn to snorkel, and I will not drown. *

I will swim in a pool beneath a waterfall in the rainforest.

I will get ripped off buying trinkets in the Rio Piedras market.

I will come home sunburned and miserably happy about the fact.

I will fill you in when I get back. **

*hopefully
**I promise

1 comments:

Wes said...

Awesome. Have a wonderful time.

WF

February 8, 2009 at 8:52 PM
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