Real Life

It’s the age old “grass is greener” questioning.  Traveling is bittersweet, because when you find a place in the world you love, it’s hard to know:  should you drop everything and move there?  Or do you keep it a paradise to visit once in a blue moon?  Such locations for me are Key West, Paris, and San Francisco.  I’m in San Fran currently, and will say hi to my friend Paris in May. 

I was wandering around sweet, sweet San Fran yesterday with a gentleman friend who lives here, and we had an interesting discussion. 

Mosh Pits: Modern Day Stonehenge?

They say no one quite knows how Stonehenge was built...  Whether or not it was the original intent or purpose, though, it became a place for pagan dancing and honoring of the solstices.  Nowadays I'm told it's roped off,  but in its heyday, I picture years and years of it being filled with dance circles and music.  I've been drawn to the idea of Stonehenge ever since reading a folklore story as a girl, in which a person stumbled into a fairy dance circle there, joined in, and got so caught up that they couldn't stop dancing - later woke up alone, to find that years had passed in what had felt like a night.  (You may recall me recently writing about the phenomenon of time stopping.)  Ever since that story, I've been drawn to anything I've seen or heard about Stonehenge, particularly the pictures I've seen of it.  I'll be in the UK in May of this year, and plan to visit Stonehenge... or bust!  Even if I can't go in it, I simply have to see it.   

As life would have it, I recently found a modern day tie to Stonehenge (or at least my idea of it), in the most unlikely of places:  a Dropkick Murphy's concert.

The Winter that Wasn't

It's spring.  I refuse to see it any other way.  Might we still get some snow?  Of course - Chicago is famous for its unpredictable weather.  But even before March 21 rolls around, I'm offiically going to deem us Chicagoans to now be in the season of spring.  Partially because we've been deprived of it for many years past, but mostly because this year - we NEED it.  

A woman I hold in very high regard - and with whom I enjoy talking about darkness and lightness of life with, said something rather profound to me recently.  (She runs this business by the way - and she I'm pretty sure she's a goddess in human disguise.)  We were talking about our lives over the past couple months - and she said to me, "I know that in terms of weather, it hasn't been a bad winter.  But emotionally for me, it has."

WOW, can I relate.  

Tattoo - Part Two

Well it's done!  My tattoo has been altered and re-finished... and it is so exciting :)  For those of you just joining, you'd benefit from reading this first.  

Are you ready for the picture evolution?  Polly is an absolute ARTIST.  Tattoos By Polly.

The clear change is in the face.  My favorite part?  I totally didn't expect the new face to be so sexy!  I think I'd been thinking innocent, young fairy.  What is amazing about it, is that it so representative of my own personal journey and goals in life.  My whole life I've felt cute or pretty, but never a grown version of that - never sexy or womanly.  It sounds silly, but I've spend the last couple years working on that, on my self-image.  How amazing that the face lift for my fairy ended up being a step farther in that direction!  It's kind of like she's grown up with me - and also like she's guiding me.

Something else that's been on my mind is how long I really thought nothing could be done to fix my tattoo... and I was wrong!  Tattoos are generally one of those things that you feel like, if messed up, are an unfixable mistake.  Seems to me that it's a life lesson for me that you can get past any mistake in life - that ANY mistake is one that you can make something beautiful out of.  What an amazing feeling.  And how EXCITING to essentially have a whole new tattoo!  Polly recolored the whole thing, in addition to the face altering - and I am SO. pleased. 

The Journey of the Fairy Tattoo...!

Traveler Ramblings

On a plane, headed to Mexico for a wedding!  Random thoughts I felt like sharing:

• Paying for internet on a flight is SUPER worth it.  I'm on a 4+ hour American Airlines flight - and it's $4.95.  Um, yes please!  The speed is good - I'm successfully web-multi-tasking, about 4 sites open that I'm switching between, and even videos on YouTube.  Pretty sure Southwest's in-flight internet is super reasonable, too.

• A bit concerned I'm developing a case of hubris* about myself as a traveler.  I keep showing up later than I ought to for flights, and it keeps working out for me.  In a way it's fun, because I feel like a little VIP chick who just shows up, walks on the plane, and it takes off... but SURELY this is not going to work one of these times :)  Though maybe the gods already punished me back in Italy when I missed my flight (which for once, it WASN'T my fault I was late for that flight)... so maybe I'm good?

S'all for now... I hope to do a write-up of Mexico, so stay tuned for that.  VERY much looking forward to cervezas by the pool, eating my weight in guacamole, and dancing up a storm with my brother and friends.  

* What is hubris?  Just my favorite word from Greek mythology :)