Category Archives: Travel

Be It Ever So Humble!

Good evening!

Jason and I are happy to report that we have made it home from our visit with our family, safe and sound!! We were a little unsure that that would happen because on our return home, when we stopped on our way out of town to get gas, our car decided not to start! EEK!! Thankfully we have AAA and they were able to send assistance to us, and we were only delayed 45 minutes in total!! So, I say, I am soooo thankful that we have made it home safe and sound!!

I would love to tell you that since our return home, we have been productive, and unpacked everything and put it all away into it’s proper places, but that would be so untrue!! We got home at about 3:30, and then by 4 we were so zonked, that we decided to go take a nap, and have only just awoken within the past 15 minutes. So, our day is pretty much gone!! ๐Ÿ™‚

Jason is in the kitchen cleaning up all of his baking evidence, as I sit in the living room, chatting with you, while at the same time, I have a virtual fireplace crackling on my television. It is strangely soothing. LOL! Does anyone else know what I am talking about?? Or is it just me who is loving this little “program”!?!? ๐Ÿ˜‰

Anyway, I don’t actually return to work until Wednesday, which means I will have some active thinking and planning to do tomorrow. I have realized that my health life is spiraling out of control, nutrition and fitness-wise. I am not sure that I have actually taken the time to plan a healthy meal in almost 3 weeks, and the good Lord Himself knows when I have purposefully done any kind of exercise. That is soooo unlike me, and soooooo very UNACCEPTABLE!!! It is causing me to sit on the sidelines and watching my life go by because I am either too sore or too tired to do anything else.ย  SO, this has caused me to want to take a good hard look at what is working and not working in all areas of my life, so that Jason and I can have the life we want, and not the life that we accidentally stumble into!! I will keep you posted!!

Tomorrow may just turn into a vision board day! I will have to get creative on how in the world I am going to share pics with you because my camera is still on the fritz, which by the way, is very discombobulating!! (Ooh!! I love that I got to use that word, that may just have to be my word of the day!!!) ๐Ÿ˜‰ Ok, so I digress!

“Either you live the life you create for yourself, or you live the life that someone else creates for you. You choose!” ~Me

Have a FABULOUS evening! :-)

Finally Home!

Good evening!

I am so happy to report that I am finally home!! WHOO! HOO!!

Yesterday was the last day of my computer training in Wisconsin, so naturally I started the journey home yesterday afternoon. Who knew it would be such a LOOOOONG journey!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

The original plan was that I would leave my class at four to catch the shuttle to the airport in Madison, which would take about an hour to get there. Then I would have about a 2 and a half hour wait before my flight to Chicago. Once to Chicago, I would have one hour to catch that plane, and then my plane to Portland, Oregon would get in at about midnight, and my sweetie would pick me up and drive us home, which would get us home about 1 am. I would get some much needed sleep and then go to work from noon to 5, and life would officially be back to “normal”.

What really happened though, was this:

I left my class at 4 to take the hour long drive to the airport on the shuttle. Got to the airport, as expected, and when I got there found out my flight to Chicago had been delayed by an extra hour, because there was a really bad wind storm in Chicago. This would also mean that if I was going to make my connecting flight, I was going to have to SERIOUSLY run, which, at that point, I was sooooo tired, and sooooo ready to be home, I was more than willing to do.

At a little after 8 pm, they finally gave the a-ok to board our plane, but when we taxi’d out, we found out we had that we were grounded and had to wait on the Tarmac until air traffic control gave us the green light to go. It was quite a wait, but at this point, in my mind, it was still all good because it was a small plane, with even less passengers, so they let us sit wherever we wanted, and by that time there were about 4 of us who were really getting to know each other,nervouslyย  laughing and joking, and three of us four, were all heading to Portland on the same flights. Come rain or come shine, I knew I wasn’t going to be alone!! What a blessing!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Well, I am not sure what time we actually got to take off, but we all knew we were going to miss our connecting flights! and boy, did we ever!

Before I tell you what happened next, I think I had better tell you about our AMAZING flight crew from Madison to Chicago! We flew United, and I have never really had any problems with them, so I knew we were going to be in good hands! That might have been the UNDERSTATEMENT of the whole trip!!! Seeing that they were forecasting cross winds of up to 50 miles an hour, we had a relatively smooth, and comfortable ride – considering the weather. There were times that I was sure we would NEVER get off of that Tarmac, but once we did the professionalism and skill of our crew was extremely self-evident! Youย  could tell that the plane was trying hard to roll, and the pilots did a lot of compensating to make sure we made it to Chicago safely! I am not saying that I was completely worry free during our flight. It was a lot bumpier than normal after all, but I had decided to just pray about it, and let God take care of getting us there. one way or the other, I knew I would be in His hands.

We did finally get there safely, and we had an AMAZINGLY smooth landing, which was a feat unto itself because it was SO RAINY and SO WINDY!! WHEW!!! but, I knew God was helping fly that little plane. When we finally got off the plane, I headed right to the gate to ask the person at the counter if our connecting flight had taken off, well, let’s just say he practically laughed his confirmation at me, as if I were some silly dreamer, which I guess I am, but a girl could hope that it had been delayed too can’t she?

So, the three of us Portland bound ladies, myself, Eartha, and KJ (short for Kathy Jo)ย  had decided that we were all in this together, and made the trek to find out how to go about getting ourselves set up with new flights so we could FINALLY get to Portland. After finding where we were supposed to go to get help, we found ourselves in the LOOOOOONGEST line and if we had any doubts before that this was going to be a long night, we knew for SURE now!! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Thankfully, by the time I finally made it to the associate, she was still smiling – bless her heart!!ย  I had been watching and she had people yelling at her, and being downright rude, and I was just soooo impressed that she had kept her cool, and not only that, but to do it all with a SMILE?? She was VERY IMPRESSIVE!! So, when I go to her window, I had decided to tell her so, and thank her for what a GREAT job she was doing!!ย  She reserved me a seat on the next flight back to the Pacific Northwest, which was going to be going to Seattle, and we would be on the plane by aboutย  8 am the next morning! WHOO! HOO!! as long as we were on our way! (Yes, all three of us girls ended up on the same flights, thankfully!!)

By this time it was a little past 11 at night, the airport had practically closed down for the evening and I was hungry because I had missed dinner that evening, and the young lady who had helped us reschedule our flights, I believe her name was Mary Jane, was just getting off of her shift, and had by then, made it her mission to make sure that the three of us had ANYTHING that we needed, food, drinks, etc!!! She kept offering to drive and get us some food, and bring it back. ๐Ÿ™‚ We kept thanking her and telling her that wasn’t going to be necessary! She then said she was willing to go home, and bring us back some apples from an orchard that she had just picked these fresh apples from, she was VERY SWEET, but we assured her that we would be fine, and she headed home for the evening! Well, Eartha, KJ and myself had found our hunkering down spots in the airport and were busy chatting and getting to know each other a little better, when lo and behold, Mary Jane came back!!! She said that she had searched all over the airport and found that there was a Starbuck’s not to far away that would be open all night! She let us know that they had fruit, veggies, sandwiches, etc, on top of there coffee selections!!ย  We were soooo very appreciative!! I know that she was a walking angel, and that when I had prayed for God to take care of us getting us home, he had gone above and beyond, by sending us this AMAZING lady to help make us comfortable!!!

Well, it was waaay past midnight by now, someone from the airport had come around and given all of us stranded travelers fleece blankets to help keep us warm. I was convinced that God had placed people as angels all around us!! ๐Ÿ˜‰ We knew it was going to be a long night trying to get any kind of sleep in those hard chairs, but we all took turns trying to catch some shut eye, while one of the other of us watched all of our bags, and belongings. I really couldn’t have asked for better company!!

So long story short, none of us really got much in the way of sleep, but we weren’t alone and by about 2-ish I was finally, and GRATEFULLY home!! When my sweetie got to the airport to pick me up, I almost cried with joy to see him!!! His twinkling blue eyes, smiling at me, was just almost more than my happy to be home self could bear!!

Looking back on this trip, I am sure that this will be one I will NEVER forget!! and KJ and Eartha, wherever you are – I do have your contact information, I want to say thank you to you both, you made a very scary situation, a fun, and memorable adventure, and I will forever be grateful to you both!!!

With my story told, it is time for me to go back to bed (I literally climbed in as soon as we got home, and I only got up because I ALMOST forgot to blog today!!)

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

Up Insanely Early!

Good morning!

Today is my last day of computer training here in Madison, Wisconsin! So far the trip has gone rather well, especially for someone who really has a hard time with flying. Ok, maybe that is sugar-coating the truth a bit! I am terrified of flying!!! Thankfully, I have special medication that I am able to take that helps soften the fear-factor quite a bit, and just makes me rather sleepy! I am also rather impressed by the Economy vs Economy-Plus upgrade that you are able to purchase. It costs me a little over $50 to upgrade both of my flights from economy to economy plus, and I am able to enjoy more leg room, and earlier boarding – YEAH!!!

I am up really early this morning, about 3 am, my time, 5 am theirs. This hotel room is so warm, and I JUST NOW figured out how to use the dang thermostat! SHEESH!! ๐Ÿ˜‰ I guess I am using too many of my important brain cells in class, that by the time I get back to the hotel, they are all mushed-out!! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Anyway, I am so thankful that the fan has finally kicked on, and seeing that I am going to be go-go-go until about 1 AM tomorrow morning, I really should be trying to sleep at least another hour, it ain’t gonna happen. SO, I thought I would take the extra time this morning to get my daily post out, which means I can know that I am still on target with my goal of writing one blog posting everyday for a year by 12/20/2011, and I won’t have to worry about it all day, if I don’t want to! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Oh, I also wanted to let you know that I will have a lot of pics to share with you tomorrow from EPIC. The place where I am having my computer class. They have a HUGE facility, which I am sure has to be worth billions, and they have an extremely large art collection. So, both yesterday and today, I am making a point of walking around and getting as many pictures as humanly possible without missing any of my class! They are quite spectacular, and I can not wait to share them with you!

Change of subject – I really can’t wait to get home to my sweetie today! I really miss him!ย  We are very close, almost co-dependent maybe, and it is quite the adjustment for either one of us when one or the other goes out of town. He is lover, husband, confidant, counselor, protector, boyfriend, playmate, and best friend!! I always look forward to his messages and pics that he sends when we are apart, it makes me feel like I am just a short hop, skip, and a jump away from him; and I really can’t wait to just climb into his arms this evening!!ย  I love you, B’Spoon!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Anyway, I am not sure how else I am going to spend my extra free-time this morning, but I am sure that I will packed, and re-packed and ready to go long before I really should be!! But, that is alright with me!! I leave class at 4 today, on my first of two planes by 7 pm, and back home by 1 am – it can’t get here fast enough!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

A Day of Flying!

Good evening!

I am in Madison, Wisconsin this evening! I feel like I have either spent the whole day flying or waiting around in airports, no wait – that is EXACTLY what I did!! ๐Ÿ˜‰ I am out here for some more EPIC computer training for my job, so I will be here for the next couple of days!

I have finally gotten to my hotel room, and I have to tell you, I am a sucker for a yummy hotel room!! This one has a living room and a separate bedroom, with a kitchen nook, and a great big bathroom! There are two tele, which I must say, I am not sure what I am supposed to do with two of them, but this room is very nice. It feels like a mini apartment!! It is clean, decorated nicely, and there are bits of peices of it that feel like my style – so I feel like I can relax! YEAH!!

I have just ordered myself so room service for dinner. I am going to have some chicken alfredo with salad, and a diet Sierra Mist! YUM! What more could a girl ask for! Call to order dinner, have dinner delivered, and dirty dishes taken away!! OH SWEET BLISS!!! As spoiled as I am at home, I DO NOT get that service there!!! ;-

(I STILL LOVE YOU ANYWAY, SWEETIE!!!)

This evening, I am going to go take a walk out around the grounds here – I hear there are fireflies, and as many times I have been out for EPIC training, this makes time #4, I still have never seen a firefly!! WOULDN’T THAT BE AWESOME??? So, besides being some good for me exercise, spying my very first firefly is a great excuse to get out there and walk too!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Is there anything else? Well, not really! I did get myself two magazines at this last airport so I would have something to read this evening. I purchased the new Oprah magazine, and a copy of Fitness! Both, I thought could be helpful in my current goals at the moment!! Plus I thought I would spend some quality time doing some journaling!! I didn’t get my normal morning pages in this morning (since I got up at 4 am!) ๐Ÿ˜‰

I will keep you posted how class goes, but right now I am just going to LIVE this hotelling experience up!!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

My Weekend!

Good evening!

I thought I would take some time this evening to share some pictures that I was fortunate enough to take from my relaxing/rejuvenating overnighter at the coast!! We got the opportunity to spend the night over in a little tiny town called Neskowin, Oregon.

Here are all of us girls! Jennifer, Ronita, myself, and Lynette! We are standing on the balcony of the beachfront condo!! (Neskowin Shores.)

Check out this SPECTACULAR view!!!

Next up wereย  manis and pedis!!! These are mine fingers! ๐Ÿ˜‰

These are Lauren’s!

This is Megan waiting for her finger and toenails to dry!! This is the pose of the PERFECT LAZY DAY!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Here is Lauren waiting for her digits to try too! She is just getting so big! ๐Ÿ˜‰

After sufficiently drying, it was time to go down to the beach and get some playing done!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

The KIDDOS!! Morgan, Jason, and Megan! We were all so wet and sandy when we got back to our apartment, but we really had such a FUN TIME! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Morgan investigating the barnacles!! Heaven forbid if he actually touched one though!!! HE SCREAMED LIKE A GIRL!!!! EEEK!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

This environment was so beautiful, it put me in such a zen place.

AAAAAAH!!

I can NOT wait to get the opportunity to visit this mini coastal town again! It really was such an invigorating overnighter, and it came at the MOST PERFECT TIME!! Jason and I have decided that this is our new coastal vacation spot!!

Tomorrow, when I will be blogging again, it will be from Madison, Wisconsin – yep, more computer training!!! WHEW!!! I will be heavily medicated, because I still HATE flying, but I am going to pretend that I am on an adventure!!

So, until then…

Have a FABULOUS evening! ;-)

Spending a Day with the Animals!

Good evening!

This evening I am going to share a bunch of pics of a super fun day we spent over at Wild Life Safari! It was quite a lovely day, and seeing that it was in the middle of the week, we pretty much had the run of the whole park!! ๐Ÿ™‚

So without further ado, here you go!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Wild Life Safari is located in BEAUTIFUL Winston, Oregon.

Left to right: Austin, Jennifer, Gavin, Trina, and Jason, getting ready to go in.

We were very fascinated by the pink flamingos. It was my goal to get some of their interesting and unique feathers for collaging, which we did finally manage to do!! Whoo! Hoo!

We all had fun feeding the little goats. Gavin kept saying he was getting goat kisses whenever they licked his hand. LOL!! It helped that he kept refilling his hand with goat food! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Jason had SO MUCH FUN with this little monkey. It was like they were long lost cousins.

It was so much fun to watch them mimic each other. This little monkey was so entranced by a weak light that Jason had in his pocket! ๐Ÿ˜‰ But NOW, he wants a small monkey as a pet – I THINK I HAVE CREATED A MONSTER!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Here is Gavin mimicking his Auntie Jennifer, she is just off camera!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

We all took some time out to play on the children’s playground equipment. ๐Ÿ˜‰

and after a few false starts, Gavin finally made it all the way to the top!! What a BIG boy!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Larger monkeys in another area of the park.

Koi the size of small sharks!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Then we took some time to feed some ducks, and geese.

Don’t they look like they are having fun?

I am not sure if this was a crocodile, or an alligator, but I would still hate to have found this guy on my street.

Here are the “boys” playing!

I really do love this man of mine.

Jason and our youngest sister, Trina! I LOVE this pic! ๐Ÿ˜‰

And here is one of us near the end of our outing! Jennifer, Jason, Gavin, and Trina. We were all really tired, but really happy!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Have a FABULOUS evening! ๐Ÿ˜‰

And We’re Off!

Good afternoon!!

After a somewhat bumpy start this morning, Jason and I FINALLY have the minivan packed to the gills with waaaay too much camping stuff, waaaay to much art stuff, and waaaaay too many books!!

WHOO! HOO!!

MAN I LOVE CAMPING, er…I mean GLAMPING!!!

I will take tons of pics of our campsite this afternoon and evening and make sure to share them all with you tomorrow!!! The weather is supposed to be ABSOLUTELY PERFECT this week in Newport, so that makes me a VERY happy girl!! Faye and Sophie know that something is going on, and they are spazzing out because even though they don’t yet realize we are going camping yet, which they LOVE, they can tell that they get to go for a ride in the car because I just came back from putting their fuzzy blanket in the car, and THEY ARE EXCITED!!

Right now we are waiting for our friend, Don to get here – Don has very graciously agreed to house sit for us while we are gone, and I am sure that he will enjoy the air conditioning, and peace and quiet!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Ok, back to the whole art supply thing!! OH MY GOODNESS!!! Do you know how hard it was to decide what to limit my art supplies down to??? Well, let’s just say, I didn’t do a terribly good job, but I will take pics of what I brought and show you tomorrow, I am sure it will at least make you smile, because in all honesty, I am thinking I can’t be the ONLY girl with this problem!!! HEE! HEE!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

What else? Oh yes, I have a bag full of books – I never can tell what I will be in the mood to read, so I wanted to make sure that I had options, and we also have a whole armload of games to play together, which should be a TON of fun!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

My goal this week is to relax and recoup my energy, nap often, take lots of walks with my sweetie and the girls, play at arting A LOT, and make sure to blog at least once every day, which means a trip into town every day, which we do anyway, Papa loves him some Starbuck’s – so I think I can be accommodating!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

I think that just about covers anything, and this point if I have forgotten anything I am either going to have to without, or I am gonna have to go buy it at the coast!!

YEAH!! It’s time to go!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

A Blast From the Past!

Good evening!

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you mothers out there, or those Aunties, Sisters, Girlfriends, or Daughters who sometimes have an active mothering role to someone special in your life out there (that covers just about all of us, I think!!)!!! Today, my sweetie and I got to have a lovely visit and a great big ol’ lunch over at our mom, Linda’s place!! It was a bunch of fun!!

Happy Mother’s Day mom!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Today, I wanted to share some of the pictures I took of Camp Kuratli up in Boring, Oregon yesterday. This is the Salvation Army camp that me and a lot of friends grew up going to every Summer. We had music camps, family camps, young adult/teen camps, and community camps. It seemed at times that we lived at camp almost all Summer long. One yea, I remember we made it home for EXACTLY 3 days all Summer, which gave us just enough time to wash all of our clothes!! I am not sure exactly how we were able to function without washing our clothes!! We must have smelled SOMETHING AWFUL!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Here is what you see when you first get into camp. The main office is on the right, and the gymnasium, which I know we called something else, but I can’t seem to remember what is on the left of this pic.

Here is another pic of the large gymnasium! We hosted a lot of concerts here!

This is the old craft house and the stairs that all of us kids would race down to get to the shower house so we could get into the pool first during free time!!

Here is the caboose AKA Canteen (where we would wait in line to buy all sorts of candy and junk food!!)/Nurses Station – at least it was when we went there as kids. I don’t remember it quite looking so fresh, but we all sure had a fun time playing all over this thing!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

The camper cabins are all spaced out around this large loop. Here a few of those cabins.

You couldn’t really call being out at Camp Kuratli as roughing it because all of the cabins had indoor plumbing, running water, and space heaters! This place was really more like a resort for kids. ๐Ÿ™‚ Here is some more of that loop of camper cabins!

Here is a pic of the other side of the circle, I am not sure what everything is now, but back in the day the building on the far left was the rec hall, which was where we could go during free time to play board games and stuff in case it was raining – although most of us spent EVERY free time in the pool – we figured we were already wet, so who cared if it rained??? The next building is the mess hall, and in front of that is the flag pole where we would line up every morning for revile, lowering whatever item of clothing happened to have gotten raided the night before (usually some poor camper’s underwear, of course!!), raising the American flag, saying the Pledge of Allegiance and then prayer for the meal. The next building was where the staff washed their laundry! I have no idea what that tiny building on the far left is, I don’t remember that, but it is right at the top of those stairs that you saw in the craft house pic. and a little farther to the right is where the caboose lives.

Here are a couple of pics of Merlo Field. This is up behind the circle of camper cabins, and this, for me, has changed the most dramatically since my days of going to this camp. This used to be a great open field!! Now it houses the camps swimming pools.

It sure is still beautiful though!! I know it is hard to tell, but up in this bit of forest is a very large house, and I remember whenever the campers would get really loud, the owners of the house would complain, and for some reason that made all of us campers laugh!! Like we were doing something right!! Even thinking about it now, still makes me smile! ๐Ÿ˜‰

But mostly it was and is all of the lovely trees, the creek that runs through the camp, and the fact that we were right in the middle of the MOST BEAUTIFUL Oregon forest that helped make this camp special to all of us kids.

Here are a few panoramic views of the main circle, please feel free to click on these, or any of the pics to see them at full size – they are pretty large!!!

I hope you enjoyed these pics as much as I enjoyed taking them and reminiscing about this AMAZINGLY FUN time in my life!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

A Thought Provoking Quote!

Good morning!

I stumbled upon this quote this morningโ€ฆ

“The one piece of advice I can give you is, do what turns you on. Do something that if you had all the money in the world,youโ€™d still be doing it. Youโ€™ve got to have a reason to jump out of bed in the morning.”
~Warren Buffett

This quote has got me really thinking! What would I be doing if I had all the money in the world? Gosh, I think I KNOW who I am, but why is this such a hard question for me to answer??ย 

I love:
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Blogging
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Antiquing/Treasure Hunting/Shopping
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Decorating
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  All things photography
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Fashion
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  Magazines – but this might tie back into my love of photographs???
โˆ™ย ย ย ย ย ย ย ย  The idea of traveling

I would be in ABSOLUTE HEAVEN if there was a way that I could combine all of these things into my life/career!! DIVINE!!! Let me know if this triggers any ideas!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

What would your answer be? What would you do if you had all the money in the world??? I am curious!

Have a FABULOUS morning!
~Christina

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing!

Good afternoon!

I am doing much better today!! I am still taking it easy and taking care of myself, but the worst is over! Thank goodness!! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Anyway, I am taking some time this lovely Saturday afternoon to watch the movie Eat, Pray, Love, and I know I have spoken about this movie before, but I am trying to look at it with new eyes. I still think the movie is by no means as good as the book – hardly any movie ever is, but the movie is still a feast for the eyes!!! I have never wanted to go to Bali before, but now I may have to add this to my Life list. I love the spirituality of the author’s story. The complete breakdown and break apart of this woman’s life to discover who she truly is and what she truly wants. You do not know how many times I have dreamed about doing this with my life, but the idea of living without Jason in my life is so foreign and something I don’t EVER want to experience. HOWEVER, I could totally get on board with cashing in all of my assets, quitting my job and taking time to roam the world. Jason would be a GREAT traveling partner!! We would journey through Ireland, tour England, eat our way through Italy, make the rounds in France, marvel at Russia’s architecture, hula our way through Hawaii, and then take some time to explore our own continent.

At one point in the movie, Liz, our main character says, “I want to go some place where I can marvel at the world.” I want this too. I want to be in awe of this great place God has blessed us with. Sometime I watch travel shows, and am AMAZED that these GREAT places are actually on the SAME PLANET that I am on!! I HAVE GOT TO GET OUT THERE!!!

Liz says, “I remember an old catholic joke about a man who spent his whole life going to a church every day and prayed to the statue of a great saint begging “please, please, please, let me win the lottery.” Finally the exasperated statue comes to life and looks down at the begging man and says “my son, please, please, please, buy a ticket.” So now I get the joke, and I bought three tickets.”

Another part of the movie that really hit home for me:

Luca Spaghetti: “Americans. You work too hard, you get burned out. You come home and spend the whole weekend in your pajamas in front of the T.V.”
Liz: “That’s not far off, actually.”
Luca Spaghetti: “But you don’t know pleasure. You have to be told you’ve earned it. You see a commercial that says: ‘It’s Miller Time!’ And you say, That’s right, now I’m going to buy a six pack. And then drink the whole thing and wake up the next morning and you feel terrible. But an Italian doesn’t need to be told. He walks by a sign that says: You deserve a break today. And he says, Yes, I know. That’s why I’m planning on taking a break at noon to go over to your house and sleep…with your wife!”
Giovanni
: “We call it “dolce far niente”, the sweetness of doing nothing.”

At one point in the movie they talk about what is your word. What is one word that describes you wrapped up all in one word??? This is not the same word that you would use to describe what you do for a living. I am not sure how I would answer that! Right now that might be….hmmm…dreamer. I would LOVE it if that word was TRAVELING DREAMER! Ok, I realize that is more than one word! but I’m just sayin’!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰ Maybe I had better do a little more soul-searching to try and decide what word would describe me!!

As I spend some more time just enjoying this movie, and not psychoanalyzing it and me to death I hope that you all have….

A FABULOUS evening!!! ๐Ÿ˜‰