Write it Out

The past few weeks have been sort of hard. It seems like I'm either really busy (with everything), or not at all.

On top of everything, my husband and I have been in big career discussions  lately. I tend to be risk averse, so any big life discussions that involve shaky changes are hard for me.
We'll figure it out.

I spent my weekend with friends and food, and it was perfect. I tried a yeast dough for the second time in my life and it turned out perfectly! Pioneer Woman's Maple Cinnamon Rolls were a great project for Saturday afternoon. I love trying new recipes and not knowing how they'll turn out -- cooking and baking are my favorite sciences :) Someday, I'll find some patience to figure out how to post pictures here.

I'm just DYING to take a trip, too. Later this month and into June and July, I'm taking trips to St. Louis and Nashville (first time in Nashville!), but I also want to get away somewhere else. Almost a year ago, I took a trip to Paris and Italy with my then-boyfriend, then-fiancee (he proposed on the trip). It was his two weeks of R&R from a tour of duty in Iraq, and we couldn't have spent it any better. I.loved.that.trip.

During the day, we would sleep in, then eat a late breakfast at a cafe before planning a tourist-type activity. We walked around old cities, drank at cafes, rode in trains, and stayed in tiny hotel rooms. Two weeks of bliss! I love traveling, and I feel like there is never enough time to go where I want. I only get 2 weeks of vacation a year through my company, and a lot of it gets eaten up with family stuff every year. That, and I can't afford to take unpaid vacation ;)

If I had to rank my travel choices, here they are:

1. Deep south USA: Alabama/Georgia/Lousiana... this is part of our country I've never been and would LOVE to see. I want to eat real southern food and tour old plantations. Listen to southern blues. Drink sweet tea. Hear some drawlin'. You get the drill.

2. Greece/Mediterranean: Just want to see it :)

3. Germany/Spain: German heritage, two siblings who have studied abroad in Spain.

4. England: Taking a cue from Rick Steves (Sunday morning PBS! Yes!), I want to start in London, and then go into the countryside to smaller cities like Bath.

Sprinkled in there, I'm fantasizing about Carribean beaches/cruises. It better get warm in Iowa soon or I'll go crazy!

Enough for now... I'm fighting the urge to start googling flights and figuring out if I can squeeze a trip to Savannah into a weekend this summer, haha. Second tutoring lesson tonight and I'm all on my own! Margarito is really sweet and super smart, just lacks confidence in the English he's using (which is his third language). He's in for a treat -- I remember practically NOTHING from my high school Spanish classes, so English and wild hand gestures are all we've got!