Last week while in Columbus I was enjoying dinner with some new friends and one said, “Melisa, I think it’s so great that you and your husband travel alone sometimes.” Naturally, I agreed wholeheartedly, and I’ll tell you why. It’s not that I don’t enjoy traveling with Jim, because I do (very much!). It’s not even that I prefer solo travel, because I don’t. It’s just a different kind of experience. I love any and all kinds of travel: solo, with Jim, with the whole family, with friends…get it? I LOVE TRAVEL. It’s definitely not that I need to get away from home and my family. I have found that…
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A Crisis Of Epic Proportions
I had a crisis of epic proportions the other day. My stomach dropped, my breathing intensified, and I started having heart palpitations. An anxiety attack was on the horizon. You see, I ran out of chocolate chips. I know; I couldn’t believe it either. I have posted on Facebook several times about how I “get nervous” when I run out of chocolate chips, but most people think I’m just trying to be funny. Sadly, I’m not. I truly have a physical reaction to the news that I have zero bags of those little semi-sweet teardrops in my freezer*. Granted, I hardly use them anymore: I don’t make chocolate chip banana…
- Amazing People, Best Thing Ever, Blessings, Fun in Chicago, I've Got Mad Skillz, My Friends Have Mad Skillz
LTYM Chicago 2013: The Non-Recap Recap
I have been at a loss as to how I should formulate a decent summary post for Sunday’s LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER CHICAGO show. I have so many words swirling around in my head but at the same time, none of them want to come out in any way that makes sense. I could tell you how amazing the show was, but that would be very similar to what I said last year. In a way, that’s not a bad thing. I’m finding out that, just as Tracey and I have been preparing our 2012 cast for “younger siblings” in an alumni group on Facebook, each year our show is…
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Immersion
It’s interesting what happens when you are placed (or place yourself) into a world completely different from what you’re used to. After a while, your brain starts to make adjustments. The length of time varies for everybody–I have a feeling it has a lot to do with how open-minded a person is and what his or her past experiences include–but eventually, we all adjust. Studies have shown that being totally immersed in a foreign language is the best way to learn it, and although I believed that before I arrived in Costa Rica on Sunday, today I can say that I know it to be true from personal experience. Although…
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It’s Coming Back To Bite Me.
It just occurred to me this morning that all of those times in high school I used the “late to class” slips I took from the guidance counselor’s office–in my junior year when I spent time assisting in that office–and filled out as officially as possible and handed to my Spanish teacher two or three times each week so that I would be excused from the first half of class and easily get away with spending time with Jim during his lunch period, and my teacher didn’t mind because I had an “A” in the class, and she’d say, “No problem, Mercedes”, which is the name I picked for Spanish…