What's New in Boone?

Well, this gal has had the blues.  That's what's new in Boone.

I normally very rarely ever get depressed.  My sad or blue days come, of course, but normally pass very quickly.

And I don't ever really remember having a problem with depression during the holidays.

But this year it seems to be hitting me and hitting me pretty hard, truth be told.


I'm missing my mom.


I'm missing our Harley.


And, after years of working in a horribly toxic environment for the past whole lot of years, Donald has taken early retirement.


Yes, oh yes -  this is a good thing.  A great thing, actually.


But.

It's a lot of stuff.  You know?


As my friend Hank reminded me recently, there's a scale researchers came up with some years back about the level of stress a person can handle. "100 on the scale was the highest, the worst, and required rest and consideration and awareness of the finite-ness of unhappiness. Under 100 and you should be able to handle it easily."  

But - here's the thing - - -

Loss of a loved one equaled 100.

Loss of a job equaled 100.

Loss of a pet equaled 100.

Big life change equaled 100.


Whoa!

Considering my score after reading this, I decided to listen to Hank and to give myself a break and just roll with things because I know that it too shall pass.  (Thank you, sweetie!).

And because I am a person who can rationalize anything, ANYTHING, I decided this was the perfect time to plan a trip.

A lovely trip for two.

A trip to celebrate Donald's retirement, and me turning 70 next year.

And the fact of "us."

So.

Where are we going, you ask?

Pfft.

WHERE do you think?!

We're going to Paris (of course).  And then to Amsterdam.

We'll be going in about a year.

I've already booked a small studio apartment on the Île Saint-Louis and a hotel room in Amsterdam.

Planning a trip a year in advance works well for me in a couple of ways.

#1 - I can, hopefully, get a lot of the trip paid for ahead of time before we even get there.

#2 - It gives me something wonderful to look forward to, and plan for, and be excited about.  Those things are as big a part of the trip, to me, as the trip itself.

I knew, before I ever left Paris this past September, that I would go back.  It captured me.  My heart, my spirit, my soul.

And I want to experience it again with Donald.

The Île Saint-Louis was one of my favorite neighborhoods while I was there, so with the help of Airbnb and their cool search filters, it was easy to find a few apartments that we felt would be a good (and affordable) fit for us.  The fact that the place we decided on had tons of excellent reviews helped, of course.  The winning factor may have had something to do with the statement so many reviewers made about waking up to the fragrance of croissants baking in the morning.  Apparently, there's a boulangerie right next door which shares a courtyard with the apartment . . .  (insert large happy face right here).

When Lesa, Lisa, Vickie and I left Paris, Lesa and I flew back home.  Lisa and Vickie took the train to Amsterdam and flew home from there.

Doesn't that sound fun?

So that's exactly what Donald and I plan on doing.

And we're both excited.

Lesa, Lisa, Vickie and I had lists of things we wanted to do while we were in Paris, and I think we all covered almost all of them.  Almost, but not quite all.

There are some things I will, of course, want to do again next trip. Some things I cannot wait to share with Don.  There are some things I won't want to bother with.  And there are some things he's mentioned wanting to see, of course, and some of those things will be new to me.

One of the things we both want to do is visit Mont Saint-Michel.

How magical is this place??!

So.

Here's the thing.

I have learned that I'm a person who seems to need something to look forward to.

I'm pretty good at living in the moment, but I still get a great deal of happiness knowing that there's a gift that I'm giving myself in my not so distant future.

Our friend Joe Maron said something to us once that has stayed in my mind.  He said we should go - go, travel - go while we still can so we'll have those memories when we're not young enough to go any longer.  Go.

So, we're going to listen and heed Joe's words.  

We're gonna go.  We waited and waited and waited a lot of years while thinking we'd be better able to afford it "maybe next year."

You know what?

We wasted too much time.

Next year comes and goes quickly.

Events we're not expecting happen.  Life happens.

And we're not getting any younger . . . 

or any wealthier . . .