No hablo Portuguese

First new thing I learned of the trip...brazil is the only country in South America that speaks Portuguese instead of Spanish. Good thing it's just a layover!

Also, the guy who sat next to me on the plane told me not to drink the water, yet my water sterilizer gave me a green light...and then a red light. Guessing even a little green means it's a little ok...only one way to find out!

Current temps: a humid 85 degrees in São Paulo. I had to take off my jacket and already accidentally left it behind when I went to the baño. That was a test...so far the people are legit!

here goes nothing!

It's the feeling of driving up to the mountains on the biggest powder day of the year...sheer excitement. It's the moment you've been waiting for all year. You've planned, you've dreamed. That feeling of going to a big high school dance with the person you've always wanted to go with. The feeling of driving across the country to leave behind what you know to pursue your dreams.

The feeling of cold feet.

Few have seen me cry on those epic powder days. And trust me, they aren't good tears until my car tires are back on dry pavement. I've bailed on some great dates and wondered why they deleted my phone number. And as difficult as it always is to leave, the most difficult step always seems to pay off the most.

So yes, I'm stoked beyond words for my trips. I planned these for a reason and I can't wait for the follow through, knowing that these experiences will be probably more than I ever imagined. And yes, I'm nervous. What single female traveler wouldn't be?! Especially sharing my vague plans with family and friends...isn't it ok to fly by the seat of my pants?!

Speaking of family...it was great to see 'em for Christmas, even if I do wish it was longer so that I would get sick of them :) And Denver and friends, I love y'all, but I'm glad I haven't seen you this week because I hate goodbyes. Two months sounds like forever to leave a home I love.

And I refuse to look at snow reports and I will change all my friends' facebook snowsport photos into pictures of cubicles until my round-trip just so happens to bring me back for a couple *hopefully snowy* days :D

first souvenirs of the trip

three in each arm!
adult polio, yellow fever, japanese encephalitis, hep a+b, flu...just a few more to go :)

week two...trips booked!

After an unproductive couple days and circle discussions with travel agents to spend less than $3K on flights, my round the world flights are finally booked!

Here it is, starting December 29:

Dec 29: Denver >> Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jan 16: Buenos Aires >> Denver - crossing my fingers for a couple great powder days!
Jan 19: Denver >> Mumbai, India - via 22 hour layover in Munich, Germany
Jan 28ish: India >> Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam
Feb 27: Bangkok >> Denver - just in time for the annual family ski trip :)

Send me a note if you have any recommendations on what to see or do...or if you want to join. I'd love travel partners!

wise is to teeth as smart is to phones

if it's wise to remove your wisdom teeth, is it smart to not have a smartphone, and smart not to have a smartcar?

things I've learned from funemployment...week one

1. I crave pancakes. Perhaps because everyday feels like Saturday, and I would love making pancakes Saturday mornings as a kid...so much that I had the recipe memorized to a tee. Perhaps I'll be able to memorize it again.

2. The grocery store is fully stocked at 8 am. Now that I'll be relying heavily on sale items, I come before the shelves have been raided.

3. I'm still not ready to own a dog. I thought I was...I really did. Maybe it's like a kid...you don't really think you're ready until you just have your own...or like kissing boys, when dirty slobber miraculously became ok, to a point. I dog-sat this week for a beautiful, well-behaved Doberman. It didn't attack me or chew up my furniture, but having a little one count on me to be let out and walked a few times a day was enough responsibility for my jobless self. No wonder people post so much dog and baby stuff on facebook all the time...it's a full time job that becomes your life! which leads me to my next point...

4.  My days have actually been pretty productive, therefore I find less and less need to be on facebook. Or maybe I was just sick of only reading about the election this week. And I had my own dog to look after.

5. I'm going to use public restrooms a lot more from now on. If I'm home all the time, that means I won't be saving money on toilet paper.

6. Libraries are awesome. Not only for public restrooms (per above), but also for the FREE movies (take that redbox!) and hello...FREE knowledge. I think I have about 10 books checked out right now. Note to self: when I'm down to my last few hundred dollars, fly to a warm tropical island with a library. I feel like I can learn anything in there.

7. All my farm ideas are terrible. Hence why I will be going to the library more (per above). I have a range of directions in mind for where I can go with farming. My teacher talked me through them and at the end of our conversation I asked...

'so it sounds like just a regular small farm starting on an acre is the best idea?' 

'Well, they're all terrible ideas, Shannon, but none of us are in this for the money, are we?' 

True, true. At this point, any profit looks good to me. And per my friend Patrick...technically I'll be growing money, so it's like something from nothing!



8. Chicago is my number one dealbreaker. I am open-minded to lots of things, like nose picking or dirty lingering laundry or Packer fans, but I have a zero tolerance policy for dating men who want to live in Chicago. Unless you're Oprah...there's 0% chance in anything that I will follow you. I wonder if I can convince anyone else that the concrete jungle is greener there, not here with the endless sunshine and mountains and outdoor activities and freedom of feeling like a kid...

9. I'm learning to do things that I hate because it's good for me. Like making my bed and flossing around my permanent retainer.

10. I'm learning to be productive with my time. Which means I should stop here and get to some homework.

support your local farmer...even without buying vegetables

Today was my first visit to the eye doctor in 2 years. Having stocked up on contacts before I quit corporate and skipped chi-town, I haven't felt a need until now...now that I've been laid-off and have one month to use up my benefits!

Not sure of my exact plan, but for now, I'm going where the wind blows. I have some freelance design projects. I want to start a farm in spring. There are rumors of me contracting work with my current employer. And I'd like to travel the world for at least a couple months.

Maybe I should play the pity card instead of smile when people apologize to me. But I am pretty content about these recent events. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and here I am, in the middle of it. A couple months ago I felt like I was in a fog. I knew I wanted to do something. I felt stuck. Everything was a blur, didn't make sense, didn't feel quite right. Yet being aware of that, I knew that's exactly where I was suppose to be. Doing just what I was doing. Waiting. It's been a summer of holding patterns. Getting to destinations but timing and conditions being just not quite right for landing. I recognize this feeling...it's the same feeling I had before my sabbatical. There was so much prep work, so much frustration with my job and the city, yet as soon as I made it to Colorado, pure joy. Everything aligned more perfectly than I would imagine. I brought this up with my best friend, and she and I agreed, we're just prepping for something big, I think it's approaching. Being the top interviewee for a position I barely applied for...yet not being offered a position. Being accepted into the building farmers class was a start. Being laid-off was next. I have a few open doors ...we'll see what's next!

Anyway, back to the eye doctor. After asking me a series of questions about my health history (not much to talk about), she asked me, as a designer, if I work on the computer 8 hours a day.

"Yes, at least for another couple days. I just got laid-off...which is why I'm here to put the last of my benefits to use. I'm going to try to start an organic small farm in spring."

"Are you serious?! You are going to save our world from pestisides! YOU ARE A SAVIOR!"

All I could think was, was she serious? Who gets as excited as me about farming real food...and who isn't one of my fellow farmers? And how did I randomly stumble upon such an eye doctor?!

She went on and on about how she preaches the message of wholesome food to her patients every day...how she can't believe that big commercial farmers receive so much government funding for producing terrible products that are killing us...stupid GMOs...stupid pesticides...if the farmers just knew how to grow crops the way nature intended then it would be so simple! yada yada. Preachin' to the choir and I loved it! She is one of the clients that we talked about in class last night...one who will happily and loyally support my business model, regardless of price.

In fact, she was so appreciative of my future work already, that she didn't charge me for the tests that my insurance wouldn't cover (about $100 worth). She wanted to support my endeavors as much as she could financially with her services...and who knows, maybe she could end up buying my produce as my customer down the road.

Anyone who knows me knows that these little gestures really touch my soul. Now more than ever, I can't wait to pay this forward by providing wholesome food to my neighbors and friends.