Between non-stop work and the adventures and unexpected stressful curve balls provided by life, 2017 was a freaking blur. Work travel was pretty consistent, as well as the never ending string of late week storms proved to entail delays, mad dashes through the airport, missed connections, and nights spent on multiple airport floors, trends that I don’t wish to repeat this coming year.

2017 wasn’t all bad news though. I got the chance to enjoy Indianapolis and reconnect with friends; explore new cities (Dallas, Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Omaha, and Amsterdam); revisit past haunts ( Houston, Chicago, Washington D.C., Asheville, Quebec City, and NYC);and most importantly a chance to visit a handful of new countries (The Netherlands, Scotland, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, and Brussels).

2018 is already shaping up to be a potentially more stressful year, due to a few unknowns that will likely force me to spend time tying up the loose ends of family members lives, while maintaining a 100% travel schedule for work through the end of of October in addition to already having a mixture of personal travel planned and booked as well.

For 2018, my goal is simple. It is to just roll with the punches, and as life hands me lemons, I will search for a good cup of tea, or preferably, a really strong cup of good coffee. Thankfully I have managed to line up some travel plans to hopefully allow me to take sometime out to sit back and try and to relax and just disconnect.

Planned 2018 Adventures:

• January –  Asheville, NC (Weekends)
• February- Exploring and reconnecting in Indy
• March- Columbus, OH (Weekend)/Chicago, IL (Weekend)
• April- TBD
• May- Bermuda
• June- TBD
• July-  NYC* (TBD) / Amsterdam, Germany, Sweden, and Finland
• August- Russia, Estonia, and Denmark
• September-Hawaii
• October- TBD
• November- Seattle, WA (Extended Weekend)
• December-TBD

Planned Intentions:

• Learning to say no
• Disconnecting and reconnecting
• Taking a moment to enjoy a fresh brewed cup of tea / coffee
• Learing to love to read again