Lucky

While recently trying to convince a friend that she has lots of good things in her life despite the current challenges she is dealing with, I was reminded that I might not always be vocal enough about realizing how lucky I am.  I'm good at bitching.  Hell, I'm great at bitching.  I should be clear, though, that I do know I have it good.

I went to Europe in May and had a great natural disaster free time.  Several times during what has become an annual trip I thought to myself "is this really my life?  How did I get so lucky?"

As usual, there were different tones to these questions throughout the trip. 

The glass wall I walked into head first.
Lesson learned - never underestimate
the importance of a morning coffee.

The bus on top of which I perched for a great
view of Dublin.  Until I was hit in the face by a tree.

Me...heels...alcohol...cobblestone.
You do the math.

Why does the world think Americans are dumb?
Oh yeah...

And my tone changes
while walking through Angels and Demons.

The second set of Spanish Steps we found...
subway shortcuts should be used with caution.

Keats and I in the same place?  The Republicans loved it!

One of my favorite moments ever.

Maybe my business casual dress code isn't so bad after all.

Three countries in two days.  Magnets!

Impressive.
Doubles as a no-holds-barred mosh pit Sundays at noon.

Behind the scenes of Vatican City.

Maybe I hit a beggar with an umbrella here.
It was totally not intentional.
Really.

Dublin is awesome.  Best weekend of the year.

Who doesn't love a musical pub crawl?

Temple Bar in Temple Bar.

Some awesome Irish musicians.
I wanted to take them home with me.
Should have at least bought the cd.

The Dublin Spire...aka The Spike,
The Binge Syringe, The Stiletto in the Ghetto,
The Nail in the Pale, The Pin in the Bin,
 The Stiffy at the Liffey,
The Erection in the Intersection,
The Rod to God, and the end of Liberal Boy.
(Buh-Bye LB)

Brugges

The small beer...
The waiter laughed at me for ordering it!

Not a bad place for after work happy hour.

Who doesn't love a year-round
Christmas-ish tree with scary birds on it?
Every hotel should have one.

So yeah, in conclusion, I know I'm damn lucky.  Watch out, though, the bitching will resume tomorrow.

Uh-oh...Someone Warn The Pope!

On my own, I don't have terrible luck...in the sense that my house hasn't burned down and I've never been hit cartoon style by a falling piano. Also, I love to travel...but not alone. Luckily, I have a great friend who likes to travel as much as I do, if not more. She's a great travel companion in that she has a shit ton of vacation time, will go anywhere, doesn't bitch, and lets me be obsessive compulsive about pre-trip planning. I'm pretty sure she just puts the IM on mute and goes about her business as I obsess, but I give her credit for not signing out and ditching me.

So why is this a blog topic? Because I'm going to share all of our fun travel stories? Not so much. Combined, we have TERRIBLE luck. Not bad luck like our flights are delayed or our bags get lost - TERRIBLE luck like natural disasters chase after our plans. Some may say we somehow cause these disasters, but I prefer to think they chase after us as a challenge.

Excluding challenges related to broken bones, unmarked vans speeding through rain forests when they should be at the beach, and screaming children, two of the better examples include -

The January 2010 Haitian Earthquake! Seriously. We had tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver to see the US take on Canada in hockey. We were so excited and talked all kinds of trash to make people jealous. Clearly we're mean girls. Anyway, before we could go, all holy hell broke loose in Haiti - where she lives - and we had to cancel the trip.

In November 2010 we planned to go to the Dominican Republic for a long weekend. What happened? Oh, just a bacterial epidemic called Cholera. When did it migrate from Haiti to the Dominican Republic? Three days before our trip. I won't even discuss the Mickey Mouse rally that was waiting for us outside the hotel when we finally got there other than to say that it made Cholera seem appealing.

Perhaps now you're asking what the Pope has to do with this. Well, I found out yesterday that I'll be flying to Rome (yay!) while my friend is in the same town for work (fun!) on Friday the 13th (SCARY!!!) You may also recall that I have recently made smart comments in this blog about Roman Catholics. Someone should warn the Pope...Vatican City may never be the same.

P.S. - Being the stereotypical single lady I am, I should probably arrange for my cat to have a back-up home in the event my plane goes down...or Vesuvius erupts again...or Europe just falls off the planet. See below for her application.