Oh! The Places I’ll Go!

You’ll get mixed up, of course, as you already know.  You’ll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go.  So be sure when you step. Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act. Just never forget to be dexterous and deft. And never mix up your right foot with your left. And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed!  (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

~Dr. Seuss, Oh! The Places You’ll Go!~

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People often ask me, “Where are you from?”  This page will be my attempt to answer that question.  Here I will share where I’ve been, where I am, and where I hope to be in the future.

Where I have been.

I was born in Newport News, Virginia.

I lived in Churchville, Maryland until 2nd grade; San Francisco, California until 4th grade; Fairbanks, Alaska until 7th grade; and Huntsville, Alabama until I graduated high school. I moved to Montevallo, Alabama (near Birmingham) to go to college. I returned to Huntsville, Alabama for two years. I have had the fortune of visiting and/or living in 39 states in the USA and visiting countries all over the world. Growing up as an Army Brat instilled in me the desire to explore, the value of mobility, and the need to understand people from all walks of life. I still travel as often as possible, as you can tell from some of my sets on Flickr. My favorite places in the world are Glasgow, New York City, San Francisco, and Rome.

Where I am now.

I live in Norfolk, Virginia. I consider my home Hampton Roads or the Seven Cities, which is what locals like to call the area encompassing Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Hampton, Portsmouth, Newport News, Suffolk, and Chesapeake.  I was born here and ended up back here at 26.  Kismet? Fate? Just coming full circle, I think.

Where I want to go.

I decided to make part of my Bucket List public. I have been conquering and adding to this list since 2004 when I was going through a bit of a personal rebirth. I have kept that list and have added to it over the years. The purpose of my Bucket list began as an attempt to accept the Serenity Prayer. To find the inner serenity and courage to accept the things I cannot change (the destructive, hurtful behaviors of others), to change the things I can (my actions, my relationships, my goals, my path) and the wisdom to know the difference.

My Bucket List is a reminder that I am in control of my own happiness. I have not included the many items I crossed off before 2010 and have limited my public list to 50 items.  When I cross something off, I will add something new.  Happiness is a journey, not a destination, after all. You are all invited to come on any of these adventures with me!

My Bucket List:

1. Earn my PhD
2. Meet all of my favorite people on Twitter in person (definitely a work in progress)
3. Re-learn and practice conversational French
4. Attend a Neil Gaiman book signing and/or reading
5. Fall in love with the right man
6. Tour the campuses at Oxford
7. Drink the La-La’s (La Mouline, La Turque, La Ladonne Cote-Rotie reds) in the La-La’s
8. Cook all 300ish recipes in Deborah Madison’s The Greens Cookbook (status: 48 out of 300)
9. Cook all 300ish recipes in Annie Sommerville’s Field of Greens cookbook (status: 41 of 300)
10. Tour Napa Valley
11. Eat a fresh stone fruit at Frog Hollow Farm
12. Go on an Alaska summer cruise
13. Visit Chino Farm’s Vegetable Shop for fresh strawberries
14. Have my research published in a Tier 1 American Psychological Association journal
15. Stay overnight at a traditional Ryokan in Japan
16. Eat a slice of just baked bread covered in homemade butter and fresh white honey in Hawaii
17. Shop (and eat what I purchase) at Zingerman’s Roadhouse, Creamery, and Bakehouse
18. Own and cook a meal for my friends with my full set of Le Creuset bake ware
19. Eat a hunk of Humbolt Fog at Cypress Grove
20. Eat Geoduck (Gooey-duck) from Seattle’s Pike Place Market
21. Eat Tom Yum on the streets of Thailand (with Tony if he’s available)
22. Eat Pho on the streets of Vietnam (I’d even eat the beef)
23. Attend the Ultra Music Festival in Miami, Florida before I’m 30
24. See a show at Red Rocks in Colorado
25. Live overseas for a year
26. Visit the Pyramids in Eqypt
27. See the Cirque De Soleil show The Beatles LOVE in Vegas
    
28. Spend a week in Ibiza, Spain (mostly dancing my ass off at Amnesia and Pacha)
29. Drink a martini at an upscale club in Tokyo
30. See a show at Madison Square Garden
31. Leave flowers at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park
32. Attend the Food and Wine Classic in Aspen, Colorado
33. Practice Hanami, or Sakura blossom viewing, in Okinawa, Japan in January and/or in Kyoto, Japan in March/April
34. OWN an apartment, townhouse or house
35. Go Uber-Tourist in Perth, Brisbane, and Melbourne, Australia (with lots of SPF)
36. Live at an address with the knowledge I will be there for more than 5 years
37. Have a Corgi, Great Dane or Basenji – or all 3
38. See The Daily Show live
39. See The Colbert Report live
40. Reside at a Zen Monastery or Temple in Japan for a week
41. See Madonna perform live before she gets too old
42. Make out with Christian Bale, Ryan Gosling, and Leonardo DiCaprio (Brad Pitt, Armin van Buuren, Trent Reznor, & Johnny Depp seem perfectly happy without me, so I don’t want to rock the boat for them)
43. Spend New Year’s Eve at Times Square
44. Spend a week in Bruxelles – make the rounds to Paris, Frankfurt, London, and Amsterdam
45. Learn how to scuba dive and go scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia
46. Visit Brazil – preferably to see the Amazon Rainforest
47. See the Galapagos Islands
48. Live in San Francisco even for just a few months
49. Get traditional Mehndi in India
50. Visit the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch, New Zealand

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Lead me from the unreal to the Real,

Lead me from darkness to light,

Lead me from death to immortality.

~The Upanishads~