Adventures abound.

My day job is done. Over. Kaput. My last day was two whole weeks ago. I took my work email off my phone. I don’t know when exactly that will feel real, but as yet it still feels like vacation.

And what a vacation it has been. We spent the first weekend off near Fort Ross in northern California, on a beautiful ranch on the coast celebrating the marriage of one of the most perfectly matched couples I know. There were peacocks and pigs, sheep and chickens, redwoods and ocean. Unbelievably awesome.

And then we turned right around and flew to Maui.

 

I know, right?? My amazing sister lives there and the last time I got to visit her was almost two and half years ago. Maui is still gorgeous and my sister is more amazing than ever, even while on a cleanse.

Highlights from the trip: snorkeling and turtles. We snorkeled at pretty much every beach we went to, and we spent time at a beach almost every day of the trip. And there were so many turtles!  The most awesome snorkeling we found was at Honolua Bay.

We also spent a day up country, hiking in the Makawao forest, visiting the goats and gathering delicious goat cheeses at Surfing Goat Dairy, and then on to the Tedeschi vineyard tasting room where we tasted and purchased some surprisingly delicious pineapple wine. All of which culminated in one of the best picnics ever, at Sun Yat Sen park which has a gorgeous view.

And now – well now I’m on the plane. In the three days since we returned from Hawaii I managed to see an amazing amount of people I love, pack up again, and I’m now sitting en route to Shakespeare and company once again.

Travel is always a mixed experience, sitting in between a point of origin and a destination, the marvel of moving at high speed up in the air, the discomfort of a small amount of personal space and hours in a chair which, I can only assume is made to comfortably seat someone’s body, just not mine. And emotionally I am no less comfortable.

I’m so exceedingly excited to dive into the work. To devote all my time and attention to learning more about this job I love and about myself. But I am also incredibly sad to be away from the people I love for so many months at a stretch. Add to that a little bit of terrified at all of unknowns, and I’m a little bit of a mess.

I may be biased, but I’m pretty sure that’s how it should be. Change and (hopefully) growth should be a bit uncomfortable, I think. So out of my comfort zone I fly, and, as I muck my way through the next few weeks, I will try to share it all with you (time permitting).

But now it’s time to choose a new sonnet, and work on some memorization (with a break or two to check out the checkered land of middle America).