oh, the places you'll go

so, obviously I've fallen off the blogging bandwagon lately. I'd blame it on "the holidays," but the truth is that I've been obsessively writing and writing and writing this silly "novel" of mine, because when I love doing something, well, I love doing it. Nonstop.

anyway, I am currently at the airport, much too sleepy (despite being heavily caffeinated, which truthfully in my case means zilch because coffee for some strange reason puts me to sleep) to novel-write, and I am thinking about this conversation that I had with my boyfriend a few days ago. I'm so fortunate to have been born into a family that considers travel so important, a priority, even, and sometimes I don't appreciate all the places I've been. Which is dumb, because I certainly should. One time, my uncle in France told us that if there is one thing worth spending money on, it is travel. I agree wholeheartedly.

via

so far in my (relatively short) life, I've been to: the United States, Costa Rica, Israel, Turkey, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, England, Spain, France, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Cuba, the Bahamas, and Nicaragua, I think (do an emergency landing in Jamaica and reaching my hand into Lebanon count?). But there's so many places I'd still love to visit! Especially: Russia (despite the fact that I'm incredibly bitter about the new anti-US adoption law, considering I've been wanting to adopt a Russian child for, oh, I don't know, a good ten years), Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Morocco, Italy, Romania, Egypt (I mean, if shit ever calms down), India, and South Africa, to name a few.

basically, I want to travel the world. Because experiences mean more than material things, wouldn't you agree?

in other news, since I've been "gone," I've been thinking about: how the idea of arming schoolteachers is the dumbest, saddest, and most dangerous thing I've ever heard in my life (also: how it seems like an absolute no-brainer that there needs to be some serious gun control. This is coming from someone whose family was personally affected years ago in a civilian gun-related incident); how I need to study for the GREs and look into MFA programs I'd be interested in; how I am excited about the new direction my life is going in; how I still do not understand what the fiscal cliff means (I'm kind of stupid); how I am avoiding thinking about how much I miss Simba because I might cry; how much I hate airports and New York City (sorry, I'm not sorry).

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/whatever else you might celebrate!