TIME TO TAKE OFF…… ughhh nope GROUNDED.

I turned 50 this past February. I was born during a massive snowstorm and turned 50 just before a global pandemic. Not sure what the universe is trying to tell me, and I wonder what will happen when I turn 100?

I’ve been fortunate to have a job that has taken me around the globe over the past 22 years. It’s hard to believe that for the first time I/we, may not be able travel, for the foreseeable future.

As I typed that I paused and sighed.

I’ve become somewhat addicted to travel, be it personal or for business. So after 2 and a half months of pandemic, not going to lie, travel withdrawl is setting in. We will be writing many stories in this blog about our travels, because they are too good not to share.

But this year, I had planned a BIG trip with my friend Tina. You see we have been friends for 49 years, not many can say they have a friend for that long. We’ve had a few girl weekends before, but this was the biggie, time to do it up. My goddaughter (Tina’s daughter) was also graduating from high school so she was coming along too. We asked a few other friends to join us, some who were celebrating 50 and some who just wanted to join the fun. It was WOMENT time.

We plotted our course, made the hotel reservations, and reserved a vacation home. My dream of taking a cooking class in Italy was finally coming true.

For my 50^th year on the planet, I wanted to accomplish 50 new things. Cooking class in Italy was one of them. I love the book by Shonda Rhimes, Year of Yes, highly recommend. We should be saying YES to new experiences, especially ones that scare us, and make us stretch ourselves. Personal growth! Now don’t me wrong, I’m not doing any death defying feats, but there are plenty, two feet on the ground things, like making pizza in Italy, that I want to experience and say Yes too. So, I didn’t want my 50 new things this year to be small, like, oh I should try fried bugs (because I have LOL), but you know, significant experiences.

I was on a roll. By the end of February, I was fortunate enough to have, what I thought to be, 10 new significant experiences under my belt.

This is going to be EASY.

Enter stage left, PANDEMIC. So, I added to the list: #11 quarantined because of pandemic. Yay?

I’ve spoken to a few friends and the story is the same, vacation plans and other celebrations for this year are all in holding patterns. Rescheduled, with hopes for next year.

So now, I wonder what to do with my vacation time?

We shouldn’t waste time, but find 50 new things locally, 50 acts of kindness or 50 things to say YES too instead.

We will be 50 AGAIN, the minute we can travel, and we will celebrate!