South Pacific Adventure

January 22, 2012

Day One of many, but this one was a blur. Between getting to Los Angeles, checking into a hotel in the middle of the night and then spending the next 6 hours trying to figure out if I’m tired, hungry or both was a difficult task, to say the least. We boarded our Air Tahiti Nui Flight TN07 at 4:30PST and we were a to to sit next to each other because Jose the representative for Air Tahiti made it happen  it’s been a nice ride thus far, my ears are good and the dinner we had was decent. I brought a bag full of fruit from my buffet breakfast so we’ve been eating that throughout the flight. I’ve had more tea then I can count. If I were to guess…maybe 12.

January 21, 2012 (Departure Day)

I was finally all packed, ready and anxious to leave. A snow storm reared it’s ugly (normally pretty) head and we ended up with about 8 inches of snow. Throughout the day I was checking Deltas website expecting delays. Nothing, until about 1:00 stating the original time of 3:30 changed to 4:40 and then again to 6:35pm. I was fine with that because this also happened to be a very important day to my older brother and his fiancée. It was their engagement party! It started at 1, which was also the height of the storm. By 2pm the snow started to die down and the party was a success! Our family met Margarita’s family and all was well…until I checked the status of my flight. It was boarding! At 4:30! I received no email stating that and was beyond pissed! I jumped on the phone with Delta and they booked me on the next flight out of White Plains on United. I said my goodbyes and off we went. My dad brought me to Westchester Airport where the lady behind the United check in proceeded to tell me that I wouldn’t make my connecting flight in Atlanta and was questioning why Delta would have set that up. At this point I had a few options, but the only logical one had my dad driving me down to JFK to catch the 9:00 direct flight to LAX on American Airlines. That’s where I am at the present time, cramped tired, cranky and sleep deprived (going on 22 hours awake) and in desperate need of a comfortable bed.

January 19th (1 day to departure)

Tonight will be my last restful night in my bed. After having an hour long massage and a very nice gathering for my “going away” dinner, I’m going to enjoy every minute of it and even sleep in tomorrow :-)

January 18, 2012 (2.5 days till my departure)

Today is my last day of work for 88 days! Someone asked if I would get bored with not working. Absolutely not! There’s always something to do/see or improve upon. I recently picked up a book at Barnes and Noble specifically for the trip that I easily could’ve written. The subtitle read; Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are. I think the last three years are proof that I’ve done exactly that.

To sum up my almost sudden change of heart about my direction in life, goes something like this…
I met a wonderful, charismatic, influential (to me at least), kind hearted patient (we’ll call her Beth) that helped me view my path in life as something I can control. I know it sounds silly, but some people are meant to be in your life at certain moments and if you don’t except the curve ball that changes your life forever you might never get another moment quite like it again.

This patient did that for me. At the time I was just starting my first graduate class at Quinnipiac University and was miserable. While attending this course my family was in the middle of planning a vacation to Las Vegas for a week at the beginning of May, which incidentally fell during finals week. I must have mentioned this to Beth and over the course of 2.5 months my disdain towards this class she felt was weighing me down and preventing me from doing what I really had a passion for, which was traveling.
After a long conversation with Beth one afternoon I headed northbound towards school. I proceeded off the exit and past the first light saying out loud while hitting the steering wheel, “I hate this class! I don’t want to go!” I pulled a hard left, crossed the divider into an empty parking lot, stopped the car and screamed. When I looked up and took a deep breath I again said out loud, “I’m not going. I’m done.” I drove home and never gave school another thought. Beth was right! I was doing something I thought I was supposed to do and was unhappy because of it. Once I allowed myself to feel what I was feeling, life started to happen…

I still feel I made the best decision that day in the parking lot and am forever grateful for the conversations I had with Beth. In turn, I was able to enjoy a fulfilling family vacation in Las Vegas and planned a month long retreat in California immediately after in hopes to explore more about myself.

Another pivotal moment in my life happened in San Diego, my first stop. I was staying in an ex-brothel turned hostel and roomed with 3 other girls. I never expected that a chance meeting would change my life the way it did. One of my roommates (We’ll call her Sally) was heading to Maui for a week after leaving San Diego in a few days. One evening I voiced how jealous I was that she was going and she invited me along. At first I had every excuse in the book, “I rented a Mustang convertible for the month, I can’t. It would cost too much.” After a minute of listening to myself complain and Sally try to convince me otherwise, I realized that the only thing holding me back was myself. Almost literally, I turned to “ask” someone (not sure who I thought would be standing next to me) if I could go. Within a split second it dawned on me that I’m in control, I make decisions for me! “yes! I’ll go!” and there it was a moment of liberation turned into months of adventure and a lifelong friend.

Meeting Sally was the best thing that could’ve happened to me right then and there. After a week in Maui and the rest of the month in California I met her a month later in Ireland where I stayed for a week and then onto a European Tour (just us two) for a month! Oh and can’t forget about Mardi Gras in New Orleans!

Basically, had I not met Beth or Sally I wouldn’t be where I am today, which is happy with my direction in life and excited to be embracing who I am as oppose to who I thought I was supposed to be.

January 12, 2012 (9 days till departure)

Ahhhh!!! 9 days till departure!!! I’m freaking out because I don’t have much time for anything but work. I didn’t get much accomplished today other than 15 hours of work. I still have to plan Australia, but think I’ll do that on the plane and Chris offered to help :-)

I’ve booked 2 massages, manicure/pedicure and a hair appointment before I leave. Oh right can’t forget about the trip to NYC with my sister for another appointment at
J Sisters and a night out on the town for dinner and a show with my family
:-) if this doesn’t help me relax, I don’t know what will.

January 11th 2012 (10 days till departure)

I was super productive this morning!! I lost a half a pound, transferred my credit line to increase my credit limit for my travels, got another FREE airline ticket worth $700 (which will be used to purchase my flight to South Africa next year), printed out paperwork so I can get paid to fly, and ate steak and eggs for breakfast!! Now I’m studying scuba and learning how to use my new camera!!! Lovin today!! I hope the rest of my day is just as productive because I can’t waste a minute! I can’t believe it’s only 10 days until I leave!!! Ahhhhhh!!!!!

January 9th (13 days till departure)

The beginning of my “hell” week has started off rough. I was only able to sleep 4 hours because unfortunately my ears hurt from my second day of diving. I can’t believe it! I had sinus surgery at the beginning of December to correct the sinus aspect of this problem, but this ear pain is not good. Was just able to grab the last available appointment with my ENT for tomorrow morning. I can’t wait! I pray that it’s not an ear infection.

January 7th Saturday

Awaiting my very first scuba diving lesson. I have to admit that I’m a little bit anxious. The instructor is late! I hope this weekend goes quick and that I soak up all the information I need to dive safely. Once Monday morning arrives I’ll be working 50+ hours and won’t have much time for anything. That being said, I’ll be booking hostels, planes, trains and researching scuba adventures at the Great Barrier Reef.

It still hasn’t hit me 100% that I’m leaving soon. I think it’ll finally hit me on January 19th when I’ll have off for two full days before I leave. I’m running around like a crazy woman finishing up last minute business.

Okay…so day one of diving was awesome!! I did “excellent” so says my instructor. I’m impressed with myself! As long as I could equalize my ears the rest was cake!

2 weeks before departure

It’s Friday January 6th 2012 and I have two weeks until I leave the country for close to 3 months. Every so often I realize the magnitude of this trip and it freaks me out in a good way. Then I have to come back down to reality and remember all I have to do in those two weeks and I freak out in a bad way! I’m currently studying for a scuba certification to allow me to see the Great Barrier Reef up close and personal along with other dives in Bora Bora and Fiji. I didn’t fully understand the intensity of this course, but am happy that it’s thorough. I’ll be diving with Chris my travel buddy who is an expert diver since he’s a marine biologist. I feel very comfortable knowing that he just recertified his first aid/CPR. Hopefully he won’t have to use it!