Every Blog Written This Week: I Resolve To Blog More In 2014

7:02 PM AirplaneFoodCritic 0 Comments

And I am no exception from the title of this blog. Who wants to check in on a blog that is so sporadic? I mean, I already have a blog that is all over the map in subject matter. I guess that isn't entirely true. The title is Airplane Food Critic and that pretty much covers my blog. Confused? You are not alone. Lots of people wonder about that name. See, I like to travel and I post lots of blogs about travel... hence the Airplane. I also love food and I post a lot of stuff about food, health, and recipes... hence the Food. I threw in the Critic because I am usually pretty cynical/critical. At least, that is what my boyfriend tells me. Just kidding. Just kidding.


So this is a little catch up blog to fill my self-imposed quota of a minimum of one blog a week. Getting this one in before the 7th day of the year is already a challenge. I thought I would use this time to let everyone know where I am and where I plan to go this year.

In the past couple of years I acquired a chronic illness. After being hospitalized for over a week in 2012 I began my career as a drug guinea pig as the many, many, many doctors, naturopaths, homeopaths, psychiatrists and more tried to determine how to best treat my condition. After a year or so of being on disability I finally lost my wonderful job making champagne. A few months before I lost my job, the BF also lost his job, just to add to the fun. While I was the pill test dummy I was unable to drink alcohol, drive a car or work. I finally have been able to cut down the medications at present time. This, by NO means, implies that I am fixed. I am still very sick but at least I can do 'normal' things again, albeit with lots of pain.


My year 2013 was not as horrible as it sounds though. We were sitting on our balcony in beautiful Zermatt, Switzerland, looking up at the Matterhorn when we found out the BF lost his job. He considered it to be a blessing because he was not happy with Zynga at the time. To add to the positive side of losing that job, he got a severance package that is larger than half of American's annual salary. Then he got unemployment on top of that so we were not struggling there.


When I lost my job we took a trip to Kauai for the longest we have ever gone for to celebrate our birthdays. As a severance package from my company, they gave me full pay and insurance for the remainder of the year. Again, not suffering much. Now, I do suffer. I have my chronic illness that isn't giving me any sign that it is letting up or planning on leaving any time soon. It does keep me from doing things I would like to be doing....like working. I don't feel very useful sleeping all day.


The year was also pretty good to us in the travel department as well. Actually, it was excellent if you consider the fact that I was literally bedridden for the first four or so months of 2013. Still, we managed to go to Switzerland, Germany, Austria and France in May/June. I spent a few days in Santa Cruz for the Woodies on the Wharf and I spent several days camping and wine tasting in the Anderson Valley/Mendocino area. We did the Kauai thing for our combined birthdays where we went skydiving among other things. I got to spend a week in a gorgeous home in Tahoe to celebrate a friend's 30th where it snowed like crazy for two days. I sure loved that. We ended the year in Monterey where we had a blast in the super warm weather kayaking, bike riding and visiting the Aquarium. (subscript: the BF paddled and peddled for me).


That is a summary of the good and bad of the last year. The good and the bad for 2014 as it stands right now is as follows. Video game companies are literally knocking down our door to have the BF work for them. Up until now he has been turning them down to get the right one. He has it narrowed down to a few, meaning he will have a very good job on his terms before next month. I still am unable to work because I can not be up and moving for more than a few hours a day unless I pump myself full of pain killers and other meds so I am not really looking too hard for a 9 to 5. I have decided to pursue a career in art though. I have a collection of photography I plan to organize and sell along with my paintings. I also plan to take this blog, my travel experiences, my travel knowledge and my writing skills and make a book and/or a series of books. My neighbor is a published author so I hope to use her connections and knowledge to help write travel books that inform as well as entertain. I feel there is a niche for that type of book. The type of book you read for pleasure and entertainment while dreaming of or at least being inspired to be traveling to the same places I go. If my readers are unable to travel to Europe, I hope to bring them there. If my readers are able to go, I hope I inspire them where and when to go and to go more often. I also hope to help remind others of trips they have already been on.


In the meantime I also hope to use the time alone, once the BF goes back to work, to better myself beyond starting a business. I hope to make a schedule to keep my life in order. This is a great thing to do, specially at the beginning of a new year, for anyone. I need a schedule to keep myself busy or I will feel like a useless, pitiful slug. Others might need a schedule to keep their regular life in order. A schedule helps to retain new year's resolutions as well. I will go into detail about my resolutions in a later blog. (Hey, I gotta pump at least one out a week here!) Wait a second, I just realized, blogging once a week is a resolution in and of it's self! I think I just changed my resolutions from three to four. Look at that! I am bettering myself right in front of your eyes! On my schedule I will make time for learning new things, working towards making myself some income, planning trips, coming up with (hopefully healthy) recipes and keeping my body as healthy as I can.

Now I must go and make my schedules, notes and other fun things to keep me on task. Please enjoy my 2014 blog. I have a feeling it is going to be a great year.

Happy New Year