• On Life and Love

    Of Course: 2014 Travel Is Still Undecided

    So last year was Iceland. That was pretty spur-of-the-moment. We decided in May and went in August. Done. I would love to go back, particularly to see northern and eastern Iceland. This year is up in the air, though. St. Petersburg, Russia is maybe an option, but talks stalled a bit over the break, and I’m a little undecided on traveling with children. Greece or Germany are still appealing. I’d toyed with going on an adventure cruise with Explor Cruises to the Amazon last year, but the prices were nauseating (see the “Voyage to the Heart of the Amazon”) and I didn’t get a great feeling when I spoke with…

  • On Life and Love

    Iceland: Arrival

    It’s August 23rd. After an overnight flight (including my first “visit” to New York), I was blearily standing in Keflavik International Airport with The Runners. One (A.) was there to run a half-marathon, and M. was there for a full marathon. I will never forget that first look at the beauty of Iceland from my plane. The color palette was just… different. Different greens and browns, and lots of black. (One does not just fly in to Reykjavik, apparently, unless you’re already in Iceland or (maybe) the UK. One flies to Keflavik, then buses or drives to Reykjavik.) So I was tired and wired, and it was my first time…

  • On Life and Love

    I’m Going to Iceland!

    My passport has arrived. My Amazon cruise fell through due to concerns of sketchiness. Where was I going to go for my first trip out of the country? My colleague has picked a marathon… in Iceland. I need no such excuse–I’m just going to Iceland because it’s Iceland. End of August, five nights, right before DragonCon. Lagoon and coastal tours are already planned, and restaurants are being picked. I can’t even read the street names on the maps of Reykjavik. This is going to be awesome!

  • On Life and Love

    Flaky Friday (F)Links

    I’m now fully in the flaky phase of the tattoo process, and am losing large black/grey flakes at a pleasantly quick rate. It’s really, really hard not to encourage the process, though, especially when (squick alert!) attached flakes are catching on my shirt at work. Grody! Sleeping has been rough since Saturday. When it was all raw and fresh, it just (ha!) hurt badly. Once it dried out, it hurt to do anything that stretched the skin, like lie on my stomach. Or lie on my side. Or relax my shoulder. The winning solution for sleep so far is to use a small pillow under the front of my tattoo’d…

  • On Life and Love

    Ski Free

    SkiFree was such an integral part of my childhood gaming experience that I couldn’t resist an offer to go skiing for a weekend at Sugar Mountain in Boone, NC. Greg, Deana, Meg, and I stayed in sleepy Blowing Rock (awesome food!) in a cozy little inn/motel. Unfortunately, I was sick. Quite sick. Snotting and coughing and sneezing. All the classics. When we arrived at Sugar Mountain on Saturday morning, I was feeling distinctly unathletic. A cold plus asthma generally makes for chill time. Deana was like, “No, no. Skiing isn’t really athletic. You’ll be fine.” Okay, then! As I watched people stomp around on their skis, I also got increasingly…