how i spent my may vaca.

I love to travel. I've told you before: have love, will travel.

Recently I took a trip back to my home state, the "mitten state" (more formally, the Great Lake State) - Michigan. And because it was a vacation (at least from work), I had a lot of time to think.

When you have grown familiar with a place, and you love a place, it's hard to feel like you can fit in everything you want to before you have to leave again. Especially if you are only in said place 5 days (plus 2 more for travel). My parents figure I probably drove some 800 miles in the 5 full days I was "home" ...and driving to East Lansing, Mount Pleasant, Grand Rapids and Novi definitely helped those miles roll around a little quicker.

I had lots of places to go. I suppose this is typical of any vacation, whether you're familiar with the destination or not, but no one would compare the stops on my schedule to say, the Eiffel Tower or Big Ben. I had to go to Tasty Twist. I had to go to Meijer. The Wheel. A wedding. The Bird. Coney islands. You might not even think twice about visiting Leo's Coney Island unless you'd been there, or unless you live in a city that's never heard of a coney dog, like I do.

More importantly, I had lots of people to see. Besides family, I had best friends, sorority sisters and new friends to visit with. Many people use their vacation time to visit Europe, or some other exotic place they've never been to before. I use my vacation time to go see the people that used to be part of my everyday life. To me, this is the only type of vacation worthwhile.

Vacations should answer a call in your heart. Your heart may call you to the dream destination you've longed for, in hopes of soaking in the sights, the sounds or the sultry countrymen.  Maybe you'll get there by plane, train or automobile. Maybe the sun will shine everyday, but maybe it'll rain. When it's time to leave, you'll either want to move there or never return. 

This past (long) weekend, I experienced my vacation the best way I knew how. I didn't sleep a lot. I ate too many junky foods. I saw people I hadn't seen in two years. I drove from one side of the state to the other. But isn't that what any vacation might be about? If you sleep too much, you'll miss an amazing sight. If you worry about a diet, you're doing your taste buds a disservice. You won't have fun if you worry or plan too much, so leave your troubles at home. I carried my camera around in my purse for days, and I still didn't take enough pictures. So? I'm not upset. I know there'll be a next time.


Michigan is constantly calling my heart. Morning, noon and night, my heart belongs in Michigan. That is... with my family, my friends, Benny and the Bird. When the sun shines and the trees are green, and the lakes have waves that crash at your knees...I don't mean to rhyme but that's what vacation can do to you! Go somewhere and do something that makes your heart happy and puts a smile on your face. And actually, that's good advice for your whole life, not just the days work will pay you to stay away from the office.

So, I'm wondering... where will your heart take you?

creature of habit.

Happy May!

I am confident that this month I can turn over a new leaf. Back in January I talked about how many people make resolutions for the new year and can't keep them through the month. New Year's Resolutions. That is not what this is. It is not meant to be a May-solution and end on June 1. I finally feel like I am going to make changes in my life to be a little more responsible.

By this, I don't mean I want to be a stuffy adult. And really, I am kind of responsible some of the time. I pay my bills on time. I pay off my credit card in full (most of the time). With my own money. I keep my apartment and my cubicle in reasonable order.

But I've noticed that I'm driving myself a little crazy. I have piles of things on my "dining room" table. On my couch(es). My end table. My desk at work. I have always made piles - you can ask my roommate from my sophomore year of college - but now I suddenly want to be more organized. I want to get rid of the junk I don't use and the clothes I don't wear. I want to get rid of cardboard boxes I'm not using (they're empty!) and I want to stop buying things that I don't really need.

So I know you're probably thinking... so what? Take care of your junk, Lindsay, and you won't have this problem. Really, I need to change my habits. I need to get up the first time my alarm goes off, not the 15th. I need to put clothes away when I wash them, not when it's time to do laundry again. I'm in a Lindsay-rut. I've noticed that I develop habits in cycles. I don't know if this is normal, but I'll pick up a habit for while and then I somehow discover a new way of doing whatever it was, and so I'll change. I do this with food, even. I find something I like that's easy to make, and I continue to make it until I'm sick of it. I am a creature of habit, no matter what city I'm in or how old I am. I've realized this.

Some studies say it takes only 21 days to change a habit. If you do something new and different for 21 days (or 28 days, if you click the link), you'll be "cured" of your old habit. You have picked up a new one. However, this other study says that's not true, and that on average it takes 66 days to change your ways. No doubt about it - habits are hard to change. It's going to take time, so even if you give yourself a month to get a little better at checking things off a proverbial to-do list, it might not be enough.

If you made a resolution in January for the new year, I'm curious - have you kept it? Are you still holding steady in your resolve to do something new, something to better your life? If you didn't make a resolution, have you ever tried to change your habits? What's so hard about this? We reach a point when we want to turn over that new leaf (or leaves?)...but sometimes we get sick of it before we can even make the change a more permanent one.

I will probably always make piles. I think it's in my genes, but that's beside the point. I will probably always have mornings where it's hard to crawl out of bed (especially since it's cold enough here that it's been snowing today). I will probably still want a doughnut some days, even though I know it's bad for me. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try!

So as May gets underway and the week begins tomorrow, I'm going to try. Maybe I'll get out of bed a little earlier. Get out of my apartment a little quicker. Read more books than last month. That sort of thing. I know that some of my changes will be a little easier than others, but none of this is impossible. Bring it on!