Can you believe it’s been 2 and a half years since I decided to take a gap year? The Soul Sabbatical started as a little experiment, something to bridge the gap from nothing to my next chapter. Somehow it became a way of life. This freedom to be anyone and do anything has spawned so much happiness and growth for a girl that was feeling seriously stuck. I’ve been in a period of rest and reflection. My body craved some stillness and my brain was busy thinking about where I’ve been and where I want to go.

I was born in 1985, graduated high school in 2003 and college in 2007. I was raised on a steady diet of 80’s rock, piano ballads, 90’s country, 2000’s pop, and I have a serious addiction to singer-songwriter demos and weird covers. I distinctly remember quick trigger fingers taping songs off the radio with my dad’s behemoth boombox. I spent hours meticulously crafting playlists to burn on cds to blast through the blown out speakers of my sparkly purple Saturn. I have incredibly fond memories of picking out a stack of cassettes to bring on a road trip, sitting on my knees on the hot vinyl seats of my dad’s Sentra with my right arm and half my hair flying out of an open window. I packed a steamer trunk full of CDS for my freshman dorm and remember swapping big black binders of carefully alphabetized albums with friends on my floor.

Much of my New Mexico explorations were rooted in my adoration for the late great Georgia O’Keefe. Imagine my surprise when I wandered around the Denver Art Museum and discovered that a Georgia O’Keefe photography exhibit was about to open. Georgia passionately pursued the perfect beauty of nature and the majesty of light. She found the magic in New York City and the Land of Enchantment. She was wildly independent, determined to forge her own path, focused on the things that brought her pleasure, and did away with the things that dragged her down. She is a trailbrazer and inspiration to many. It was imperative that I visit the gallery before I left for LA and the Land Down Under.

I'm hosting a fundraiser for my birthday this year, and I'd really love your assistance helping Luv Michael. The spoiled spinster soul sabbatical is all about working to live, and embracing independence and freedom. I'd be honored to work together to help some really deserving and underserved people achieve the same. Can you help? Every tiny donation helps, but a $35 donation will get you their organic gluten-free granola and the knowledge that you helped provide education, training, opportunities, and independence to some young adults with special superpowers. Added bonus that it's a 501c3 and your donation is tax deductible. I don't know about you, but I've been completely overwhelmed by this crazy world we're living in. I can't imagine how it would feel as an autistic adult trying to enter the fray and find my footing.

I have loved Julia Child since I was a little girl. We both had weird voices, a profound love of food, a thirst for knowledge, adventure, and appreciation for the simple things done well. I was a latchkey kid; books and the television were my babysitter while my mom worked to support us. Food TV inspired me to play in the kitchen and make myself interesting meals. I’ll never forget asking my mom to invite friends over for a dinner party and insisting that I had to make Cornish hens, wild rice, and vegetables. What elementary school kid makes those kinds of strange demands? There has been a massive influx of Julia Child content lately, and it makes me appreciate her contributions to the world so much more. It’s even more poignant at this stage of my life. I’ve been so comforted and inspired by each of these content pieces and wanted to be sure to highlight them for you should you need a little pep and pick me up in these dark days.

When I embarked upon this insane Spoiled Spinster Soul Sabbatical, I really just wanted to try on some cities that I’d been considering moving to. I thought spending a couple weeks living like a local at my top contenders would help me narrow things down. There wasn’t a whole lot of sightseeing on my wishlist, but Sedona and Antelope Slot Canyon had me religiously checking for house sits in Arizona outside of Monsoon season.

I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since I packed up my car and left my house and the life I’d been building for almost 20 years. I hit the road in search of something completely new and different. I was so tired of feeling stuck- personally, professionally, and pandemically. I knew it was far past time to make a change, and like my love life, I wasn’t ready to make a firm commitment to anything but myself and the pursuit of happiness, adventure, and a new direction. I was positive that there was more out there for me if I could be brave enough to chase it.

A year ago today, I was on the road to Austin to start this crazy adventure of mine. It was a little emotional seeing this Facebook post and accompanying flashback photos. I wanted to post it here to preface my reflection post on this incredible year. The difference between how I felt on this day last year and how I feel now is mind boggling.

There is something about driving down familiar streets in your parent’s car with the window down and your hometown station on the radio. I’m nostalgic by nature, but that’s really my favorite way to experience it. I ran over to a relative’s for a family dinner the other night and managed to hear Jake Owen’s “Barefoot Blue Jean Night” both directions, and I smiled thinking about the time I built a couple hundred promo discs of that single to help out the A&R and Promotion departments.

One year ago today I wrote a lengthy essay about a mouse pad, how it changed my life 20 years prior, and spilled the beans about how I was packing it and the rest of my life up and completely changing course. I had no idea where I wanted to go, or what I wanted to do, I just knew that trapped in indecision wasn’t working for me and I couldn’t wait to have my life all figured out to start living it. I’ve ben reflecting and ruminating on this journey as the one year anniversary of the #soulsabbatical approaches.

I had a magnificent last day in New York City today. It was full of hope, healing, and the subtle affirmations of rightness that I look for at the end of every leg of this crazy journey I’m on. My only goal for today was to get a Love Her But Leave Her Wild photo at a landmark, and film a brief recap video, and give the Adele 30 album the attention it deserves. I was flexible on all specifics.

Sometimes you find something that completely changes the way you see yourself, the world, and what you thought was possible. Fandom is a crazy thing. I can’t imagine there are many people in this world who haven’t experienced love at first sight with some sort of art- be it a song, film, show, painting, sculpture, or even delicious dish. Art has a way of moving people, and creating passionate lifelong fans. I think it is a relatively unique experience for lightning to strike twice, twenty years apart. Jonathan Larson completely shook the foundations of my heart almost 20 years ago with RENT, and tonight Lin Manuel Miranda and the most incredible cast did it again with the BEAUTIFUL cinematic interpretation of Larson’s debut play, Tick, Tick… Boom! I was frighteningly slow to discover both of these brilliant works, and I somehow started with the last and ended with the first, but within seconds of the opening numbers I knew I’d never be the same again.

Penny Lane famously advised us that if we ever get lonely, we should go to the record store and visit our friends. While I love a trip to the record store, I feel more power in impressionism. When my head or heart are a mess, I need a field trip to an art museum so I can mentally Mary Poppins my way into the works I’ve admired my entire life. No matter what chaos is happening inside or out, a sense of peace, calm, joy, and contentment return to me in the heavily guarded walls of a gallery.

2017 feels like several lifetimes ago. Those feelings of divisiveness, division, and the desire to speak up about disparity and injustice have only grown as the world burns around us. The selfish worship of freedom and rightness is killing us by the thousands, regardless of race. But like everything else, minorities are still affected more. The need for discourse about what we think, believe and experience is more necessary than ever. But the thing we need most is to actually hear each other, empathize and work together toward improvement. It doesn’t matter where we get our news, the priorities that drive us, or what we believe to be true… somewhere in the middle is the actual truth and we’re only going to find it if we stop, collaborate, and listen. It’s a world gone mad, why wouldn’t we be taking advice from Vanilla Ice? ;)

6 months into this adventure, I have a lot to tell you. I have royally screwed up, everything has worked out perfectly, miraculous detours have taken me to uncharted territory. Random strangers have completely changed my life and the world is a bigger, brighter, more beautiful place, and I can’t wait to tell you about what I’ve been up to and what I’ve learned.

It takes me an embarrassingly long time to blog about my adventures. I pack a lot into my field trips- they take a long time to execute and recap, but they don’t usually take me very long to map out. I thought maybe I should take a minute to explain my travel planning strategies and offer some tips.

This post seems a little weird and random for my blog, but I can’t tell you how many people have hit me up for suggestions on things to buy for the road. I have spent years and thousands of dollars hunting for the right shoes, bags and products to take on the road. I am a tough critic, a bargain shopper, and if I find something awesome and epic, I want to share it. I really effing hate wasting money on gear that is not the right blend of functional and cute.

When I think about dream jobs and what would make me the happiest- I honestly think getting paid to travel, eat, and bask in beauty of all kinds would top my list. I thrive in an environment where I poke around and figure things out. I live to help people avoid making the same mistakes I did, and emphasize the things they shouldn’t miss. That brings me so much joy. I don’t know if that will only be in the form of my hobby blog, but if we’re dreaming- it might include a travel show, podcast, memoir on this madness of mine, children’s books that inspire families to hit the road and explore together, or a mixed use venue that fills all the gaps my passion for hospitality has uncovered. As a collector of cool, the photos and stories I share with family and friends over cocktails are my favorite curation. When news broke that Anthony Bourdain had committed suicide, I know I was not alone in thinking how could that man have felt he had nothing to live for? He was living THE DREAM, it was unfathomable

I have to make a point to reflect on my life and experiences. I put my head down and do my work, I lift it up and chase adventure, beauty, and fun with equal determination. When I lay in bed at night, I spend far more time thinking ahead than I do about what’s already happened. I’m nostalgic by nature, but I’m a restless wanderer obsessed with what comes next too. There is only so much data a person can process in a day, and sometimes you need to carve out some time to really appreciate what you’ve seen and done with your life instead of obsessing about what comes next.