The Big Reveal

Okay, so the folks who are most likely to actually read this post soonest (if I were to hazard a guess) already know this information, but just in case anyone else is still reading, I can finally spill my big secret.

On April 1, I'm going to New Zealand to live and work for a year. I found out my visa application was approved while I was in DC for the Travel Channel Academy. (And no, it's not an April Fool's joke. Airfares to New Zealand go down in April, and I didn't want to give myself too much time to chicken out.)

I have so much to do in the next month and a bit. But I'm super excited -- I'm hoping to get a job of some sort in a tourism-related field, but failing that, I'll stick with commercial writing if I can. (At some point, I'll take whatever I can find until something better comes along.) And probably filming some video and editing it, and maybe it'll be good enough that Travel Channel will buy something. I should get some video content for the Trip Diva site out of it, if nothing else.

Oddly enough, I'm far less worried about what I'll do once I'm there than all the stuff I need to do before I go. I'm going to lease my house, so I need to get my stuff all packed up and put into storage. I have to find someone to take my fish. There are all sorts of paperwork things to get done -- taxes, sorting out mail, getting a safe deposit box for my good jewelry and important papers that I'm not taking with me, and probably a host of other things that aren't springing to mind yet. I know I'll get it all sorted, but right now, it seems like a ton. But I've already gotten some things moving in the right direction. And I'm not that worried about the packing; I've got years of experience on that front. And luckily, I have friends who owe me favors.

Wish me luck, everybody. And have a great weekend!

Damn, I hate not being able to get to Xanga from work

Not because I'd spend hours blogging or anything, but just because I think of little things I want to write about but invariably forget about once I get home. Or I just don't have the mental energy once I get home. Or the time. Or any of the other myriad other reasons that seem to get in the way of me writing a Xanga post when I'm at home during the week. *sigh*

I can tell I'm getting old, or at least older. I still haven't recovered from this weekend; I'm ridiculously worn out, and I've even gotten good nights' sleep since I've been home. And I've got some serious bags working under my eyes, so not only do I feel worn out, I kind of look it, too. I've actually used concealer the last two days. I almost never use concealer. (Which means I'm not that skilled at using concealer, so I'm not all that sure that the effort is even worth it. But still, I go for it.)

I want to blog about my Travel Channel Academy experience, since I think I've processed it enough to be able to write about it in a coherent fashion. (Okay, as much as I blog about anything in a coherent fashion.) But right now, I need to go to bed before I fall asleep on the keyboard.

Hope everyone had a good Valentine's day and got a little love from someone out there.

Travel Channel Academy

Well, it's the last day of class for the Travel Channel Academy. I've finished my final video clip; now I'm just waiting for the screenings to begin. I'm cautiously optimistic. Of course, I was cautiously optimistic that my first video wouldn't be too badly ripped up by our instructor, and boy howdy, was I wrong. (I "overwrote" the narration. What a surprise.)

It's been quite a ride for the last several days. I'm feeling worn out, which wasn't helped by the poor sleeping conditions in my hotel room. (The bed is fine, but the "climate control" sucks rocks.) I haven't looked so forward to sleeping in my own bed in I don't know how long.

I don't know yet if it's been worth it or not. I've learned tons -- but now I need to see if I actually do something with it. I think I will, but time will tell. Right now, my brain's a little too fried to be sure.

See everyone next week!

It's ALIVE!!!!

Or, more accurately, it's live. Barely, but it's live. And it's why I have awesome friends.

It's been on the back burner of my mind (and life) for years now, but it's finally up.

Have a look at the new Trip Diva web site!

Friend Lee created my awesome logo gal. PunkDiva (I can't get away with just calling her "the Diva" anymore, I guess) did the fabulous site design. If anything doesn't work or look right, I can guarantee it's my fault.

I spent a chunk of the day trying to make the design a WordPress template, but gave up after a few hours. When I'm not feeling rushed, I'll have another go at it.

Why was I rushed today after it had sat on the back burner for so long? Well, because I'm attending the Travel Channel Academy starting this coming Thursday, and I wanted to get the site up with at least some content before I went. I wanted to get the blog going so I could blog about the class, but after almost ripping my hair out today, I think I'm not going to worry about that too much. I can add it in later.

(Man, has today reminded me why I didn't want to be a programmer like my daddy wanted me to.)

It's all part of my travel-writing world domination plot, for which the Bluelist entry was just an opening salvo. With luck, there will be more to come. By going to the TCA, I'll get in front of executives from the Travel Channel and hopefully wow them with my brilliance. (And if that fails, I can always take the blinding them with bullshit route.)

And now, I am putting the computer away and getting myself a glass of wine or two to unwind. *whew*

You've come a long way, baby...

Most of you know I've been on Xanga for a lot longer than it looks from my posting history. I cleared out my old posts a while back, for a couple or reasons. One, I felt like I had put myself out there a little too much, and there was a lot of history I just didn't want out for public consumption anymore. I think I don't have a lot of artifice when it comes to how I represent myself, but I was feeling bruised and battered by being so open, therefore some boundaries were called for.

I did, however, archive those posts before I deleted. Because reason two for the mass deletion was I planned to recycle some of the content in the future. Well, that future is coming up fast, so I spent some time going through my archive looking for the content to be refreshed and reused. I spent a lot of time going through posts from 2003 & 2004.

They weren't that long ago, really. But I feel like such a different person now. Well, the same person, but with a lot more confidence and direction. And hell, it's about damn time.

It's funny; I know my parents would be excited for me. But for one of the first times, what they would or wouldn't think really isn't a factor in my decisions. Well, not a major one, anyway. Though it probably helps that I know they'd be behind me 100%. (Or at least, my dad would. Mom might have been a bit tougher a sell, but only because what I've got coming would involve us not being able to see each other face to face for a while. But once she saw how excited I am about it, she'd be cheering me on, too.)

I'm not sure where, when or how the shift came about, but I'm really glad it has. And I'm pretty confident that things will only continue to improve.

Sorry I've been scarce lately.

Well, okay, I know, it's hard to tell, I've been MIA so often and song long of late. But I have been trying to get better.

It's just that I have some big irons in the fire, so to speak, and they're demanding attention. There are some big things I'm working on, and fingers crossed, changes that will be coming in my life. Yes, I'm still being vague. I don't want to jinx anything right now. But I should have some big news to share sometime early next month, if things go as planned and red tape isn't unjustly rude to me.

All in all, it's leaving me a little bit overwhelmed. Excited, but a bit nervous too.

We'll see how things go. And I will stop being so vague soon.

What wine best pairs with Beenie Weenies?

Hopefully, Riesling is a good choice, since that's what I'm having. But no worries; it's just a $5 a bottle wine. (Hey, it's called "Little Penguin," how could I resist?) (Oh, and funny story -- my cashier when I bought the bottle the other day, who had to have been 19 years old, tops, actually carded me. I haven't been carded in ages!)

**************************************************************

On a more serious note, thank you all who went and voted on my Bluelist at the Lonely Planet web site. And extra thanks to Punky and Lenore Happenstance for leaving comments, too. Y'all rock hard!

In an effort to be honest, I'm going to say right up front that the following is a shameless plug and desire for y'all to show me some virtual love.

LonelyPlanet.com is currently running a contest, looking for folks to develop content for them. As I really, really want to do something travel-related with my life, I have entered. (This is an important step, since they ran this contest last year and I didn't get off my duff and enter.) They have what are called "BlueLists," where people recommend travel experiences to other folks.

Here's the link to my list.

I'd really appreciate it if y'all would have a read through and, if you like it, go ahead and rate it. You would have to register to leave a comment on the list, but you don't have to register to give it a rating. (If you don't like it, pretend you didn't read it, and we'll never speak of it.) I don't think the rating will have anything to do with who wins or not, since I think the contest is actually merit-based, but I figure if it gets a decent number of good ratings, it'll look good for my entry.

Thank you all in advance, and a happy New Year's to all!

Edited to add: Yes, there are a couple of errors in what's written. Which is what I get for being in too much of a hurry to post after I had to edit what I wrote originally because it was a little too long. Alas, there isn't a way to edit my list now that it's posted. Hopefully it won't reflect too poorly on me. (I'm guessing by some of last year's winning entries that my couple of goofs won't hurt me that much.)

I had three separate individuals give me journals/blank notebooks for Christmas.

Think folks are trying to tell me something?

*******************************************************************

So I was pumping gas this morning when a (presumably) homeless gentleman came towards me. After the obligatory greetings, with most of his pretty much incomprehensible, I tell him, "Sorry, I don't have anything."

He replies with, "Looking like that, you don't need anything." Or something like that. I think. Again, he wasn't terribly easy to understand. But I'll take my compliments where I can get them.

Adventures in Jurisprudence

I had jury duty a couple of weeks ago. It's funny how the experience is a combination of people alternately kissing your butt and treating you like cattle. Or maybe that's just me.

Naturally, I was chosen for the jury. I really didn't want to be, since if I don't work, I don't get paid. But I'm just too attentive for my own good. It was a civil case, thankfully, and it only took two days for our part to be over with.

The case has been kind of staying in my mind, which I really hadn't expected. It was a pretty straightforward auto accident, with the guy who was hit suing the guy who hit him for his chiropractor bill and pain and suffering.

We in the jury did wonder why insurance didn't take care of it, but that was never addressed in the trial. I'm fairly certain, though, that it's because the hit-ee is an illegal immigrant. If that wasn't the reason, I'd still bet that it had something to do with it. There was no claim against the vehicle damage, but the truck didn't belong to the hit-ee.

I'm pretty liberal in my politics. I don't really have anything against illegal immigrants, because I figure they're putting a decent amount of money back into the local economy, not just draining it. I certainly wouldn't argue that illegals have no rights in the countries they're living in.

But now I'm thinking about all the resources this trial took up. The plaintiff had to have a translator in the courtroom. The county had to pay for the jurors, the judge, the bailiff, etc. And the plaintiff was suing the driver, not his insurance company, so this poor guy was having to foot the bill for his own lawyer and such.

The accident happened over two years ago. I can only imagine how long this whole thing has been costing people money.

I'm not saying this is the plaintiff's fault simply because he's illegal. The defendant rear-ended him during rush hour traffic on a busy interstate in one of the worst cities for traffic in this country. Heck, he even said under oath that he was at fault in the accident. But the suit alleged that it was negligence on the defendant's part that caused the accident, and we just didn't find that the defendant was negligent. (We did feel that "at fault" didn't necessarily mean "negligent.")

But I have to wonder that we live in a country were someone can be actively breaking the law, in a situation where pretty much everyone knows he's breaking the law, and take someone else to court. He didn't deserve to get hit, it wasn't his fault he got hit, but he's actively breaking the law. I would think at some point you have to be aware that there could be all sorts of negative consequences from that decision that you simply couldn't anticipate. If I were to be an illegal immigrant in... let's say Ireland... there's no way I would willingly do anything that would draw the attention of the authorities to my existence. Even if it meant being in pain from an auto accident.

I do feel badly for the plaintiff in the case, but I feel badly for the defendant, too. This is the sort of thing you have insurance for (and I'm pretty sure the police report did say that he had insurance). But because the person he hit is an illegal immigrant, he's having to go through all of this crap, and the cost of it is coming out of his own pocket, most likely. The time this is all taking is time he'll never get back, if nothing else.

So I'm not quite sure how I feel about all this. I guess it really doesn't matter, because that's the system we have in place, but it does make me ponder both sides of the immigration debate in a way I probably wouldn't have before.

By the way, the plaintiff's lawyer said when the verdict was read that he'll be appealing. So it's not over yet for anyone except the six of us who sat on this jury.