nod to travel

A quick hello in effort to keep myself on track here. The water is starting to bubble over. I can feel the busy-ness approaching. Lots of emails. Lots of meetings. Rewrites. More rewrites. Add this, subtract that. Peonies! Dahlias! No, garden roses! Ahhhh - brain exploding with flower ideas, color combinations, orders to place.

I recommend a quick stint in Hawaii to anyone feeling borderline about flowers these days. It'll fix that. It'll fix everything. Everything.

And to those of you wondering about Costa Rica and who silently cursed my name when riding crowded subways, go there too. I really mean it. Costa Rica is not undiscovered. Expats galore, that's for sure. But there's a reason for it. I've been fortunate enough to travel a bit (which is fueling an urge to see even more hopingtogotothailandbalivietnamsydneynew zealandtonameafew) But there really is something magical about Costa Rica. I've found in my two surreal visits there (both circling somewhat arduous times), things just make sense. Life is simple without being simplistic. The Pura Vida* is legit. Smiles are abundant. Friends are waiting to be met. I drank the kool aid and I liked it. And I'd like to offer you some, too.

*For those unfamiliar, wiki says, Pura vida literally means Pura = pure and vida = life, but "Pure life" in Spanish would be "Vida pura" instead, so the real meaning is closer to "plenty of life", "full of life", "this is living!", "going great", "real living","Awesome!" or "cool!" It can be used both as a greeting and a farewell, universally known in Costa Rica and it has been used by many Costa Ricans (and expatriates) since 1956.