I remember the day I moved out of Gainesville like it was yesterday. I was headed to Orlando to finish my degree at UCF. All my bags and boxes were packed and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my last couple hours than to be cuddled up on a couch watching TV with my best friend. Once we parted ways, I remember crying for most of the drive, not even remotely excited for the new adventure I was beginning. You see, I used to think moving was such a permanent thing. I had been told so many times that I wouldn’t last in Orlando and that I’d be back to Gainesville soon enough. And even though I was scared, I was determined to prove everyone wrong and make it work. (In case you’ve never met my Dad, I’ll have you know he instilled this “I will do everything in my power to prove your ass wrong” attitude in me.)

Seven years later and I’m still here. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not a bad thing. Orlando has definitely been good to me. I have seen myself change and grow to levels I didn’t think was possible. I have found a drive in me I didn’t think I had and I wouldn’t change my time here for anything. But over the past couple months, a few of my friends have moved (and a few more are moving next month), and I’ve found myself upset with them that they were leaving me. Over the past few weeks, I’ve come to realize that I’m actually just upset with MYSELF for not taking a chance on something new and I’m jealous they are brave enough to take the steps necessary to make themselves happier.

I’ve been thinking about moving for a few years now but I always seem to find a reason to stop myself from actually pursuing it further. Maybe it’s because I’m not a very adventurous person or maybe I’m just letting fear win. I really don’t know. I mean, is there ever really a “right” time to just pick up your stuff and go? To say goodbye to what you’ve known for years and start at the very beginning – again?

Strangely enough, I feel like the answer to this is yes. I read Kelly Cutrone’s “If You Have to Cry, Go Outside” book a while ago (pick it up if you haven’t read it yet) and it changed my world. She talks about how everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) has a tribe of people out there that is exactly like you and it’s up to you to find them. If you’re not thriving where you are, it’s up to you to figure out where you do actually thrive and GO THERE.

“Sometimes you need to let go of everything you’re clinging to and start over, whether because you’ve outgrown it or because it’s not working anymore or because it was wrong for you in the first place.”

So, guess what? I’m going to stop being afraid of the unknown and start living my life for ME. Operation “Figure Your Shit Out” is full steam ahead. I’m going to make a list of all the potential moving places for me and take the next year to visit them all.

First stop? Dallas.
Second stop? Seattle.

I have zero idea what will happen from there. All I know is that design and music is what makes me tick and I have to find a place where both of those mediums exist and where I can thrive as an individual. I don’t want to be that person who just accepts their life as is and does nothing more to make it what they truly want. I want more out of life and nobody is going to hand that to me on a silver platter.

“Dreams won’t always take you on a straight path to destiny, but they’re usually related to what your soul wants for you.”

*Photo Credit

Last week I ventured on my first cruise to Key West, Nassau, and CocoCay. I’ve always been a little weary about cruises. You hear all those stories about everyone on the boat getting sick and let’s be serious, you’re in the middle of the ocean with no help for miles. We all know what REALLY happens when something goes wrong. Ha. But seriously, the biggest boat I’ve ever been on is the Magic Kingdom ferry boat (my sister-in-law would be proud of me for saying Magic Kingdom & not Disney ;) ) so I was a little unsure about being on giant cruise boat for a 4 night cruise.

Nonetheless, I grabbed a few good friends and we were on our way. Key West was beautiful but short-lived and rather touristy. We weren’t docked there for more than just a few hours so we only walked around and did some shopping. If you ever go, you must get Kino’s Sandals… I’m thoroughly enjoying them. =)

Our next stop was Nassau where Courtney & I had booked parasailing. The other girls booked a dolphin swimming excursion so we split for the day. I have to say, my stomach was in knots before we went parasailing. This picture should tell it all:

We were on this tiny boat with about 12 other people (not including the boat driver & the parasail guy) so it was a tight squeeze. Of course everyone on the boat but myself got a harness (what the hell!) and we were soaking wet from the waves by the time we got out to our parasailing spot. Before I knew it, the guy was pointing at Courtney and I and it was our turn!

You sit on this strap at the front of the boat and you basically wait for the wind to pick you up. In the blink of an eye, you’re up 400-450 ft in the sky.

Let me just tell you…it was the most peaceful experience I think I’ve ever had. It’s quiet, so completely beautiful, and oddly very still. Definitely a very fun experience AND I didn’t do too shabby on my landing. =)

For the rest of the time in Nassau, we just walked around (I couldn’t get used to people driving on the wrong side of the road!) and then hit up the beach. The sand was so amazingly soft and the Mango daiquiri wasn’t too bad either. ;) (Picture is at Junkanoo Beach.)

We went to Senior Frogs for dinner where there were plenty of drinks & food, as well as singing and a little shimmy shaking.

Our next stop was CocoCay, Royal Caribbean’s private island. It was very beautiful. We started the day with some yoga on the beach but then it rained a little bit so it wasn’t until the early afternoon that we were able to rent some snorkel gear and head out.

Schools of fish kept following me and it was totally creeping me out! Snorkeling was definitely a workout but rather fun. =)

The rest of the afternoon was spent drinking Coco Loco’s (the amazing island drink) and soaking up the sun. I was so completely relaxed it was ridiculous. It’s always so nice just turning off the phone, not bringing the lappy, and totally disconnecting.

Of course we had some fun activities that were on the boat throughout the trip like the belly flop competition (we were just spectators, don’t fret), bingo, trivia, the casino, shows, and a yogurt machine on the pool deck open basically all the time. :X

All in all, had a fantastic cruise. Vacations never feel long enough, but I’m feeling stress free, relaxed, and happy. Can’t ask for much more, right?

Last week I had the pleasure of going on a ROAD TRIP with my parents. Yes, my parents. =) We were driving up to Virginia for a good friend of mine’s wedding. We haven’t taken a road trip like this in a long, LONG time. When I was younger we would always drive whenever we would go visit our family in Indiana and Boston. There are way too many people in our family so driving was always the more logical choice. And even though these trips were always long and tiring, we always had a fun time. My favorite van that we used to have was this blue conversion van with the blinds on the windows. You know what I’m talking about, right? The back seats would lie down completely so we would have this giant space in the back to play games and sleep and do whatever.

Dad was always responsible for the strategic packing of all our crap, Mom was always responsible for packing the food and snacks for the road, and we were responsible for bringing music, Mad Libs, and enough paper to play Hangman and M.A.S.H. We would scope out specific exits that we wanted to stop at, have picnics at rest stops, laugh and be silly, catch up on some sleep, and sing to our favorite songs. I remember my friends back then would always say, “you’re DRIVING?” with complete and utter shock. I mean when you’re in your teens, you definitely don’t want to be stuck in a car with your parents for 20 + hours (sorry, Mom and Dad, but it’s true). But what’s funny to me is how much things really don’t change over time.

On this trip, Dad still did the strategic packing, Mom still packed the snacks and food, we still stopped at specific exits, had picnics, laughed and were silly, and most definitely sang to our favorite tunes. I think I was too young to appreciate it then, but I realize now more than ever, our “little” road trips helped us build a really strong relationship as a family. Nothing says patience, love, family like being stuck in a car for days on end with people who are EXACTLY like you and actually coming out alive. =)

I read a blog post the other day (sorry, I didn’t bookmark it and I can’t find it to save my life) where it discussed routines and how it’s SO boring how some things are always the same. For example, there will always be dishes to clean, laundry to fold, and tubs to scrub. But I have to say, I really disagree with that. Yeah, sometimes doing the same things can be mundane, but I kind of marvel in knowing those “routines” are always there. To me, life is changing so quickly all around me anyway that I find complete comfort in knowing some things will always be the same. Don’t you?

In addition to my BIG dream of just simply GOING to California, my other dream (as silly as this may sound) was to ride a bike in California. =) I really didn’t have any specifications about where to ride it, but I had to sing “In the Summertime” by Mungo Jerry and just take in my surroundings. We rented bikes at the Bike and Roll and took an adventure! Our “little” adventure was going to be about a 10 mile bike for us but I was really excited – helmet and all.

As we started off near Fisherman’s Wharf, we got to go through all the different parts of San Francisco….up the hills, overlooking the bay, through the marina, down on Chrissy beach, and finally to the Golden Gate Bridge. It felt like ALL week we’d just seen it – from Coit Tower, Alcatraz, the Cable Cars, walking around the piers, and the bay cruise – so, we were most definitely excited that we were going to be ON IT!

As we biked over the one-mile stretch of the Golden Gate Bridge, it was truly an awesome experience. We stopped a few times to snap some photos and to just take it all in and appreciate where we were.

We finished up over the bridge and headed down the steep curvy hills towards Sausalito. There is this part in City of Angels where Meg Ryan is riding her bike down the roads in the mountains and she leans her head back and up towards the sky and her arms out to the side, breathing in every moment (don’t think about what happened after that because it is sad haha). But that’s how I felt as I went down Alexander Road, except I definitely had both my hands on the handlebars and I was riding the break. =) We didn’t get to spend much time in Sausalito – we only had about 20 minutes before one of the last ferry’s left back over to San Francisco. So, we grabbed some ice cream at a local shop in the historic part of Sausalito and enjoyed our short time there. Sausalito reminded me of Greece (not that I’ve been there but whatever, I’ve seen photos!)

As our 2nd to last day in San Francisco arrived, I was ecstatic to be going on a wine tour. As a part of our wine tour, we went to Muir Woods first. Giant redwood trees, creeks with peaceful trickling water, and just pure peacefulness surrounded us as we walked around. It was breathtaking. I see pictures and scenery from places like that – hell, I’m sure I’ve had a Desktop background of something similar at some point in my life. It was so humbling seeing in myself. It’s in places like that when you truly feel small.

Our venture to wine country was next. We went to three wineries in Sonoma. I swear, we had such awesome luck with the weather during our time to San Francisco. Let me ask you this…did you know that in 2009, California vintners shipped 467.7 million gallons around the U.S.? C-R-A-Z-Y! As we were driving to Sonoma, there was a part where you could see the shadows of the clouds on the hills. And of course, every time we saw a cow, I thought, “HAPPY COW!” Our first winery, Cline, was tiny – a great place to start. They had the most beautiful roses there. I haven’t seen or smelled roses in so long. Brought back a lot of old memories and put a smile on my face.

I think our tour guy must’ve known I had been craving cheese because when we stopped in downtown Sonoma, we went to The Cheese Factory for lunch. Yum! You could sample all their cheeses – pestos, jack’s, cheddars…anything you could imagine. We got a fresh deli sandwich with their awesome cheese and headed for the park to enjoy the sunshine and each other.

Our next winery, Kunie, was gorgeous. We got to go on a cave tour, see all the barrels, and learn about how they make wine. The last winery, and my favorite of the day, was Jacuzzi. This house looked like it belonged in Tuscany or something. As we walked in, over the high arches, wooden doors, and beautiful décor, we joined the rest of our tour friends at a long wooden table for our last tasting of the day. We got to talk around for a bit, try some of their homemade dipping bread oils, experience a chocolate wine shot, and enjoy the beautiful scenery. I swear, if I could have convinced my friends and the tour guy to leave me there, I’d probably still be there right this minute. It was absolutely gorgeous.

We ended up in Chinatown for our last dinner in San Francisco. The whole day was a perfect ending to our trip and most definitely something I will never forget.

I can honestly say, I think I’ve found my home, my bliss, my “where I want to be.” There was this profound moment back on day two of the conference. I decided to take the scenic route back to the hotel so, I put on my iPod, zipped up my jacket, and just walked. I took every minute to enjoy where I was and to just take it all in. I have to say, there was something about that brief, pleasant smell of fresh flowers on the street corner, that little pink box full of delicious goodies, the “ding” of the trolley picking up eager people, the four corners of love at Union Square, and listening to the calming sounds of Andrew Bird that made me think I could stay there forever.

I most definitely have left my heart in San Francisco, and although I don’t know how or when, I plan on going back for it and I plan on making it my home.

*To view ALL my photos from San Francisco, click here.

The sole purpose of my trip to San Francisco was the geeky (and awesome) DrupalCon! Drupal is an open source platform that allows you to build, manage, and organize content on a website. I started using Drupal a little over a year ago when my boss told me to “build a website.” As my baby blues widened and out spilled “WHAT?” then “I don’t know how,” he quickly came back with “Google it.” After I had a mini heart attack, I took on the challenge, as I would with most things, and I started to learn about Drupal.

Considering my major in college was Marketing, most of my development work has been trial and error. Over the past year, I have kind of just put on my Drupal wings and soaked up as much knowledge as I possibly can, singing the Drupal song in happy moments and cursing it in dark moments.

As I started attending more and more monthly meetings with my local Drupal community, I started to WANT to understand Drupal more instead of it being a guessing game. Drupal was quickly growing and I wanted to be a part of this great community. I found out about DrupalCon last summer when it was in Paris. As I mentioned before, I knew I couldn’t swing Paris, so I set out to attend the next one. Added bonus: it was in my #1 place to visit before I die (morbid, sorry) – SAN FRANCISCO!

So, last week began the chaos of DrupalCon San Francisco! Almost 3,000 attendees from all over the world came to San Francisco for this conference. I knew I was going to be overwhelmed but I also knew I had my friends from the Florida Drupal community to help me out if need be. I was excited to meet friends from Twitter and new people in general. With all the talk of code, modules, themes, Drupal 7, design, PHP, and anything else geeky you can imagine, the days went by rather quickly.

The conference events at night were a great place to extend the networking and conversation and of course enjoy a frosty beverage or two (or five). Oh and who could forget a little karaoke?

There was a part during the conference when I realized I really WAS a part of something greater than I could have ever imagined. For something that started purely because my boss said to me, “build a website,” has landed me in a really amazing community that I am truly happy to be a part of. I learned a lot at the conference – especially how I can give back to the community. I have my pages and pages of notes and my beginning PHP writing that I honestly can’t wait to start.

Do I have a long way to go? Yes, absolutely. But at least I’m taking steps in the right direction to get to the level I want to be at. Baby steps, right?

Cheers to a successful DrupalCon, a great community, and for taking professional development into your own hands!

Wow. What a fantastic week in San Francisco! I’m honestly not even really sure where to start! I had been planning this trip since last summer…right after I knew about DrupalCon Paris. Knowing there was no way possible I was going to be able to swing Paris, I set out to attend the next one in San Francisco.

I’ve wanted to go to California my entire life and DrupalCon seemed like a great bridge to make that dream come true. When I was in high school, I wanted to move there to go to school but as a youngin’ =) I was convinced by many it wasn’t a good choice, so I passed up the opportunity. And as you can imagine, as the trip came closer and closer, my anticipation grew so big I could barely sit still the week prior to leaving.

I had been hearing so much about San Francisco from friends (basically about how AMAZING it is) that I was starting to think maybe it was too good to be true. As we arrived to the sunny skies, breezy temperatures, and the hills and mountains, I knew it was definitely not too good to be true. We took their metro subway (the BART!) to our hotel – right in the heart of downtown San Francisco on Powell and Market. From the moment we got out of the metro and onto the streets, I had a HUGE smile on my face that I just could not wipe off.

For a lack of better words, San Francisco is just beautiful. Nothing beats a fast-paced (yet mellow) and diverse culture of a big city…street vendors, young and old people, dancers performing in the streets, enormous stores like Forever 21 and Urban Outfitters (hello…that is paradise for me) – it was just incredible. The last time I went to a “big” city was Chicago a few years back (that is another place I want to visit soon again).

After dropping off our stuff, we ventured to explore! We went up to North Beach to check out Coit Tower. We hiked our way up the hills of San Francisco, screaming quotes from “The Sweetest Thing,” and staring in awe of our beautiful surroundings. The view from Coit Tower is worth all the huffing and puffing up that steep hill to get to it.

Coit Tower was built in honor of Lillie Hitchcock Coit and for the San Francisco firemen – hence why it looks like the nozzle of a firehose! We took the scenic route down, through gardens and wooden stairways. One of my favorite parts about this day was we really didn’t know where we were going, we just went and we were going to love where ever we ended up. We stumbled upon this Zen Garden where we laid in the grass making grass angels, balanced on rocks in the water, saw people meditating, and watched the Weeping Willows blow in the wind. Sigh… it was breathtaking.

The next day we went to visit Alcatraz. I’ve never been a big history kind of girl – always really bored me. Alcatraz was awesome though. As we toured the island, took an inordinate amount of photos, and listened to the audio tour of the cellhouse, I was really excited to be standing on history. The audio tour of the cellhouse was really interesting. Actual prisoners and officers narrated, telling us stories and the history of Alcatraz. And wow – what a view of San Francisco from the island. Absolutely gorgeous.

Did you know Alcatraz became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1973? It now has over 1.4 million visitors a year! CRAZY!

After Alcatraz, we walked around for a bit, breathing in the salty air, we grabbed some seafood at the Fisherman’s Grotto. Salmon cakes for me. YUM. On our way back we got to catch some break dancers (don’t worry, I got video…it is to come soon) – they were awesome!

I think we picked a perfect time to go to San Francisco because one thing I did not expect was the amazing landscaping all around. I’m not sure if it’s like that in most parts of California, but the trees and flowers all over the place are just gorgeous. I was never really into plants and flowers and trees (ask my Mom, I never wanted to help out in the yard – haha) but I can say I was always fond of weeping willows and daisies – all of which San Francisco had plenty of. Guess you gotta make time to stop and appreciate that kind of beauty!

I have lots more from my trip, I just didn’t want to bore you all at once, so stay tuned! =)

Well, it is finally that time. I’m leaving for San Francisco this weekend to attend DrupalConSF and can I just say that I AM SO EXCITED! This is the FIRST official “cross-off” on my vision board for 2010 and I’m pretty proud of myself for sticking to my goals and MAKING IT HAPPEN. Not only will I be with my fellow designing and development geeks for a few days, but I’ll be taking some extended time there to enjoy and explore the city with my friends. I’m not too happy about the 60% chance of rain 5/7 days that I’m there, but I’m not going to let it hold me down! If I must run around San Francisco in some rain boots, I most certainly will.

You know, that phrase, “making it happen” … well, it seems to be my life motto as of late. There’s just something about saying you want something and then actually doing whatever it takes to make it happen – regardless of barriers. Last week was a pretty interesting week for me. I was presented with an opportunity that I think probably would have turned my world upside down and then back down and around the corner. It was going to be something completely different from what I’ve been doing. It would have been a new opportunity to learn, to grow, and to simply try something new. At the end of the day, I chose to pass this opportunity along to someone else. And although there are various reasons why I turned it down, the one primary reason was that I realized that taking it would deter me from where I wanted to go. And essentially, I would be compromising what I want.

I think it’s easy to convince yourself that something might be right or wrong for you. You can make that list of pros and cons, ask for others opinions, bury your face in your pillow, toss and turn, and then take a leap, but you absolutely cannot forget what it is that you truly want. I honestly believe that sometimes we ARE meant to go off the path and take chances – to try new things, but I also believe that sometimes we simply are not.

Dream.
Plan.
Focus.
Make it happen.

Photo credit: http://weheartit.com/entry/13529938