Is there such thing as the 4-month itch?

It's been four months since we got married and my how the time flies. Work has been crazy busy and my new husband talks about us as newlyweds, which I find both amusing and strange, since we have been living together for much longer than marriage. I think he really enjoys the idea and fact that we are married. I guess I need to take a moment to appreciate that about him, instead of finding that confusing.

With all that's going on right now, I'm starting to get that itch I feel when I'm in one place for too long. Even though I'm crazy busy with work, I just want to do something different, which is why I ventured off on my own to begin with. We have a few things coming up but I've just today decided, "we" are planning a trip to Italy. (Shhhh...don't tell hubs, he doesn't know this yet, but he'll be thrilled) This will be our international trip of 2012, although we did go to the Dominican Republic for our Honeymoon, I'm convinced that it doesn't really count.

My genius idea: In October (low season), fly from LA to Rome and drive up to Florence to Venice. Fly out of Venice and come home eight days later. Easy right? Flights and hotel rates are much lower in that season and I used TripAdvisor to find a handful of really reasonable B+B's (my reasonable means between 50-110 euros/day) in each city we stay at and we'll rent a teeny tiny European car to drive in, woo!

So our travel itinerary for 2012:

January - Dominican Republic (The honeymoon)

April - New Orleans for Jazz Fest

August - Hawaii for the birth of our dear friend's baby and some relax time

October - Italy, from Rome ->Florence -> Venice

NYE - spend our anniversary at home (in LA) with Chaka and plan for 2013

That's a successful year if I ever saw one! Let's go! This itch is gettin' crazy.

How sweet it was...

I am amazed at how quickly 2010 came and went. I'm generally a big promoter of moving up and on and getting my resolutions ready for the next year, but 2010 was so full of things I thought I would reflect on all that went down.

Let Downs :/

• Didn't go to Macchu Picchu
• Had to get rid of Saabi
• Gained 20 lbs. (yea! I know, scary) - I already have the resolution for this one
• Lazied on tennis after August
• Didn't take the GMAT....again
• Didn't run more races

Achievements :)

• Saw my first live Celtics game at TD Garden in Boston
• Participated in my first season of mixed doubles
• Won a tennis tournament (Calabassas Country Club)
• Pueblo Ingles teens 2010
• Traveled through Spain, France, Turkey and Germany with my love
• Got a new car
• Attended my first PRSA International Conference
• Filed my taxes on time
• Ran in 2 10K's
• Adopted my adorable Chaka
• Celebrated the last birthday of my 20's
• Kicked Coffee (I like to celebrate the small victories too)
• Got engaged to be married
• Began planning my wedding
• Became a chocolatier

Overall it has been a pretty stellar year. I can't wait to see what happens in 2011, I already know of a couple pretty important milestones that will take place. It should be interesting. I will get on the 'list' of resolutions that I have...However, today (while in the gym), I realized that sometimes my over planning is self defeating and I should continue to follow the one motto that I have always loved "Just do it!"

Good luck on your resolutions and Happy Holidays!

Return to planet normal...

So I have been back home for a little over a week now and have started new routines and gotten used to the time. I feel like I wake up, workout, work, go home and pass out. My energy has been a little low, however it's possibly because I thought it was a good idea to give up caffeine (I've resolved that problem today).

My new wake-up and workout schedule has been working really well for me, but it's difficult for me to stay up at night after I get home. I feel like I just make dinner and plop on the couch...and there is no return from that. My productive self has slowly been pushing me to wake up earlier to get things done, but I'd really like to stay up longer and see more of the day. I need regain control of my schedule so that I can fight the good fight against time.

Managing yourself as a business is so difficult. There are way too many things that I need to get done in a day. I feel like I over-promise and under-deliver, something that I have always vowed never to do to clients, but keep doing to myself.

Lists are beginning to mean nothing to me. There are no consequences to my personal laziness and if there are, I have already lived with them and they aren't bad enough company where I care. I guess it boils down to the fact that I'm not really a patient person and generally want everything to be done and dealt with yesterday and if it takes longer than that, I feel I have no control. Ah well...we are home, happy, healthy and ready to move forward. Maybe now that I got this out on screen, I can make myself accountable.

I did bribe myself with shopping, which may just work!

The road to home (Istanbul, Cologne, Frankfurt)...

The past week has been a crazy busy one, mostly with work. We closed out our trip to Istanbul by getting a lot of souveneirs, heading to a fancy nightclub called Reina, an extensive carpet showing at a Turkish rug showroom, eating lunch & smoking Hookah (for my first time) on the Bosphorous and wandering around the Grand Bazaar...and when we were just getting used to life at Taksim Square it was time to head to Cologne, not without purchasing another piece of luggage to haul all of our new treasures home. It makes you wonder a little when the guy at the bazaar asks you" "Would you like to purchase something you don't need?" Regardless, we got out souveneirs our new USSARO luggage and headed back to Ataturk airport.

Now it was off to Cologne (or Koln), where Gamescom was waiting for me.

On Sunday evening getting to Cologne, we got on a train headed in the wrong direction and finally got to the Marriott Cologne at about 11:00 p.m. Cologne is a nice city, heading out to grab some food, the first thing we noticed was the Dom. Half of the building was covered in fog and just gave out this increadibly creepy vibe. Eat your heart out Notre Dame, these gargoyles were scary in the fog or in the sun, as it finally cleared up on Friday. The whole week consisted of light rain and overcast weather and me with very little warm clothing. Crossing the bridge to head over to a Gamescom event on Thursday, we noticed the love locks on the bridge. Naturally, we decided to give 'love lockdown' a new meaning and get our own locks for the bridge, throwing the keys in the river to seal the deal. Then the one day (Friday) I decide to wear the one pair of pants I brought...it is blazing hot and I am profusely sweating from transporting boxes to the convention center.

Gamescom itself was a whole different beast. Days were filled with media interviews, marketing meetings, networking and checking out the main halls. I must say, those media interviews are tiring. I had my first run at being 'on camera' (3 times in one day), definitely not my forte, and talking about the Free2Play video game business. I was surprised how much I knew. Once I started it just started flowing out of me. Good experience, but I'll leave the interviews for the producers, the networking is much easier. Gamescom had a huge event on Thursday night with 3000 in attendance (still only a fraction of the attendees). With live performances and buffet's of food set out all over the venue, there were some still there until 4 am. Being the smart one, I headed in at 12.

The biggest success at Gamescom though? Seeding out more little GamersFirst green bags out into the planet (4000 to be exact)! Those obnoxiously colored bags should be our staple, a different neon color for each year.
"Oh you got that green one? That was back in 2010. No, no, I have the orange one, 2012."

Finally, we dispersed Cologne and got on a train to Frankfurt. Unfortunately (like in Paris), the rain pretty much took over the last day there and the morning (right now). It was nice to have a festival near our hotel, where there was International food. Even nicer was the Irish bar we went to, where I could finally get some Guiness and Cider in my system. Now it is POURING. With the extra baggage we bought in Istanbul and that heavy 19" Alienware computer we're trekking home, getting to the airport will be no picnic, but it's a nice feeling to be heading somewhere that we won't have to leave in a week.

After 14,961 miles, 42 days, 13 cities, 10 airports, 7 hotels, 6 countries, 3 suitcases, 2 train rides, and 1 pandemic we are finally going back to the comforts of home. Still together, healthy and ready for whatever comes next!

From Paris to Istanbul and then some.

What happened? I was just riding along my merry way on my bike tours and then bam! I get to Istanbul and catch a mean cold. My head is aching and my nose is try to get away from me. But I guess after nearly a month of travel, it was bound to catch up with me.

Before getting here to Istanbul, we spend 4 days in Paris. Which is not exactly a homely city by nature; but we had great advice from great friends and made the most of our days there. We were able to go on two bike tours that took us all around the city, the latter of which got us caught in the unpredictable Paris rain (which is why I suppose I'm sick now). We spent a beautiful day, champagne tasting in Epernay, and one crazy night in front of the Eiffel Tower with our new bike tour friends....waiting for the Tower to glimmer, then having a drink, eating pringles, having a drink, waiting for the Tower and then having a drink, and so on and so forth!

My favorite part of France, by far, was going to Versailles. The gardens are beautiful but we were only able to spend a few hours there, where we managed to walk the gardens, row a boat and eat lunch in the middle of the lake. I could have stayed there all day and I'm sure several people did (as they were passed out on the lawns). But we had to get back for our night bike tour and to climb the 2 floors (yea right!) of the Eiffel Tower.

We left France with one special souveneir that was acquired while at the Moet & Chandon house.

After becoming exhausted in Paris, Istanbul was a relief to arrive to. However it was 3 am and the taxi driver may have not been licensed, traveling at speeds unknown to human kind on the empty road. We were sure he was taking us somewhere else, when 40 mins. later we are finally in front of our hotel, right in the center of Taksim Square, a good place to be if you're not from around here.

So now...I'm looking forward to getting better and going down our "List of things to do while in Istanbul" on Friday and Saturday, with sprinklings tonight and tomorrow night. Now if only I could get a replacement head for the remainder of the week (to relieve this runny nose and headache), that would be a dream.

Stay tuned for updates!

The Massacre at Priego (aka Priego Pandemic)

**warning this is an account of real-life events, the content of this blog may boggle the imagination and reveal TMI aboutboth known and unknown parties; nontheless this blog was kept factual for the full effect of the event**

The morning started out like every other in our little Priego village in Cordoba, Spain (in the south). About a warm 90 degrees and walking up to the hotel restaraunt for breakfast, just like every other morning. The kids were awakening slowly yet surely and arriving at the breakfast hall. Once again we situated our little teen gems as anglo, spaniard, anglo, spaniard to promote the mixing of teens and speaking of English.

Getting to my cafe con leche con hielo, as I do every morning and setting aside a small muffin and toast for my breakfast, I prepared for another ridiculously hot day in Priego. It wasn't just any other day though. It was the last full day of camp where the kids would have a surprising amount of Free Time, perform a Talent Show and go to their camp-end party (aka dance, reason to kiss each other, last chance for romance, etc.).

The day got off to an active start. Everyone was hurriedly preparing for their talent show debuts, groups went off into Orange, Red, Blue, White, Black, Silver, Silver/Black, Green and Yellow. I am the leader of the Orange group a unmatched group of teens at Priego on every level...but that's another story ;).

We got through the day, through the practicing, through the talent show and now it was time to get ready for dinner, pack and dance the night away. Little did we know what lay ahead of us. Dinner came and appetites were surpressed (probably from the excitement of the night...or maybe not). Ana and Beno leave the dining hall feeling ill after the first course. Meals at Priego consist of two courses, salad and dessert. They are not the first ones to feel ill. Hours earlier, Tom had been talking about ill feelings and being sick. Ana and Beno sit for about 30 minutes before sickness strikes, both losing what they had consumed during the day. Beno is very sick and retires to his room to rest and hopefully muster up the strength to go to the dance later. I'm feeling fine and get prepared to chaperone these teen trouble makers. Ana is not sure if she's better or slowly getting worse. Only time will tell.

The dance ensues with all the normal teenage drama of he kissed her, she danced with me, they kissed in the corner, what the heck is Ronjini doing? etc, etc. There is something strange happening though...Amelia approaches crying and complaining of stomach pains, shortly after Enrique announces his misfortunate bathroom trip just minutes earlier, Andrea and Becci are next, along with a trickling few campers that slowly feel sick to their stomach (literally). The night progresses and one by one, stomach pains, tears and weakness terrorizes Priego. 15 down and everyone else at the dance, this night is just beginning at 1:30 a.m.

I've gone back to check on Beno for the 3rd time, things are not looking good, miserable in fact. With the count up to 15 the doctor is called to the camp. An ambulance shows up 15 minutes later and is directed towards Beno's room, he is the worst....or so we thought. After the doctors administer shots for nausea to 15 patients; dancers, campers and sickos all head to their rooms for a night's rest before departure the next day.

Night patrol begins. The counsellors (including myself) are weary from the tremendous amount of hours they have put in over the past 14 days. They somehow have gotten acclimated to the strange lifestyle of watching over 94 teenagers 24/7. Night patrol is up and at 'em as teens show no signs of slowing down on the last night, but something is more peculiar than most nights. The patient count continues to increase. From 1:30 a.m. to 8 a.m. the count increases to 20+ patients overnight.

Wake up call is at 8 am on the last day of camp to get everyone fed and ready for departure. This departure was not as planned however. The reception hall turned into an infermery. We see campers walking up to the reception hall, not to eat breakfast but with pale white and pink faces grasping their stomachs. Slowly, I can feel my pwn stomach churning and taking a similar fate to many of the patients that gained the sickness overnight. What is this? My answer: Food Poisoning. Aching bellies, vomiting, diarrhea and fever hit the camp hard and claimed more than 30 victims.

Not a good day to go down. Nearly half the campers were quarantined, seperated from their new made friends on the last departing day of camp. Tears were already aflood by 9:00 a.m. because these destined intercontinental soul mates were leaving each other, but quarantine? What had Priego come to? Pandemic...

The Priego Pandemic hit hard. Healthy campers were promised to see their new bosom buddies before departure. The sick campers were promised to be able to say goodbye to their friends if the situation called for it. The sight was a sad one. Doors were locked from outside to inside. You can see weaping campers on the terrace, desperate to get into the reception to say a farewell to the sobbing teens on the inside. It was like a scene out of a horror film (or a zombie film).

Three hours later, talks began of departure. Thank god. What else can go wrong? The Anglos and Spaniards, after 14 long grueling hot days together, were seperated into 2 busses. Each bus was piled with half sick teenagers that had been administered a shot to the butt to clear their symptoms. With the camp director and hotel insisting that this was a virus, who is to tell if patients were getting the most efficient medicine for the clearly apparent mass food poisoning that had occurred that night.

Desperate to leave the camp, I had claimed that I was better (seconds after making a visit to the bathroom) and that Beno would be fine to travel. We just wanted to get the hell out of Priego and somewhere air conditioned for recooperation.

We finally get on the bus. 5 hours later we arrive in Madrid, where Beno passes out in the hotel room and I am required to chaperone 22 teens with a fellow counsellor to dinner. Not feeling like eating, I had little and made a meal of Aquarius (a Spanish Gatorade), Sprite and 1/2 a quesadilla. After the extremely slow service of VIPS, we left to head back to the NH Zurbano. The sickness was not over. In the span of time 2 more patients, made themselves apparent. One directly outside of the restaraunt.

Reaching the hotel, I was desperate for sleep, but again....room checks. Does this never end????After making the rounds, and doing drop offs at the airport the next day, I took the recovering Beno and the recovered ME to the airport to head to Barcelona. The day from hell was finally over and behind us, but the memory of the Priego Pandemic will never be lost.

Adventures from Spain

We are starting week 2 here in Spain and I am finally getting acclimated to the balance of working and....well...working. I'm not getting very much sleep here, but it's fun and poses a bit of a challenge in getting through each day.

I haven't had much free time and when I do, I work, so I finally decided to set some time aside to update all of my fans on the trip. Its going great so far, we are working, so its not easy or vacation-like quite yet.

After 2 weeks I got my SIM unlock code, to unlock my phone and use my International sim card. Geezus. In the meantime, we just started a week long murder mystery game where everyone at the camp has to secretly kill their victims, lots of fun and paranoia


In addition to that, the teens show off their talents on a daily basis and the Spaniards are increasingly improving their English with the patience of the Anglo teens. Of course there are trouble makers and drama, but that's the fun part.


The rumor amongst the teens is that Beno and I are a couple and we're moving to Spain. ;) Silly kids.

Sometimes the stars align.

If you're curious to know what that picture is, it's of Scorpio of course. That's what I am, a Scorpio and last night the stars must have aligned perfectly. This morning, I woke up refreshed and everything seems to be coordinating perfectly for this upcoming trip.

I rose at 6:30 a.m. to find out that the summer camp that I will be at in Spain, does in fact have Wi-Fi...sadly that was my biggest concern. My love went to collect some drycleaning and coffee was ready when I finally got out of bed.

Part of my morning happiness could very possibly be because after about a month of being stressed and having no time to workout; last night I took a 6 mile run that left me, surprisingly refreshed. I miss being fit. I woke up with no soreness and ready to workout again. No..I'm not crazy, I didn't work out at 6:00 a.m. this morning, but I will again tonight. Apparently, this past month has not been so kind, there's a lot of toning to do.

The tide feels like it's turning towards a summer of wonderfulness. I'm incrementally more and more excited to go on this excursion and I am proud to say that I feel like I'm finally getting some progress at work. PR is not the easiest road to go down and validation comes few and far between. Even when people say you're doing well, you need that real affirmation that what you're doing is working for the company. This morning I got the validation I needed to know that we are moving in the right direction and are 'taking the bull by the horns'.

I hope that everyone has a fabulous and special weekend and finds their own renewed spirit. It is very likely the next time I post it will be sitting at the airport waiting to lift off..or it may be about beer tomorrow. Whichever comes first :).

Ciao!

p.s.: Congrats to you know who you are!

TGJIO (thank god June is over), summer here I come!

The irony here is that it is drizzling and overcast today in Sunny California. Perhaps the Vitamin D deprivation has forced me to write a sunny blog to get me through the day. June is finally over, what a hellish month! The turmoil that we have to go through to transition from Spring to Summer is unnecessary, but this year I may recover.

So, henceforthwithtofro, I am fleeing the country in pursuit of a once in a lifetime opportunity. I will be traveling out of the country for 42 days this summer with my partner in crime (not real crime), transitioning between exploration of the world and....well....working of course (a girl's gotta have new shoes!). By day I will be explorer of foreign lands, by night mistress of PR. I'm pretty sure I'll need a vacation after I get back from this adventure.

Next week my darling and I are off to foreign lands to see what this summer has in store for us.

First stop...Spain (check the map for location)! I'm lucky enough to say I've been there already, but I wasn't there nearly enough to experience and enjoy it enough to where I don't want to go back. I left so many great memories in Spain in my last trip that I am even more excited to go back and make new ones.

Next....Paris; I say Paris instead of France, because it just sounds that much more romantic. This will be my very first time in the city of amor. A friend suggested Fat Tire Bike Tours while we are there, so we will likely go on an evening and day time tour of the city by bike and boat. I cannot wait to sit at a roadside cafe and sip my cafe, while nibbling on an authentic Croissant (said in my best french accent).

The one thing I'm worried about (only second to allergies) is the ripe summer heat in any of these places but I'm sure I'll manage (not sure about Beno though). I do hate extreme hot weather, that's what those Spanish fans were made for. These are the pitfalls of economy travel, what can you do? :)

And thennnnnnnn? Well off to Turkey of course. Our Turkish office is located in Istanbul where I will be open-air purchasing my butt off. I'm so excited to go to the open market. I have also heard great things about Turkish foods and so eager to see all the other beautiful things there, like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sofia. It's too bad we won't have time to go to the Turkish islands, next time perhaps. After we get our fill of the Turkish life (an entire 7 days and mostly working), we'll be heading off to Germany.

Another gaming tradeshow, but at least I'm in Europe. We'll be in Cologne for GDC Europe and Gamescom. I'm sure we'll make plenty of time to appreciate Bratwurst, Sauerkraut, Weinershnitzel and Hoegaarden. Actually, I plan on going to an Irish bar in Barcelona that has Hoegaarden as well (how weird is that?), so I guess location has nothing to do with beer.

(Spain circa summer 2008)

Our adventure ends in Frankfurt, where I'm sure we'll have some lovely food and of course locate some German Chocolate cake. I guess we'll learn all the secrets of getting the most with least by being away so long, at least the Euro is down a bit right now.

I'm ready to get on the metro and find all the coolest spots everywhere we go (literally, there's an ICE bar in Spain I can't wait to go to). The best part, I will be traveling and sharing this experience with my best friend and although he won't admit how excited he is, I got a glimpse of it this weekend, when we started preparing by making some key item purchases for the trip. Hopefully that long plane ride won't break us in the very beginning and then there's spending 2 full weeks with a bunch of teenagers that know how to cuss in a foreign language. LOL. Ahhh summer!

I'll be reporting so stay tuned for European adventures, coming soon.

Endless Summer 2010? - So it begins.

It was a beautiful Memorial Day weekend and no doubt the beginning of another summer. I was outside most of the weekend, which is what I expected anyway. It was beautiful. The commencement of summer 2010 included; beach workout, beach walk, cuban food, Sex and The City 2, lunch with a friend, tasty dinners at home, playing tennis, a round of golf, a closet clean out, cleaning the house, laundry and desperately wanting a patio to relax on and enjoy the weather and work simultaneously.

It's time for me to check in with those resolutions before I wander off for the remainder of the summer to Europe. E3 is in 14 days, so 14 more days of that madness and 43 days until I'm off to Europe for 42 days.

There's a lot of excitement and a lot of things to get ready for my trip and for the next 14 days. Plus I can't forget that Deven's pirate party will be the weekend immediately after E3.

sigh..............

Here I go as I jump into the madness that is Summer 2010, how exciting and tiring all in one. :)

If anyone has some great tips for Spain, France, Turkey or Germany, please feel free to comment. Our time in Spain will be mostly working but I'm always open into squeezing something worthwhile in there. Although, last time I went to Spain, I didn't feel like I got enough time at the beach. And...I think we're going to get a chance to go to Portugal with the summer camp. Should be fun!

Ahhhh summer! SATC 2 review will be posted soon, stay tuned!