Vacation Envy

As my sister put it, I have vacation envy. A serious case of it. Every day I talk about wonderful trips and exotic locales, describing trips of a lifetime. I'll here about some dream destination or even the simplest trip, and my envy comes on.

I didn't realize I was suffering from such a serious disease. It causes lack of sleep while fantasizing about vacation locations, daydreaming at rather inappropriate times, and exercising while eating brownies, (that makes sense to me. I eat the brownie because I'm depressed about my travel drought and exercise because I don't want to be fat when I go on vacation. Definitely a vacation envy symptom.)

Pat Conroy said, “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.”

That is what my mind is like. At any given moment, a word or sound or smell will transport me to a far off place. When I cut a mango it will remind me of the Philippines, or when I see a turtle I will think of Barbados. If I hear certain words, my imagination bounces to all the places it could describe.

So I am suffering said disease, and wanted to apologize to all. No I haven't returned your calls, yes I was listening when you were talking (with at least one ear) and I'm sorry if I call you while you are on vacation just to see what you are doing.
I am happy to hear what people are up to, just ignore the little green monster on my shoulder who's frowning in your direction.



"...on some beach, somewhere..."

A Few of the Bottles

Here are a few of the bottles, mostly clean.

Dusty Old Bottles

I am a treasure hunter. Lost relics and pieces of history intrigue me, especially if I get a good deal. This past Saturday, I decided to trudge 45 minutes from my house to an estate sale. I would not normally go that far for an Arizona estate sale, but I had seen a picture on the Internet and decided it might be worth the drive. In New Hampshire, it was a favorite Saturday activity of mine to go for a drive and stop at estate sales and a choice few antique stores. Here in Arizona, most yard sales or estate sales are newer items, mostly worthless junk and worn out clothes.

Saturday was sunny and gorgeous, with very little traffic on the road. We arrived to find mounds of boxes piled in the driveway of this old ranch style house now surrounded by housing developments and drive through pharmacies. It brought to mind clips of TV shows about hoarders. Some of the stuff was pure junk, coated in layers of dirt and an unknown grime I labeled asbestos dust. Most of the boxes were still unopened and hadn't been touched in over 20 years. It was fun to kind of pick through the boxes and see what I could find. A few boxes looked like they belong to some nightmare show about headless dolls, while others were filled with lace. Bags and bags of lace. None of that really was interesting, but I did finally find a box at the back that had a bunch of bottles. Some are curvy shaped and others are cut glass with toppers.

(Ok, let's be honest, they are booze bottles mostly. Some held Bourbon and one has the definitive look of a moonshine bottle, but they are so cool. Tony is not certain it's a good idea to have empty liquor bottles in our house. He thinks people will assume we are closet drunks. I don't really care what they assume, and anyway I will probably end up selling them at some point.)

I was hoping that I could talk the lady into no more than $10 for the box of 9, but I was sly and let her offer what she thought was a fair price. She let me get away with the lot for $2.50. Crazy! Now, many of you may think they are just a box of dirty grimy empty bottles, but old bottles like this sale at antique stores for quite a bit. I am still working on cleaning them, but I feel quite satisfied to have found a treasure.

I am encouraged to maybe attend a few more estate sales here.