Dear Readers,
My greatest apologies, this post was supposed to be the one for Friday and Friday’s post for today… I hope this will not cause too much confusion.
Enjoy!
The one thing I had decided long ago was that I wanted to go to the Caribbean for a few weeks of my holiday. Earlier circumstances had shifted my attention in this direction of the world and I was keen to check it out. In late 2010, I met with some old family friends Michael and Michelle whom I hadn’t seen since I was a ten year old. When we met it was just like no time had really passed (I’m sure Facebook helped with that a little:). They brought along their beautiful daughter Sarah who was only 6 months old when I’d seen her last and her now fiancé Myles. I clicked with them instantly and we had a lovely afternoon catching up on the last twenty years.
As the afternoon moved on I told them about my dream of going on a big overseas holiday as a kind of present to myself for my thirtieth birthday. They had half joked that I should seriously consider going to Costa Rica as their son and his family lived there and they might just be visiting then. I had considered several options for my holiday before remembering their offer. I got in touch with them only to discover that it was again perfect timing as they would not only be there but Sarah and Myles were also going to be there on vacation. So it was decided that I would spend part of my holiday in Costa Rica.
Throughout this whole process there was one friend I desperately wanted to visit however it just didn’t look like it would work out financially or practically. Despite the hurdles, I continued to think about how wonderful it would be to go and see her. Kelly was my ex-boyfriend’s house mate and as soon as we met we knew we would be lifelong friends. Kelly is originally from South Africa and after travelling the world for some years she decided to go back to study in Australia.
Just before we met, she had been living in the States with her Mum and Dad. Whilst living there she met Bobby and fell in love. It wasn’t long before he asked her to marry him and she excitedly accepted. After six long months apart, Kelly finished her studies and headed back to Cleveland, Ohio to get married.
We have kept in constant contact and she has been an amazing support to me often playing the role of Editor for my work. I missed my friend terribly as all of our conversations over the last two years had been in the form of email and Facebook. One day I decided to do another review of my finances and costs for flights only to discover that I was actually going to have more money than I thought. So I checked out some of my options and low and behold I could afford to fly to Cleveland to visit my friend. So I emailed her straight away and told her I was coming to stay for a few days and finally meet her precious little bundle Ella Mae. Kelly was as excited as I was and again it turned out the timing couldn’t have been better planned as it was her last week of maternity leave.
As I ticked another item on my wish list my mind went back to Chicago, the only city in the States that for some reason I really wanted to visit. Maybe it was because one of my idols Oprah was from there or maybe it was just a connection I couldn’t explain. I knew nothing about the city however wanted to go and see it anyway. Suddenly I noticed people talking about it and how great it was and all the things you could do there. So I investigated a little further and discovered that I could afford a few days to explore Chicago as well.
Until Next time,
Janie
