Best Buddies – Sofia & Swirly after Sofia’s dance recital. How lucky am I?  Taken in Solvang, CA, May 21, 2005.

I depart tomorrow for a long-awaited vacation to Hawaii. My fiancee and I have taken all kinds of road trips, motrocycle adventures and excursions where I tag along on his business trips, but this is the first time since we’ve been together (about three and a half years) that we are taking a real VACATION. As in, pack bathing suits, snorkel gear, a sarong, a book and my watercolors. I am so excited and ready to just sit still and relax with my love.

We are two people who live our lives very much on the go. I don’t consider myself a huge planner – I actually feel more stressed out the more I have on my calendar – but we just happen to be a busy pair. Between our families, my friends, his friends, our friends and our friends’ kids – with birthday parties, dance recitals and the like – as well as our interests, our passions and, yes, all of our traveling, we juggle quite a lot in any given week. So often I feel like I get nothing done, yet I am always moving. And actually I manage to get quite a lot done, it is just that I tend to get a lot more smaller things done versus spending days on just one project, work or otherwise.

I will happily leave tomorrow morning without my laptop or cell phone (I actually tend to forget my cell phone most of the time anyway.) My main attire for the next week will be flip flops, a bathing suit, my new hat and a sarong. My main activity – doing nothing. Staring at the sea. Drawing. Sleeping. Wandering. If I’m lucky, swimming with giant turtles. That’s about it.

Until June…I’m off to a tiny island.