“A girl should be two things, classy and fabulous.”

Coco Chanel

I’m the mother of two crazy little dogs. Cooper, my Yorkie, is 7lbs of energy, and he rules the house. He does what he wants, when he wants, and doesn’t care what commands I’m giving him. I got Cooper as a puppy, and I’m the one who trained him. Oden, my Shih Tzu, a rescue I got when he was five years old, is the most affectionate dog, a true lap dog. He is so well behaved, and mannered. Probably a good thing I don’t have human kids.  : )

I am a diehard Patriots fan, and thanks to my dad, I also love the Yankees and Juventus. I don’t understand why Americans call soccer “soccer” and not football like the rest of the world. I love to ski, run, and golf. I find running in Arizona isn’t as fun as it was in the other states I’ve lived, so I’m trying to find something new. I’ve been researching the Peloton bike, but the cost of the bike and membership are holding me back from making the purchase. I’m sure I’ll take the plunge soon, as I still have a bit of a competitive streak in me from my ski racing days. I have a feeling riding that bike could be addictive.

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I love to cook and bake, and tend to use my co-workers, or a close friend as taste testers before I decide to add a new recipe to my collection. My conquest this year will be to learn how to make the perfect macaron, and prepare pasta dough. I know pasta dough is easy, my cousin showed me in Italy, but I have only been able to conquer gnocchi, the other pastas have not turned out well.

I am a second career nurse, who specializes in Neurosurgery. During my first career, at a team building retreat, we took the Myers-Briggs assessment. I don’t really remember all my scores, except one. I am an “off the chart” introvert according to the instructor. I remember this since she pulled me aside during a break to discuss my scores, and told me if I didn’t learn how to be, or at least fake being an extrovert in my business life, I would never be successful. So, I am an introvert who has become successful by learning to be comfortable being uncomfortable as an extrovert while at work. This doesn’t mean in my personal life I’m a loner, it means the perfect evening is a quiet dinner with a few friends, a night at some local pub, versus a loud nightclub, or big event. I do go to those places, but it’s rarely my first choice. With that said, I have no issues whatsoever presenting a topic to a large audience at work, I don’t fear giving presentations, I’ve trained myself well, that is how I’ve become successful.

Why blog? One day on Facebook I posted a favorite quote of mine that basically says, you should travel as much as you can because you can always make money, but not memories. A friend then commented “but what if you lose your memories?” He is right, what if I do lose my memories? I’ve traveled so many places, and I think I remember everywhere, but to be honest, I can’t remember all I’ve seen and done if asked to list them off. My cousin has been writing about his trips for years. I love when he travels. His blogs are in Italian, and I can get the gist of what he is saying, and I’m lucky to have my dad to fill in the gaps. I’ve always loved his stories, and how he journals about his travels, so I figured why not, let’s try this. Looking back at his posts he now has this wonderful history of all his adventures.

My first trip in my journey of blogging will be to Chile. South America will be the fifth continent I’ve traveled to. Now I just need Australia and Antarctica. I’ve always had Australia on my bucket list, and I’m hoping I get there eventually, but I never thought about going to Antarctica. Now I feel like I have to go, as it would be stupid to travel to six of seven continents. Right? For the past few weeks I’ve been researching trips to Antarctica, and now I’m fascinated by the idea of going. Antarctica is now on my bucket list.

I’ll know I found my soul mate when a man tells me one hundred reasons why we should travel across the ocean to explore a new place, like Antarctica, and not a single excuse why we shouldn’t. If he really wants to win my heart, he’ll buy me a Peloton bike for Christmas.

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