I am the oldest of three children and because of that I get into more arguments with m siblings than anyone I know. My sister is the kind that was always pretty and popular and had whatever she wanted and needed handed to her. My brother is head strong, and opinionated, and above all gay. There are issues between all of us. I became pregnant with my daughter when my sister was eighteen and in high school. By the time my daughter was born my sister was pregnant with my niece. The reason was because the attention was no longer on her. What a reason to get pregnant right? We all had the feeling that this was the reason why. Then she became a step mom to her boyfriend, now husband’s previous child. I’m not saying she is a bad mom but she does pawn her child off on other people in order to continue the teenage newly married lifestyle. I keep my niece once a month because that is the only way I can see her unless I want to travel to the town she lives in. My husband thinks she takes advantage of me but I really love my niece. My brother to me doesn’t have many flaws except he doesn’t help much around the house. It’s to be expected however with a young man living his dream. He will soon be headed back to New York where he feels at his best, because that is what he calls home.

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Traveling for Thanksgiving is not something everyone will be doing this year. The gas prices are soaring again and the plane tickets are overly priced. I tried to get the money together just to travel to Oklahoma and back and with the gas to get down there and the gas to drive around up there and then get back the dollar signs were soon getting larger than they had been.  I tried to make a budget to get to Oklahoma and back and use it to the best of my ability but the budget was beginning to bust. I don’t understand why I was the one nominated since the family in Oklahoma has no issues with money. So I tried to re do the budget and still get up there but the harder I try to stretch our money just for gas to get up there it still isn’t working. We would still have to get a motel to stay somewhere and have food for the entire weekend. I tried explaining this to my husband and of course he wants me to find a way because it is his family. I don’t understand why he isn’t getting the fact that a dollar can only stretch so far. However my budget revision will continue the rest of the night until tomorrow morning and we will decide Thanksgiving Eve whether we will be going or not

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I have heard that novelty is the key to happiness. By “novelty” I don’t mean the kind of skanky crap you get from novelty shops. Novelty in this case means freshness, new, different. By exposing yourself to new things, your brain gets to be stimulated. When your brain is stimulated it is firing more impulses to it’s neurons and releasing more endorphins, the “happy” chemicals. Traveling is a great brain stimulant. By exploring new places, you will be exposed to new and different scents, textiles, tastes and sights. Believe it or not, your brain likes to work. Processing all of these new sensory experiences helps your brain to increase function which helps you from feeling bored, lethargic, complacent and unhappy. If you can’t get around to traveling just yet, you can just do little things to make your brain happy. You can try new foods, take different ways to work, even just brushing your teeth with the other hand can exercise your brain. There is some hard chemistry and biology that supports all of this, but I’m just not gonna even try to get into that. You can. Another thing think that has been shown to make your brain happy is crying. Ever notice how much better you feel after a good cry? I haven’t. But that’s because I don’t cry. I hear it works though. It works because the tears you produce when your crying out of sadness or anger are actually comprised of different chemicals than those that you cry out of happiness. Happy tears are mainly just saline, but sad tears help to flush out all of the chemicals your brain produces when you get stressed or unhappy. Brains have enough chemicals in them to tan the hide of the animal it came from. Brain tanning is pretty popular in some places.

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WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. That translates to “cheap and easy ways to travel”. Wwoofing is a new phenomenon that is providing people of all ages the opportunity to travel and spend a substantial amount of time in a foreign country. Granted, it is more intriguing for 20 somethings who have graduated high school or college and have little to no responsibilities back home. The deal is basically this: you work on a small organic farm in exchange for room and board. You can choose from a list of host farms in various countries, get in touch, and go hang out. You would obviously pay all of your own travel expenses, but you get to eat and sleep for free…Well for farm work. This is a great way to delve into a community and really see what the region has to offer. Some of the hosts participate for cheap labor, but most participate because they are genuinly interested in promoting travel and/or organic ways of life. You will no doubt have to be okay with living a hard core hippie life style for a while, but hey, it’s an experience. Some farms have bunk houses and running water, while some only provide a place to set up a tent and let you eat what you can produce…or slaughter. You can usually stay on a farm for a week to a couple months. It is a cool way to explore a country and really get to know the people who live there.

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Hostels are great ways to travel. Well, it depends on the country and hostel. Can’t say that a hostel in Mumbai or Singapore is your best bet, but luckily, real hotels are cheap in most sketchy places. Websites like hostelworld.com are usually pretty good about givin ya the lowdown on hostels just about anywhere you might want to go. Most of the hostels I have stayed in go for around 10-12 U.S. dollars a day. Not only are they good for traveling on a budget, but you will meet lots of other travelers who turn into companions on tours or while visiting local attractions. If your lucky, and likable, you can make lots of cool friends from all over the world at hostels. That means you always have somewhere to stay whenever you go to whatever country your new friends are from. Lots of people who stay in hostels are traveling alone and welcome company so it’s easy to get to know folks. Also, if your at a hostel, chances are, you enjoy traveling. Likewise, everyone else around you does as well. Folks are usually pretty trade travel stories. This can give ya lots of ideas on where you may want to go next. One downside to stayin in hostels is that they can sometimes be loud. Generally you are sleeping on a twin bunk bed with lots of other people snoozin around you. There will inevitably be a snorer, sleep talker, farter, or a guy on the phone talking dirty to his girlfriend. Those variable just add to the experience though. Besides, when your traveling there is always a lot of transportation time when you can sleep. Planes, trains, cars, buses, etc… make for good sleepin time.

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I had always wanted to go to Africa. I’m not sure why. I didn’t know where in Africa I wanted to go. I really didn’t even care where. I just wanted to have my feet on Africa soil. I’ve always just been drawn to the continent. You know what you do when you really want to be somewhere? You go. At least thats what I decided when I was sitting at my desk while I was working part time at a small town newspaper. I just remember sitting there and looking around at all of my coworkers. One in particular. She was a middle aged woman who always looked like she had six or seven big, blue, sticky eyelashes and hangover eyeliner. I remember sitting at my desk and her coming up and telling me how she used to drink vodka in milk so her kid wouldn’t notice her drinking in front of him and she could still set a good example by drinking milk. Mmmk… Everyone else just looked so stressed out and softened. They say life hardens us, but I don’t buy that. Maybe in the old days we were hardened by life, but nowadays it looks to me like life turns us into unhappy little marshmallows. We get pale and pliable from sitting inside and being stressed all day. Anyways, I was at my desk learning how pouring alcohol in otherwise healthy beverages sets good examples for kids when I decided I was going to go to Africa.
I had made enough money for the trip that weekend working as a waitress at the horse races. I went onto Travelocity, found a flight to Cape Town, South Africa and booked it before I could talk myself out of it. Why Cape Town? I saw it on an animal rescue show in Animal Planet. I researched it after I made the purchase and it turns out that South Africa, Cape Town in particular, is considered the playground of Africa. One of the 10 best cities in the world as well. I got lucky. If Animal Planet would have been rescuing animals in the Congo, I might have ended up in a sticky situation. Point is, that if you really really want to go somewhere, don’t let anything hold you back. No one wants to be filled with regret.

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