Gifts For Traveler in Your Life

Dear Sarah Von,
My bestie is about to embark on an epic six month trip. Of course, we're throwing her a going-away party and each of us is on a quest to give her The Best Gift Ever. But what do you give to someone who can only take things that fit in her backpack? And that backpack is already almost full?

Good question, friend! I like to fancy myself a great gift giver, but it's hard to know what to give someone who's got limited space, isn't it?

A few ideas?

* An extra camera battery or memory card
These are a) always overpriced on the road b) always running out. Just be sure to sneak a peak at their camera and get something that's compatible!

* Skype credit
So they can call you on the land line at your parents' house.

* A Pro Account on Flickr
The free accounts are limited to 200 photos and surely they'll take that many at Angkor Wat alone!

* Make a podcast of all your friends sharing stories and sending them good wishes
They can listen to it when they're stuck in a dirty hostel in Rio, trying to drown out the noise of that couple making out in the next bunk.

* A solid version of their favorite perfume/cologne
The solid version will last longer and get through customs without any trouble. Annnnd it'll help them smell human after taking the overnight bus to Saigon.

* Packing Cubes
Friends don't let friends travel without packing cubes. I promise, they will name their first-born after you if you give them these.

* A Really Good Travel Journal
In my mind, a good travel journal is slim (not bulky or spiral bound) comes with a place to tuck a pen, and is water resistant - but your mileage may vary.

* Tiny Luxuries
When I travel, I usually frequent developing countries and find myself washing my clothes in buckets and walking around behind gaseous mules. After two months of this, I will start to fall apart and want to blow $200 on a fancy hotel with nice sheets and hot water. I imagine many backpackers are the same. Give you friend a bit of luxury to take with them: a gorgeously scented travel candle, lush bar shampoo, a silky cami, fancy cuticle cream - anything that's small, fancy and nicely-scented will do.

What gifts do you give to the travelers in your life? What would you like to receive?
Got the travel bug?  Check out my ebooks and podcasts on making long-term travel a reality!  Only $15 forpetessake!

A Girl And Her Glasses

When I was nine years old, my third grade teacher noticed that I spent an inordinate amount of time a) coloring exactly inside the lines b) squinting at the chalkboard. I was accordingly shuttled to the optometrist, spent several minutes eyeballing one very large E and eventually diagnosed with 20/400 vision.

What? Yes.

That's nigh-on legally blind, y'all.

So I spent the better part of my elementary school career hidden behind the giant-grandma glasses of the early 90s. (I believe mine were light purple with some lovely gold molding where the arms connected to the lenses). When junior high approached and it became clear I was also destined for orthodontia, I put my foot down and announced that having braces and glasses simultaneously was simple unacceptable! I would have none of it!

So seventh grade found me inserting gas permeable contacts into my very weak eyes - a habit I continue to this day. I very, very rarely wear my glasses and almost never in public. In my mind, glasses are tied to questionable perms, pastel sweatsuits and the most singularly awkward time in my life. I don't feel like a sexy secretary or a hot-for-teacher. I feel like I'm going to get a dodge ball in the face. When men hit on me while I'm wearing glasses, I get all "Umm, what? Can you not see that I'm unattractive right now? Am I on a hidden camera show?"

I know that glasses are extraordinarily hip at the moment and heaps of people are wearing them for the sake of fashion. Do you wear glasses - prescription or no? How do you feel about them?

Fun Activities That Also Happen To Be Good Workouts

Confession: I don't particularly enjoy trundling along on the stair climber at the Y or grunting my way through lunges while avoiding eye contact with frat boys. However. I also don't particularly enjoy grunting my way through zipping up my pants. You don't either? Weird!

Now that it's summer I enjoy a good frolic much more than an aerobics class. There are heaps of things to do that are fun and - what luck! - a good work out.

Tree climbing
How long has it been since you've done this? Too long, I reckon. It's a great upper body workout, oddly calming and fun and you can drop pine cones at passers-by-if you're a jerk like me.

Dancing

Of course. Of course! Current (terrible, embarrassing, irresistible) dance favorites of mine include: Break Your Heart, Your Love is My Drug, Sexy Chick. It's so, so easy to create a playlist and engage in a one-person dance party for twenty minutes. Bonus points if you try to incorporate The Roger Rabbit, The Cabbage Patch or, um, marching.

If you're feeling reeeeaaally kicky, why not try to learn the Thriller dance?

Hula Hooping
This probably falls under the heading of 'old news,' but hula hooping is great for your abs and butt and, I suspect, it generally makes you a sexier person. See? It's cheap to get started and you can do it in your living room. Much to the amusement of your cat.

Roller Skating
No, not roller blading, roller skating. I find old-fashioned, slightly clunky roller skates so undeniably cute I want to smother every skater I see in hugs. Roller skating is fun, easy and a great work out for your legs and butt.

And again? Oddly sexy.

Tag
No props required, no complicated rules, lots of great cardio. Yes!

Doin' it
Apparently you can burn about 150 calories from a 30 minute roll in the hay. Significantly more fun that half on hour on the elliptical next to that sweaty guy who always sings along with his Ipod, eh?

Playing with kiddos
Picking them up, swinging them around, wrestling them into their jeans? All of that activity adds up. I also imagine that hunting for special blankies, wiping snotty noses and breaking up hair-pulling-matches burns a lot of calories, too.

Sledding
I envy those of you in the southern hemisphere who can still find a hill to slide down. The sliding part isn't much exercise, but trundling back up in all your boots and gear certainly is, isn't it? Also? Yelling your head off as you careen down the hill probably burns calories, too.

Picking fruit
Climbing ladders, yoinking apples off branches, bending over in strawberry bushes - all a good work out. And isn't it lovely to get outside, meet new people, and say hello to your food before you eat it?

What are you doing to stay active this summer? What are your favorite fun workouts?

For The Love of Mustaches?

You guys. Can we talk about mustaches? Let's. Based on a "survey" (read: walking around Minneapolis's hippest neighborhood/trolling the interwebz constantly) we seem to be on the tail end of a full-blown mustache obsession. A few weeks ago I even went on a date with competition-level hipster who sported a mustache.

I did not inquire as to whether it was ironic or not.

I suspect I could write a Master's thesis on the revival of the mustache. The mustache has the ability to seem both hilarious/over-the-top (I'm looking at you, 70s porn. And I'm also looking at you, slightly creepy neighbor) and also oddly sexy and sneaky (like a comic book spy? or maybe a tiny French man who buys you absinthe and is the best kisser you've ever met?).

These lip-brows are everywhere these days! They're like the Chinese-symbol-tattoos of our time. Look!

Is it weird that I find this kind of sexy?!
(don't answer that.)

Again with the oddly sexy.

Adorable or annoying?

This is for when you want to punch people and
leave them with mustache-shaped imprint on their
foreheads. A common occurrence for me.

Yes. please.

Seriously. Mustaches: what's the deal?
Are you pro or con?
Funny and tongue-in-cheek or painfully over-played?

True Story: I Was Raised By Deaf Parents

This is just one of our many True Story interviews, in which we talk to people who have been through interesting/challenging/amazing things. My fantastic friend Lovel (who I visited during Mardi Gras) has been kind enough to tell us about life growing up with two deaf parents. Amazing, no?

How did your parents meet?
They were both going to the deaf schools here in Louisiana. My dad was going to the black deaf school and my mom was going to the white one. Yes, there were two deaf schools and yes there was still segregation. Silly, I know. But the year they were in 11th grade, the two schools integrated and that's how they met each other. My dad was the dope-dealing black football star and my mom was this nerdy pious white girl. They started dating shortly after the schools merged and somewhere late in their senior year they got pregnant with me.

Is there a particularly large deaf population in Lafayette? Why?
I don't think it's particularly large, but when both your parents are deaf you tend to know anyone and everyone who's deaf in this town. Most deaf people here come from generations of deaf relatives intermarrying or marrying hearing cousins - my grandparents were 5th cousins. (Thankfully my mom broke with tradition and married well outside her family allowing me and my brother to be hearing.) Because of this, Lafayette has a strong deaf community with many deaf events and several deaf organizations. Of course, this leads to more people moving to this area and more families having kids who are deaf. It's a cycle that's true in a lot of small cities with sizable minority communities.

Did you learn to sign or speak first?
Definitely sign, as my mother reminds me all the time. All babies would learn to sign first, as they don't have the vocal structures conducive to speech. It's easier for them to express themselves with their hands. They're not going to be preforming Shakespeare, but they can say "food" or "drink" or "I pooped my pants come clean this!" (Okay that last one's a stretch it's mostly the word for "poop", which is making the "B" sign in the air, and waving it back and forth)

How old were you when you realized that your parents were different?
Kindergarten. Up until I went to school, the only other kids I hung out with were the kids of my parents' deaf friends. They, like me, were hearing but their parents were deaf so we were exactly alike. But when I got to Maurice Elementary I was the only one in that situation and was quickly besieged with questions about 'what was wrong' with my parents. It wasn't until I got a bit older when I realized just how different my family was and just how hard it was living with deaf parents.

How did having deaf parents effect you and your brother?
For one thing, it gave us a unique skill set that looks great on a resume! It's also made us more tolerant. But for the most part, I'd have to say it forced us to grow up a lot quicker than our peers. Being dragged everywhere your parents went so that you could interpret for them (everything from doctor's appointments to bankruptcy court) tends to have that effect. I was learning how to spell appendectomy long before I mastered the word house. We were part of very grownup things and witnessed all those painfully boring things adults do behind closed doors that most people never see until they're in college. It's definitely prepared me for the paperwork that is involved with adulthood. It's a blessing and a curse.

How did people in the community react to your family?
They had no problem with the whole deaf thing, they had more of a problem with the whole interracial-relationship thing (small town in Louisiana.) Everyone knew my dad because he worked for the city doing maintenance and water treatment. Being the very congenial guy that he is, he quickly grew on everyone. Granted, most people thought he was dumb because he was deaf. When he quickly passed all the certification and finished all his work before everyone else they stopped being quite so friendly and were a bit more envious.

People also thought we were a lot poorer than we actually were. I remember that every year around Thanksgiving the local Catholic church (which we never went to because we went to the all-deaf Catholic church) would bring us a basket of "fixin's" never knowing that we already had a full pantry because my mother had gone shopping that very same day to get ready for the feast. We always took the basket graciously and then laughed very hard after we had closed the door. Why should we correct them on their ignorance? As long as it made them feel good that they had done a kind thing!

What are the benefits of being raised by deaf parents?
I got to experience another culture than most people never see. Deaf culture is a very vibrant and dynamic entity, mostly because their language is always changing and new words are always being invented. The culture is hugely varied and very complex. From the power of deaf poetry and performance art, to the little known cult of promiscuity that exists, and to the major deaf organizations in every town and every state - it's a many and varied thing.

Also, like I said before, I was granted privy to many adult things long before I needed to know about them. I understood how to set up a bank account and why I needed to start saving early and planning for retirement and even how to buy a house. I knew all of this at age 14 and it's stuck with me ever since.

Any advice for those of us interacting with deaf people for the first time?
When a deaf person says "I'm deaf" (as opposed to "I can't hear you") please do not shout at the deaf person. If you shout, two thing will happen:
1) The deaf person will look at you like you're a complete moron
2) You will feel like a complete ass because the deaf person still doesn't understand what you're saying and now you've just revealed your ignorance.

When a deaf person says "I'm deaf" just smile hold up your index finger, indicating that you want them to wait, and pull out a piece of paper and a pen. It will be a lot easier for both of you to communicate this way.

Also? When you see people communicating in sign language, please don't stare. It's okay to politely glance and be intrigued, but please do not continue to gawk at them. It's really uncomfortable to talk to someone while another person is staring at you, and 9 times out of 10 the signers will start talking about you and you wouldn't like what they'd have to say.

Do any of you have deaf friends or family members? Any questions for Lovell?

Wanderlust Set To Music

This video makes me long for sticky mango rice, served by street vendors. Have you ever been to Thailand? I was there for three weeks in 2007 and have fond memories of golden temples, colorful hidden alleys and, um, ladyboys.

A Public Service Announcement

Last week, a good friend's father passed away from melanoma. Skin cancer! Both my dad and my grandpa had bits of skin cancer removed, but I (foolishly) never regarded it as "real" cancer.

It is, of course, real cancer.

As we're nearing sun season, let's promise to be diligent with the SPF. And SPF 15 is so 2001! SPF 30 protects you better - and longer - and keeps you looking like a 19-year-old forever.

Other ways to protect yourself?

* get a body scan (I've got an appointment for one next week!)
* wear hats when you're outside

* avoid being outside for extended periods between 11 am - 3 pm, when the sun's the strongest

* use this as an excuse to buy a million flowing, gauzy swimsuit cover-ups
* Do like a kiwi and slip, slop, slap and wrap

How diligent are you about sun protection?

In Which I Prove That You Can't Take Me Anywhere

Last week my amazing friend Laura launched a new line of bags, named lovingly after her fiance. To celebrate said line, Laura threw a fancy shindig at the W7 Collective - a lovely space that hosts events and showcases local talent and provides an opportunity for beautiful people to mingle with other beautiful people.

Now. Here is something you should know about me: I'm not really a schmoozer. Sure, I'm painfully pleasant and I love to throw my own parties, but rooms full of fancy near-strangers? Well, it's not necessarily my forte.

And what I have discovered is that my party demeanor? It has not changed or improved one iota over the last 25 years. You can dress me up and add a bit of eyeliner and tuck me in amongst beautiful movers and shakers and I will still behave the same way as I did when I was 8 years old and stuck at a church-basement potluck. Or when I was 15 and frequenting some boy/girl birthday party. Or when I was 22 and bopping around a discotheque in the south of Brazil.

Awesome coping mechanisms include but are not limited to:

* finding the odd-person-out at the party (the sci-fi-loving wallflower, somebody's aunt, the dog) and inadvertently engaging them in a deep-and-meaningful conversation. In this case, I spent a good half an hour discussing South American jeep travel with Laura's 60-year-old dad. Hot blond hipster dude? I see you there, trying to catch my eye. You'll have to excuse me. I'm very busy talking about tinted windows and one-lane roads with this grey-haired gentleman.

* avoiding eye contact/interaction with any dudes that are checking me out or attempting to hit on me. Yep, I'm friends with Laura. (stare into drink and nod) Yeah, her purses are great. (look into the middle distance and sigh audibly) No, I don't like Joanna Newsom. I think she's painfully twee. (purse lips and examine shoes). Why, Sarah? Why?!

* eating entirely too much food. You guys? There were three different wheels of cheese there! And gourmet chocolates. And wine and beer. Obviously I had to stand next to the cheese, saw off several hand-sized chunks and then mow on it while avoiding eye contact with the dude who was try to hit on me.

And then maybe I dropped a little bit on the carpet. And then maybe I ignored the fact that I dropped a little bit on the carpet. And then maybe I noticed my friend seeing me ignore the dropped cheese.

* acting shy and embarrassed when lovely people give me compliments. When I was six this meant that I'd twist my bows and glare when church ladies complimented my singing. These days, when I'm introduced to cool, important editors who read Yes and Yes, I stammer and down-play and attempt to hide behind my scarf. What?! Yes.

* announcing how much an outfit cost when someone comments on it. When I was 16, I'd reveal this information other 10th graders. Now, I choose to tell style editors that I got this vintage dress for $6 at Goodwill. And the boots were $3 at that really dicey Salvation Army in Frogtown.

Good lord, I can't take me anywhere.

How do you do at cocktail parties full of strangers? Have you developed any social graces as you've grown up?

*p.s. if you ever see me in real life, do come up and say hello! I'll do my best not to hide behind my scarf!

Garden Girl

I often view life as a series of opportunities for new outfits. Going to the rodeo? What's up, checkered shirt and cowboy boots!? Oh hello, oil change! Now I have an excuse to wear that mechanic's jumper and tie my hair up all Rosie-the-riveter style.

So when I was lucky enough to score a tiny plot in a nearby community garden I immediately started a) assembling outfits b) planning meals. (boyfriend jeans! rubber clogs! big straw hats! 8 million different things involving basil!) I'm already flush with pots just waiting to be filled with herbs and tomatoes and lettuce, oh my!

I suspect all those potted herbs on my balcony will bring me even more joy if they're in adorable pots like these!

If all you've got is a balcony check out this great, basic tutorial on how to start a container garden. This year I'm thinking of basil, (homemade pesto!) mint (strawberry mint lemonade!) and chives (creamy, lush vichyssoise). And they all look so lovely sitting outside my office window!

And if you're raring to go and don't want to spend the money on seedlings, use this tutorial to make make seed starter cups. So cute!

Window boxes aren't limited to herbs and cherry tomatoes. What about strawberries in a window box? Of course, you probably won't grow enough to make a pie. But you could probably make a daiquiri or two!

Aren't vertical gardens amazing? And, um, really expensive? If you're feeling ambitious and handy, you can follow this tutorial on making a vertical succulent garden.

Item number 11 on my 31 before 31 list is engage in Guerrilla Gardening. It would be even easier if I lived near one of these rehabbed gumball machines that dispenses seed bombs! Adorable, right?

Are you a gardener? What are you planting this year?

31 New Things: Get A Piece of Freelance Writing Published

When I was eight years old, I announced to my parents that I wanted to be a writer. Okay, I was actually aiming for some sort of writer/ballerina/lion-tamer hybrid, but I was pretty sure that I wanted the written word to be part of my future. And over the last few years I've edited my university's literary journal, interned at a newspaper, did my time at an ad agency writing press releases for Michael Bolton concerts (yes. really.) and now I blather daily on the interwebz.

However.

I've never engaged in real, true freelance writing. Pitches and connections and angles, oh my! I just want to wander into my editor's office and be all "So. Half page on cheap summer fun, eh? Cool."

When I chose this goal for part of my 31 before 31 list, I was rather intimidated. Truly, I registered for a stripper-size class months before I started looking up editors' email addresses.

But then! Like a fairy godmother dressed in Gucci and Prada, Danai Christoloulou appeared on my horizon. In addition to being adorable and painfully talented, Danai is a senior editor at the Greek edition of Glamour magazine. We've been twitter buddies for nearly a year now, retweeting each other and swooning over cat photos. So I couldn't have been more thrilled when Danai asked if I'd condense my post on surviving a breakup for translation in the March issue.

What?! Yes please! All the glory with none of the gore!

(p.s. not wearing any makeup in that photo. mistake?)

And so it was with baited breath and sweaty little hands that I ripped open my copy yesterday and saw my article tucked amongst those glossy pages. I literally whooped and promptly made several color copies for my grandmas. Of course, I can't actually read said article, as it's all Greek to me (oh hush, you knew that pun was coming). But I couldn't be more thankful for such a fantastic opportunity.

Now, if I can just work up the nerve to send a pitch to an editor of the American edition of Glamour ...

I know many of you are writers! Please - share your tips/secrets/stories!

Stormy Weather

It's nearly thunder storm season, isn't it? I love cuddling up with a cup of tea and a good book and listening to the rain on the roof. Or pulling out those wellingtons and going puddle jumping. Or watching the storm roll in across the lake when I'm visiting the family.

Lovely things to do during a rainstorm?
* make soup
* make out
* count the seconds between thunderclaps and lightening flashes
* run around outside
* make paper boats to sail down the storm drain
* read this tutorial on photographing lightning
* listen to moody music (I love this piano cover of Where Is My Mind) and bask in self-induced angst

Do you love summer thunder storms? How do you while away those wet hours?

True Story: I'm a Female Wildfire Fighter

This is part of our True Story series, in which we meet interesting, inspiring, amazing people and hear their stories. This is Gina's story. Her honest-to-God job title is 'Hot Shot.' Fantastic, right?!

How did you get into fire fighting?

I always wanted to be a firefighter, it seemed exciting to me. I like to be outside, lift heavy things and sleep on the ground! In college I got a job with the forest service working on trails. My first week on the job, they asked if I wanted to get my red card (training, and necessary qual for forest fires) I said absolutely!

The training is a week long. I learned about the different types of fire crews there, and I remember the instructor saying hotshots were the top dogs, had the most difficult, demanding, scary job and that you had to really prove yourself in order to be a hotshot. I was sold I didn't want to mess around with anything else! However, hotshot crews don't hire people without previous fire experience. I returned home from training to Logan where the Logan Hotshots are based. I walked in and told the supervisor I wanted to be a hotshot and they should keep me in mind if they needed anyone. The VERY next day I was doing a 14 mile hike across the Wellsville moutains. When I returned to my car, I had a note saying the Hotshots were looking for me! They had another woman on the crew get injured and they needed a replacement....they were headed to a fire that day. They thought of me because I had just been in there the day before.

Well, I didn't even have fire boots (logging style boots) yet, so I ended up wearing my bosses boots (I have a size 6 foot, he wears god knows what) but I wasn't going to complain - I wanted this so bad. We arrived at the incident near Provo, Utah at about 10pm that night. We ended up working a 40 hour straight shift, digging fireline (similar to digging trenches, chain gang stuff....!) I think I fell asleep standing up leaning on my tool at one point.

My feet were covered in blisters and the helicopter that was suppose to pick us up at the top of the mountain broke down and we had to walk miles out. This was probably the single hardest I ever had to do but I felt like I could handle anything after that! The crew liked me and hired me permanently after that. I also met my husband that night! How cool it that!?

How difficult is it to become a hot shot?
Hotshotting is hard, dirty work, you have to be prepared to drop EVERYTHING at a moment's notice, knowing you might not return home for 2 weeks at a time. We generally work 16 hours a day for 14 days straight, come home for 2 days and repeat! You sleep on the ground nearly every night and you eat shitty food from Sysco or Military rations...energy to keep you going consists of cookies, chips, white bread sandwiches etc.....You dig trenches or run chain saws and hike over steep terrain (fires are never on flat ground, right!?) all day long.

Forget about 8 hours of sleep, get used to 4-6. You have to be able to carry 45 pounds over rough terrain all day, do 7 pull-ups, and run a mile and a half in 10:30 minutes. Most importantly you have to have a hell of a sense of humor. By the end of the summer you are physically and mentally spent. You have to be extremely comfortable with being VERY uncomfortable. But there is a weird sense of peace there though - knowing what you are capable of enduring.

What are your co-workers like? How many women do this?
Your co-workers are what makes the job worthwhile. They are a bunch of (guys generally) that are so full of life, energy, and enthusiasm. Most are early 20's and not married yet. They are very adventurous and everyone swaps stories about the different countries they visited over the winter months. Many do ski patrol work or are students in the off season (Nov-April). There are not many woman, I was the only one at my station this past year, but some years there are a few. You have to get used to a lot of "man talk": women, balls, and dirty movies.

Tell us about an average day when you're fighting fires?
Wake up 5 am, take 10 minutes to pack your stuff up, eat breakfast, dig/cut/hike until dark. We remove vegetation with hand tools and chain saws in order to stop the fire. Sometimes we use drip torches or fusses to light back fires. This is very effective in light vegetation to stop a fire. When a fire runs out of oxygen or fuel it goes out. Usually we eat lunch sometime mid-day and then keep working. At dark, you return to wherever camp is, eat dinner and bed down.

What do you do in the off season?
In the off season I like to travel. I do a lot of biking, hiking, camping and exploring. My husband and I have been on several multi-day self-supported bike trips. We like to find the sun, so we spend a lot of time in Arizona. We've been to Mexico, Italy, The Bahamas, the Florida Keys,and all over the US during out off seasons. I also teach Yoga, personal train and work as a chef during the winter.

Have you ever been in any really dangerous situations?
Anytime you're dealing with Mother Nature things can get dangerous. Some of the biggest killers during fires are actually car accidents, helicopter crashes and falling trees. We have been run out by fires, having to get to our "safety zone" (already burned areas or large mineral soil areas that can't burn) seen trees fall right in front of us and have to fly in helicopters quite a bit. I've been on many fires where fatalities occurred.

Do you plan on doing this forever?
Absolutely not! I am 32 years old and I am getting tired! Last year I had to pee in a big gulp cup in the back of a truck with 10 dudes because they wouldn't stop - that was a turning point for me! I am hoping to get a personal chef business going. I make vegan and raw food. and I'm very interested in yoga and nutrition.

What are the benefits of living this life style?
I have seen some many places I would have never ever seen otherwise. I spent 2 weeks on the Salmon River, I've been to Alaska and I've seen wilderness areas in all the western states. If you like the outdoors, it is an amazing way to see the country! I also really enjoy having 6 months off a year. If you live simply you can stretch your money for the whole Winter.

What advice would you give to anybody looking to get into fire fighting?
Practice hiking with a big heavy pack! Check out www.usajobs.opm.gov. There are a million fire jobs just waiting to be filled every year. It's good if you're young and don't have big family commitments, but not impossible if you do. You just need an understanding spouse.

Would any of you be interested in hotshotting? Any questions for Gina?

Sidewalk Wisdom

Last Summer, the sidewalks were torn up in my neighborhood to repair some rather ancient pipes. And when they replaced the pavement, the city of St. Paul imprinted poems into the fresh cement. Isn't that fantastic?! Now that the snow and ice are finally gone, we can see these lovely verses again. I love walking to the coffee shop and passing these.

I Told You So

How To Plan A World Tour

Dear Sarah Von,

So I'm just sorta starting to plan a MEGA TRIP, my first mega trip,actually, and thus far its looking like I'm going to be travelling on my own. Which, I'm fine with, but the thought of planning such a megatrip seems like such a gargantuan task, that I just don't know where to start! I was hoping that you might have a couple of handy hints?

Save A Lot of Money And Then Establish A Budget
I know I'm blowing your mind here, right? Wow, saving money for a big trip? Sarah Von, you financial wizard, you!

There's no hard and fast formula that will help you calculate how much money you need to save for a big trip. Obviously, your spending habits, the countries you're traveling through, where you're staying and how long you're staying there all effect the bottom line, right? I traveled for five months in 2007 and it cost me around $7,000 - flights included. However! I traveled through really cheap countries (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia) volunteered in exchange for lodging (Greece) worked (Italy) and stayed with friends (Germany, Scotland, Wales, NYC).

However much money you think you'll need? It's probably a good idea to save at least 20% more than that. One of the cardinal rules of travel is that everything takes longer and costs more than you planned. Best to be prepared, eh? Here's a post I wrote about saving up for big ticket items.

Though I don't do this, I know many travelers establish a daily budget and don't stray from it. I traveled with a couple in Bolivia who did this and got by on $30 US a day between the two of them. They survived mostly on hostel dorm rooms and street vendor food, but it worked for them!

Figure Out Where You Want To Go
This sounds rather elementary, no? But there are different ways to approach a 'mega trip.' If you're just looking to get the eff out of dodge and see a bit of world, your best bet might be a ready-made world ticket, with the itinerary already in tact.

Here's one for San Francisco – Hong Kong – Bangkok – Bombay / Mumbai – Bangalore – Singapore – San Francisco starting at $1,600. And here's one for New York – Frankfurt – Cape Town – Kuala Lumpur – Bali (Denpasar) – Singapore – Bangkok – Hong Kong – New York starting at $2,000. There are heaps of world ticket booking companies that sell these pre-designed trips and they're usually the cheapest option.

Of course, you can also design a world ticket on your own. It's usually more expensive, but that way you'll surely be able to see the World Cup, Angkor Wat aaaannnnd the inside of your Aunt Josie's suburban McMansion. I used TripPlanner to book my last world ticket and was quite impressed with them.

Other things that you should consider when choosing countries to visit: What's the exchange rate? How safe is it? Will you like the food? How will the locals react to someone of your race/gender/sexual preference/faith? How's the weather? Do you know anybody there? Do you speak their language? What percentage of them speak your language? Is it easy to get around?

Sort Out Visas
In the event that you don't know, a visa is not just a type of credit card. It's also a document that some governments require travelers to have in order to enter a country. (Though, really! How confusing is it that a credit card company has the same name?!)

Visa requirements vary from country to country and depend largely on your home country's relationship with the country you're visiting. When I was traveling through Bolivia, I had to pay $120 for a visa - but none of the Canadians or Japanese travelers had to. Sometimes you can get a visa at the border. Sometimes you have to organize it in advance. Sometimes the expiration on your visa starts ticking as soon as it's issued, sometimes it's not activated till your passport is stamped at the border. Make sure you understand the rules and regulations affiliated with all of your visas when you're applying for them! Obviously, this can be especially hard when you're traveling through many countries. But maybe not as hard as trying to make hiking boots work with every outfit.

Getting visas is a bit of a pain, can be expensive and involve a lot of paper work. Just google "tourist visa (country your going to)" and you should find that country's immigration website which will detail the visa application process.

Get The Immunizations
Yes, really. It's super important and despite what everyone says, Yellow Fever isn't sexy. This website can tell you which countries require which immunizations. It's also a good idea to carry copies of your immunization records with you, or scan them and store them online. You might need them at border crossings.

Familiarize Yourself With The Language
If you're traveling through Europe or Southeast Asia, you can get by on English. But South America? Well, most people speak Spanish. Do a bit of research on the countries that you're visiting and if one of them has a noted lack of English speakers, do your best to brush up on "Where is the_____?" "How much is this?" "Thank you" etc in the native language. You can even learn languages for free on this BBC website!

Of course, if all else fails, most people speak the international language of "smiling and nodding."

Figure Out What You Want To Do When You Get There
As tempting as it is compulsively schedule every minute of your trip, resist the urge, friends. It's only going to send in blisters and tears. Read up on the countries that you're going to and choose a few absolutely-can't-miss things that you simply must do and see. When I went to Peru and Bolivia for three months I had a list of twelve things I wanted to do and see.

This miiiiiggght strike you as an overly laid-back approach to travel, but whoever said that famous thing about the journey vs. the destination wasn't pulling your leg. Once you're back in your first world condo, some of your fondest memories of your trip will probably be relatively mundane things - sitting by The Perfume River and drinking Vietnamese coffee, or eating Cheetos topless on a beach in Greece, or riding on the back of a motorbike through Bangkok. And you might remember The Louvre, too.

Over scheduling will stress you out, wind you up and exhaust your resources. Buying tickets, navigating public transport, reading maps, waiting in line - all these things take a lot of time and a lot of patience. I would recommend limiting yourself to two sites/outings/adventures per day. And make sure you allow yourself the occasional day of hanging out in the air conditioned hostel, watching DVDs and skyping!

Create A Packing List
Of course, what you pack will vary hugely, depending on where you're going. The weather, culture, your planned activities will all effect what's inside that backpack. Here's my comprehensive packing list (for long-term, slightly adventurous travel). Here's a packing list for a beach vacation and here's one for a cold weather trip. Here's an excellent article on packing for India which would be helpful for anyone going to a conservative, hot, developing country.

Be Realistic
You are going to have so much fun. So much fun! I promise.

However.

You will also eat things that disgust you. You'll spend too much money. You will be over charged. You will sleep poorly in dorm rooms because people are constantly going through their bags/drunkenly turning on the light at 3 am/crawling into each others bunk beds and making out.

We put a lot of pressure on ourselves when we're traveling to have The Best Time Ever. And you will! But it's not going to be like that every minute of every day. Many days it'll just be "So. I'm in Vietnam. Yup." That's okay! But you'll be better emotionally prepared if you realize this. You need to practice some Travel Zen!

Have any of you ever traveled for long periods of time? Any more advice for our friend?
Got the travel bug?  Check out my ebooks and podcasts on making long-term travel a reality!  Only $15 forpetessake!

Your Surrender Is Significant

In addition to travel, cat outfits and living life on your own terms, I feel really strongly about media and gender and body image. Lovely, lovely Holly from Eating a Tangerine wrote this fantastic guest post. Let's remember that we're all in this together. I'm part of Team Female. Aren't you?

To my fellow females:

For every one of you who capitulates to unfair standards of beauty, it is THAT MUCH HARDER for the rest of us to resist.

When you deny yourself food when you are hungry, when you call yourself names, when you spend way too much money on clothing and makeup, when you let yourself feel guilty for eating dessert, when you spend more time and money than you can afford to on bringing your appearance into line with The Man's dictates, IT AFFECTS US TOO.

It affects me. It affects my friends. It affects my younger sister and my little cousins.

Stop judging your worth by your appearance, like you're some collector's doll or a show dog. Stop doing things that you think are stupid just because it's culturally mandated. Stop accepting standards of beauty without asking where they come from, what they signify, what you think of them. Stop, stop, stop.

Don't you see, this heaviness you feel, we all feel it and for us part of the heaviness is what you have added by complying? And yes, some of your heaviness is my fault. It belongs to me too.

Your compliance is significant. Your surrender carries weight. Your capitulation is not just personal.

I am angry, yes. At myself too.

I'm going to keep saying no to all this bullshit, even when it hurts and it's really tiring. I'm going to look my reflection in the eye even when it's all wrong, and I'm not going to say that I FEEL FAT like "fat" is an actual emotion. I'm not going to idolize women who are clearly sick, or saturate my life with images of them. I'm going to eat as much as I need and I'm going to keep it down, and I'm going to do what I want to do even when I'm not confident in my appearance.

I don't want to come off like I'm saying I'm a saint, somehow stronger than all this and above all this; frankly I cannot deal with myself and these pressures sometimes and please, I still struggle with disordered eating to an extent; I know what poison is like.

But I need this defiance even more. I need to know that I am not making this society any more oppressive for those of us born with two X chromosomes.

And you see, the flip side is this: if your surrender means something, then your defiance means even more.

Living within the lie can constitute the system only if it is universal ... therefore everyone who steps out of line denies it in principle and threatens it in its entirety ... As soon as the alternative appears, it threatens the very existence of appearance and living a lie in terms of what they are, both their essence and their all-inclusiveness. And at the same time, it is utterly unimportant how large a space this alternative occupies: its power does not consist in its physical attributes but in the light it casts on those pillars of the system and on its unstable foundations.- Václav Havel

So if you decide to give the finger to The Man and his beauty culture, I'll be there with you. We can stand together and wave at the horizon and tell each other when we notice each other starting to cave, and then help hold each other up. You won't be there alone. Promise.

love and defiance,
HOLLY.

Idol Hands

I'm not always great at being traditionally Girly. I only learned how to walk in high heels in the last year (and by "high heels" I mean "2-inch wedges"), my eyeliner application skills are still developing and I will totally wear the same outfit three days in a row if I'm seeing different people. It's just been in the last year that I've embraced the glory that is The Cheap Manicure. I love spending a Saturday thrifting with the BFF, nomming on Vietnamese salads and then getting our nails did. And we can usually swing all of the above for under $30. How awesome are we?!

Of course, I favor the tacky, thematic manicure (neon pink with rhinestones for Vegas, green and purple for Mardi Gras, gold with rhinestones for, um, daily life?). Let's take a gander at some manicures that probably need to be replicated this summer!

How amazing is this manicure?! Yes, I'd like
mirrors on my fingers, thankyouverymuch.

Of course grey nails look cute and non-corpse-like when
they're holding a Polaroid camera.

Slightly over the top? Nooooooo!

Dannnng, neon! Why you gotta look so good?!
I will be replicating this look times 100 this summer.

Wouldn't this have been lovely for Easter?


This miiiight fall under my heading of
"Cute on other people but not for me." Thoughts?

Do you love manicures? What's your nail polish color of choice?

Entree Vous

I'm pretty sure the above is french for "look at this cute place where I throw my mail and hang up my purse!" Right? Right. I've been futzing a bit my wee little space - covering my door with chalkboard paint, replacing hooks, opting for the ubiquitous floating Ikea LACK shelves.

That's a Yoshitomo Nara print and a plastic
skull that I painted with left over chalkboard paint.

Obviously, Putin wanted to be in every picture.
Sadly, I could not could not convince him to wear his vest

As I've been futzing, I've been slowly accruing a big old folder of gorgeous, inspiring entryways. Let's drool over them, shall we?

Sex Pistols poster + blue bean bags + spray painted
sticks = awesome!

Don't you love this incredibly literal interpretation of
"coat tree"?

I love all these mix and matched hooks. And how
cute is that duck?!

Slightly creepy? Yes. Awesome? Also yes.

This appeals to my minimalist Virgo side. Also my
plastic-robot-loving side.

So lady like!

Glossy and red is always a win, isn't it?

Do you do anything special with your entry way?