My posts have been less regular lately because I’ve been traveling quite a bit (to Barcelona, with Zack, and all around Italy, with my mom).  I’ve also been completely immersed in my novel, which is a really fun experience for me: thinking about my characters and their lives constantly, figuring out what situations they’ll be experiencing and how they’ll react to them.

Anyways, this week on my Equals Record column, I discuss traveling with my mom, but really, how we redefine our parental relationships as we grow older.  Below, an excerpt:

Often referenced when talking about traveling with a significant other, being in a foreign country tends to magnify relationships, showing their boons and their flaws and mostly their shape, as a whole, crystalized and highlighted in a way that’s impossible for either party to ignore. This was the longest amount of time I’ve spent alone with my mother since I was thirteen years old.  It was the most time we had to talk, to work through decisions, to deal with things going awry, and simply, just to be.  I found out more about who I am, who my mother is, and who we are together.

Head over to the Equals Record for the whole post.

Also, I’ve included here some photos from our adventure, if you’d like to see.  As always, thanks for reading!!

We started in Naples, which was dark and seedy and chaotic in a completely entrancing way.  Graffiti covered much of the stone walls; the streets were cramped and hung with clothing of every color.  Every few minutes, scooters whizzed by, forcing us to jump to the side to avoid getting run over.

After Naples, we spent a day driving around the Amalfi Coast, which looks like it’s straight out of a postcard.  Tiny towns tumble down the cliffside into the sea, which is, of course, a type of turquoise not often seen outside of jewelery and Disney movies.

After hanging out on the (cold) beach in Positano, we stopped by a limoncello factory in Sorrento.  I bought way too many bottles and have been drinking it on ice with sparkling water on many a night since then.

We headed up to Tuscany after that, where we used Florence as our home base to explore the small towns of the surrounding hills.  The above view was the norm, so we spent a lot of time saying, “Oh my God, can you even believe how beautiful this is?” and wanting to simulate Maria running through the hills in the Sound of Music (although these hills were covered in wine grapes, so even better!)In San Gimigignano, we ate at the gelateria said to have the best gelato in the world.  We shared a cup with Raspberry Black Pepper and Saffron Pine Nut, both of which were fairly insane, even for a non-fan of ice cream.

Finally, we went to Rome, where my mom made new friends…

…and I got my fortune told by this guy.

He said life was good, but of course, I already knew it by then.

This week’s Equals Record column is about the part of travel no one seems to talk about: the moments when you’re feeling lonely and tired and just wish one thing would be easy and simple and nice.  Here’s an excerpt:

I was no different in Paris than I was back in the United States:  the simple change of location didn’t render me suddenly high-heeled.  It didn’t make accented men want to flirt with me and it didn’t make me suddenly enjoy coffee, in tiny cups or otherwise.  It was the first time I realized a change of location wasn’t enough to warrant a change of self, and the first time that the reality of a place didn’t live up to my fantasy.

For the full post, please head over to The Equals Record.  And tell me: am I alone in this feeling, or have you felt it too?  What do you do to combat loneliness and expectation versus reality in travel?

As always, thanks so much for reading!

Two fun facts about Halloween, which, if the overabundance of candy at your local drug store didn’t alert you to, is fast approaching:

1)  Brits call costumes “fancy dress outfits.”  How lovely is that?  Although now I don’t know what to call all of my real fancy dress outfits, aka the ball gowns I like to wear to brunch (it lends an air of festivity to greasy eggs and hangovers).  Help, anyone?

2)  It’s fast approaching (see opening sentence) and I have zero idea what fancy dress  outfit I might want to don.  This is generally the case, which is why last year Zack and I went as hipster mimes – aka wore all black and glasses, and painted our faces white.

 The year before, such grade A lack of planning resulted in us dressing as time travelers.  We accomplished this look by wearing all white and putting on strange blue glasses, then posing as if we’d just emerged from a time tunnel (you know, the device all the really cool people use to travel through time).  Less people got this one which was, ironically, even more hipster.  What up.

This year, I’d like to try and plan ahead, although upon browsing the results of Googling “Couple’s Costumes” I suddenly am reminded why I always leave it to the last minute.  The costumes are all incredibly disappointing.  Like, why does he get to be warm while I have to be all slutty?

I don’t like mustard, and hate how it’s always hanging around, trying to ruin ketchup, so to me, this costume is just a problem perpetuator.  Also, it seems like it’d be really hard to pee in.

And this just makes me hungry:

So, help me out.  What’s the best/worst couple’s costume you’ve seen?

Images via Couple’s Costumes Ideas Tumblr.

While I’m a big proponent of living a healthy lifestyle, I’m also a fan of enjoying said lifestyle. Which means, well, bacon.  25 quick and easy recipes for it to be exact, courtesy of the NYTimes Magazine.  I’ll take the candied bacon, pasta amatriciana, and of course, the potato chowder.  In fact, if they could feature 25 ways to do potato next, I’d be much obliged.  It’s the food of the Gods, after all, and known for its versatility: there’s potato soup, baked potatoes, gratin, potato chips, French fries, mashed potatoes, hash browns, potato latkes…

But I digress.  Back to the bacon!

Click through to to the NYTimes to see all 25 ways and full recipes.

The other night, Zack and I watched Happy, a movie about how to be, well, happy (check out the trailer above).  The film covered a number of interesting things (have you heard about Karoshi, the Japanese name for death by working too hard, an incident that’s on the rise in Japan?), but the most interesting, to me, was how much of our lives we seem to spend pursuing the wrong things.  According to the movie, if our goal is to be happy, we should be focused on intrinsic factors to become so.  The movie names the following three things:

1.  Spending time with friends and family members

2.  Exercising, or moving your body in dynamic ways (rather than just jogging on the treadmill every day)

3.  Feeling like you’re a part of something larger by participating in your community and the world at large

The things that don’t make us happy?  External factors:  image, wealth, and status.  The things, in essence, that most of us spend 8 – 10 hours a day pursuing.

While some of this range incredibly true, some felt harder to swallow.  If I wrote forever, for instance, and no one read my work, and there was no external sign that the work I was doing was even valuable, I’d have a hard time feeling good about it.

There’s an oft quoted statistic brought up in the movie that there’s a dramatic difference in happiness between those who are destitute and those making $70,000 a year, but after that, the happiness difference subsides greatly.  In essence, there’s little difference in happiness between a millionaire and an average working professional.  I remember my dad told me this when I was first job hunting and the message behind it, I think, is true: bigger cars and houses and fancy clothes don’t make us happy, because we adjust so quickly to the standard that we have and want more.  But what about the experiences that money affords you?  I spend almost all of my money on traveling the world; on going to concerts with friends; on being able to pick up and move to London to be with my boyfriend as he embarks on his (not cheap) graduate school experience.  When I hear that statistic, I always wonder whether the people studied are spending their money on material things or experiences, and if that would make a difference.

What do you think?  Do you know what makes you happy, and does it match up with how you actually live your life?