Up until now, getting rid of stuff has been fairly easy. Even the reverse birthday party was only hard for a day or two beforehand. I’ve been pretty good about learning the difference between my memories and the objects that remind me of those feelings.
But lately I’m up against something I can’t easily overcome. You see, my cat is going to live with my mom in New Mexico this weekend.
Roo has been with me since …

You know that juicy delicious feeling you get when you spend time with a really creative person? The one who sees the world in different colors than you do, and when you combine your thoughts and ideas, magical things happen? Some people call this 1+1=3, but my designer friend Darlin informed me that the correct term is gestalt.
gestalt \gə-ˈstält\: a structure, configuration, or pattern of physical, biological, or psychological phenomena so integrated as to constitute …

Editor’s note: Today’s post is a reprint from last year. Yep, I still feel the same way about raising your standards for love and romance all year long.
You heard me.  I’m taking it back.  No cards, candy, dinner dates, or jewelry for me.
Think about it.  Romance only ONE DAY of the year?  At the same time everyone else is instructed to have romance (talk about supply and demand)?
We have never really celebrated Valentine’s Day, and …

No matter how much you love someone, spending 24 hours a day, 365 days a year together is going to have some ups and downs. As we get closer to our departure date, I’m thinking more about the relationship perks, strains, and changes that lie ahead. You may not be traveling around the world with your mate, but if you are working on any sort of project together – hell, even the just adjusting to …

Later this week two of our friends will be delivering a laptop courtesy of another friend to a student in Ecuador.  The friends don’t know each other, and we don’t know the boy in Ecuador – yet.  It all came about through a request from our friends Jim and Mimi, who own the house we will be staying in on our first stop in Ecuador.
Jim and Mimi have strong ties to the community there and …

When it comes to downsizing, you can easily get bogged down in not only what to get rid of, but how to get rid of it.  You know that I’m a big fan of Craigslist, and we’ve made thousands of dollars by downsizing this way.
But what about the good stuff? You know, the things that are beautiful, distinctive, and loved but no longer serve a purpose in your life.
My birthday was this week and …

This weekend I had a big revelation about my friendships:  People are going to miss me when I’m gone.  I know that sounds crazy – who wouldn’t realize that her best friends would miss her if she left the country? – but I really didn’t consider it before now.
On Friday night I was sitting in my bedroom with a friend going over some of the items I’m going to auction at my birthday party next …

This blog is all about living your best life and following your dreams.  In order to be able to do that, you have to allow other people the same opportunity to live their best lives and accomplish goals.  You can’t do that when they don’t have the same rights as you.
Referendum 71 was placed on the Washington ballot by a man who doesn’t even live in Washington State.  He became outraged when our legislature passed …

Do you look back on high school as the best time of your life?  Probably not, but for many people it was the easiest time in their lives to make friends.  Think about it: exposure to hundreds or thousands of students every day and organized social activities meant that it wasn’t hard to make friends if you put forth even the slightest bit of effort.
(I know, I know – not everyone was class president or …

Before you ask how you can get infected with the happiness bug, you should also know that unhappiness, obesity, and cigarette smoking are contagious as well.
In fact, it seems as if we never left high school.  Who you hang out with matters, and the lifestyle they live will greatly impact yours (and vice versa).  And it’s not only your close friends but the friends of those friends that matter.  Your entire social network impacts your …

Today is the anniversary of the day we decided to take the trip.  Oh sure, it started out as a tipsy conversation after a long dinner and a few margaritas on a holiday weekend.  But the more we talked about it, the more we liked it.
Maybe we were loosened up because of the holiday and festive atmosphere.  Or maybe we were just ready to make a big move in our lives and needed a little …

This week I’ve been traveling in New Mexico visiting my family.  I grew up here, though I haven’t lived here for several years.  In the time that I’ve been gone, there has been an oil boom and bust (the main industry), the addition of a casino and a uranium enrichment plant, and more construction and beautification than this little town has seen in at least my lifetime.
You’d think I would fit right back in.  And …

Editor’s Note: Today’s guest post comes from Bethany North, an avid exerciser who responded to my request for help on the topic of exercising with your mate.
I have to confess that I have definitely been on both sides of the coin from not wanting to exercise at all to being totally obsessed about exercise to finally integrating it into my lifestyle in a natural and balanced way.  It is wonderful to be active on a …

Today is a really exciting day – the first week of complete transparency! My husband Warren told his boss on Friday about our plans for the big trip, so everything is finally out in the open.
It has been tough making this major life transition without being able to share it with the people he sees every single day.
(You can read more about why he told his company 15 months in advance here.)
What does this mean …

This is the final installment in the Sex and Intimacy series. We covered more ground than I thought we would in fewer posts. (You all know I tend to be long-winded.) To read all the posts, click here.
Stay tuned for our continuing adventures in:

living without television
getting in shape for the trip
working on creative pursuits we can continue on the road
checking off our local “bucket list” of things to do before we go
decluttering and getting rid …

Editor’s Note: This is part 8 in a 10-part series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
Come on, we’ve all done it. You have a great night of sex and can’t wait to tell your friends about it. Or the reverse – the sex is so bad you can’t wait to tell your friends about it!
Usually this happens when we are single and it is safe to tell the story, but …

Editor’s Note: This is part 6 in a 10-part series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
Raise your hand if you like to do it with the lights on.
Yeah, me either.
Oh sure, I have and do, but it is not my preference.  You see, I suffer from a lack of physical self-confidence.  You can blame the media, gender stereotypes, or the extra pounds my 30s have brought me, but it doesn’t …

Editor’s Note: This is part 5 in a 10-part series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it?
Believe it or not, I have the answer. The normal amount of sex in a relationship is (drum roll, please)…whatever works for you and your partner.
Seriously.
So stop stressing about whether you are doing it as much as “everyone else” or “what you used to.” The only opinion that matters in …

Editor’s Note: This is part 4 in a series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
When we talked about the 5 Love Languages, we learned that everyone has a preferred method of receiving love: verbally, physically, gifts, quality time, or acts of service. But we didn’t find out how we could tell if our actions were working for our partner. Gary Chapman has more to tell:
The Math of Relationships
Whether you look …

Editor’s Note: This is part 3 of a series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to read from the beginning.
Have you ever said “I know he loves me, he just has a lousy way of showing it?”
There is a bit of truth to that statement.  When we show love to our partners in ways they don’t understand, it can cause friction.
“Why doesn’t she touch me like she did when we were dating?”
“He never helps …

Editor’s Note: This is part 2 of the series on Sex and Intimacy. Click here to start from the beginning.
When you met your mate, he or she was the perfect match for you. You laughed at each other’s jokes, couldn’t keep your hands off each other, and imagined a life of happily ever after.
Maybe you still have that, but I’m betting some of the shine has worn away from the hot and heavy early days. …

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series on sex and intimacy in your relationship.
Did that title get you revved up for a Monday morning, or did you just groan and wish we’d move on to something more relevant to your life, like decluttering?
Emotions run high in both directions when you talk about sex and intimacy in a relationship. There are those who have given up on intimacy because of work, kids, or apathy, …

Editor’s Note: This is the final post in a short series on vacations.  Click here to read from the beginning.
It happens all the time:  You plan the trip of your dreams, and somewhere along the way you fight with your travel partner and end up almost ruining the trip.  To top it off, the fight was over something stupid, like forgetting to pack an item, or even worse, a fight over something completely out of …

We’ve been taking about lifestyle design for some time now, but I’m not sure I’ve ever told you the whole story of how Married with Luggage got started.  Interested?
(Make yourself comfortable. You may want to take a bathroom break now and freshen up your beverage.)
Once Upon a Time
We married in 2004 in Maryland and moved almost immediately to the Boston suburbs for my husband’s new job.  I was doing pretty well with my job, so …

Editor’s Note: This is the third post in the 5 signs of a great life series. Click on the introductory post for links to all 5 signs at the end of the series.
If it’s true that you are like the five people you spend the most time with, what does that say about you?
Go ahead and make your list – not your 5 favorite people, but the 5 people you actually spend the most time …

Since we’ve started telling people about the trip, we’ve seen the Six Degrees of Separation at work.  I am inundated with offers of introductions to people in other countries, and ex-pats in the US keep popping up.

For instance, this week I’m attending a personal safety class from a man hailing from South Africa, and I’m reliably informed that his wife is a phenomenal entrepreneur.  Travel safety, interesting people, and a woman entrepreneur…all things I need to know.

Another woman tells me of great contacts she has in Hong Kong and how she will be happy to connect me.

Yet another friend is an editor who is going to help me put some of my intellectual property into a form I can sell online to help finance this trip.

A new contact in New York has introduced me to several websites to plant the trip as well as enhance the research for my book proposal.

You know, I was a little bit scared to start telling people about this great trip.  One reason was a fear that it would negatively impact my current business or my husband’s job before we leave, and another reason was that my friends and family would think I was crazy or irresponsible.  Or that I possibly had more money than sense (which might be true, but sadly not because I have a lot of money!). 

This is another lesson in the power of intention and how stating what you are going to do will make it happen.  Keeping it in my head allows me to create all kinds of scenarios that really aren’t there, and I’m finding that I’m quite the internal storyteller.  Making it real gives it really only one story – the one that is happening.  So I can now concentrate on that real story instead of the crazy imaginary ones in my head.

So, here’s to wishing for more interesting people to cross my path as I continue to talk about this trip and my intentions for a book and a successful conversion to an online business. 

More and more we are considering this trip as an opportunity to change many aspects of our life. I work for a large software company, have established a nice career for myself, and make a great salary. We are currently on track to retire by the time we both reach 57 based on the “retirement number” we worked out with our financial planner. By all accounts, we are on track to follow the typical American plan to a “T”.

But we stopped and asked ourselves why should we have to wait 20 years to see and do everything that is on our Wish List? Who is making us stay in the rat race and follow a traditional path? The answer, we found, was nothing.

And so we sit here with the biggest decision in our life in front of us and we could not be happier. How can we turn this trip into more than a year off, but into a new career/life? I will use the next few posts to explore this idea.

We haven’t left for the trip yet and I’m already learning something about people.  My people, actually.

Last night I called my mom to tell her we were going to take this trip.  I was a little bit scared to do this because we are already a few thousand miles away from each other and the distance has always been tough.  My mom’s favorite place is home, and my home is always where my favorite current place happens to be. 

I braced myself for a difficult conversation and a lot of explanation about why we wanted to do this.

Mom surprised me by saying she thought it was great and then asked where we planned to go.  Just like that.  She was naturally curious and asked a lot of questions, but she was as supportive as she has always been.  It is no wonder I feel confident enough to undertake this trip with a lifelong support system like that.

Husband called his Mom to tell her, and she was also enthusiastic.  Of course, she was getting ready to jet off to Napa Valley for a week of wine and relaxation, so you could say she likes to travel.  She also raised Husband to be a curious and ambitious guy, so we did not expect her to be anything but supportive.

It will be interesting to see the reactions of our friends and the rest of our family as we start spreading the word about the trip and sharing this blog.  I have a feeling they will surprise us more than we will surprise them.  Isnt’ that a great thing?