It's Thanksgiving...let's go to the casino!

When I was younger and still living with my parents family dinners at the Burns residence always consisted of southern style food. Southerners call this “comfort food” and do not need any particular reason like a holiday to eat well. Of course we celebrated the typical holidays like everyone else but generally all of our family gatherings consisted of the same type of food; fried chicken, fried okra, corn bread and beans, and homemade mac & cheese were the usual culprits and on Thanksgiving deep fried turkey. The meals are always such a carb fest but I love it. Now that I’m older and living on my own I try to have dinner with my parents on Sunday’s. Even now my mom still cooks the same type of traditional (for us) meals. However, things have changed over the years. I am an only child and most of my family except for my parents lives in Texas. As everyone knows it takes a lot of work to prepare a holiday feast especially when there are only 3 – 4 people eating. For probably the last 2 or 3 years my parents have suggested that we go to the casino for Thanksgiving dinner. I’ve got to tell you, the first year my parents said this I was so upset that I pouted for a couple weeks and complained to my mom about how trashy and sad we were. Funny how now I look forward to it because there is such a huge variety of food. I mean I like turkey but standing in front of a Mongolian grill and getting pizza along with your turkey is pretty cool too. I guess the point of my story is that tradition is very important but each person gets to determine what “tradition” means. When I was a kid I would have never ever thought my mom would rather eat at the casino rather than cook Thanksgiving dinner. Now that I’m older I know how much work goes into the whole process and can better understand. Also, it’s a pretty cool bonus to be able to play a few slot machines while you’re waiting to get seated at the casino.

We are Travelers, Hear Us Roar

Traveling is a Community. Traveling is a passion of the adventurous folks who have a burning desire to experience new places and cultures. This is what makes us travelers – hear us roar. Sitting on the AirPorter and looking at your watch wondering if you’ve packed everything, or in my case, too much; trying to let go of the stress from work and start enjoying yourself; hoping there won’t be a huge line at immigration so you can just get started on your latest adventure. These are all pieces of the anticipation that go along with travel. What each traveler chooses to do with their adventure is up to them. Some choose to explore every corner within this United States; some only want to explore Europe; some Mexico or Hawaii; and there are some like me whose list of travel encompasses pretty much everything out there. I personally have never said, “Oh, I don’t have any desire to go there,” as I desire to see it all. The text specifically asked us to choose a daily activity and while travel may not be a daily activity for me, as much as I wish it were, it is for some people. I recently met a couple while I was on my first cruise that hop from cruise ship to cruise ship because they love being at sea so much but did not want the responsibility of owning a boat. They in fact sold their home because they didn’t ever want to go back to a “normal” life.

Traveling is not defined by an age, although sometimes it can be defined by how big your pocketbook is. Traveling is the feeling of being welcomed into a brand new environment by complete strangers, learning about the past and tasting foods that are foreign to us. And oh, how great the food is. A favorite pastime of travelers is discussing with new people where their own personal travels have taken them. And, travelers love to tell their stories, let me tell you. Have I ever told you about the time I spent St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland…

One of the biggest tensions that work against the traveling community are scary situations happening in the world. For instance, the war in Iraq has put a major damper on travel in the Middle East. The unwarranted killing of people in Mexico or most recently in the last few weeks the outbreak of Swine Flu has made people question whether they should be traveling to Mexico. And the list goes on. There are many countries that have a government that is not as structured as our own. This can make non-travelers question whether they should in fact leave their homes. However, the diehard true to form traveler does not let anything stand in his or her way. If it’s our day to go, hopefully we’ll be in another country enjoying a beautiful piece of architecture when it happens.

Traveling is my community and the fellow travelers are my peeps. I desire more, want to see more, and want to share what I’ve seen, etc. That is why I fit into this group. I am lucky that I have a career that affords me to do all that I want in this area. There was a time in my younger days where I just couldn’t afford it, or didn’t have any vacation to use. Sometimes this is still the case yet I plan my travel anyway. You see, someone that has a passion for travel is not inhibited by money or time, they are empowered by the lack there of.

What's in your wallet today... or last week?

Upon close examination of Christi Burns' wallet it appears she is a rewards club junky neat freak. There is a driver’s license with an overly excited photo showing she is 34 years old. The driver’s license does not expire for 3 years. There is a debit card, 2 credit cards, a gas card, and 1 crisp dollar bill. Why is there only 1 dollar? There are 20 slots in the wallet for holding additional cards which are filled mostly with rewards cards of one type or another although there is also a GroupHealth card, a voter registration, and a CPR card. Most of the other cards are for airline miles, hotel points, or shoes. There is a stash of business cards showing Ms. Burns' profession as a Customer Service Manager for the state of Washington. This profession does not appear to lend itself to much travel so the travel rewards cards may be for personal use. The shoe fetish is as of yet unknown. There is 1 scrap of paper with a phone number written on it in sloppy handwriting with no name. Not sure what this means or whose number it is. An assumption could be made that Ms. Burns is fairly responsible as she's a registered voter, a CPR card holder, and has a current driver’s license. She also has a supply of business cards so she's probably been employed in her position for at least a mentionable amount of time. It also appears that this girl likes to travel and wear trendy shoes. Because of the neatly kept wallet and lack of personal items it is hard to make a judgment call about this person’s personality and identity other than what is mentioned above. I would be interested to know if the purse where this wallet is housed is as neat and tidy.

The moral of this story (and now I'm stepping out of third person) is that this wallet was purchased and switched out with the old one only the day before. Had I started this assignment last week I would have been able to comment on photos, post-it notes with funny quotes, a condom, 1 earring whose sidekick is apparently missing, and a Curious George sticker. I think this in itself tells a pretty funny story. About three times a year I try to organize my world and I happened to do this the day when this assignment was looming. Call it intuition or maybe subconsciously I was sabotaging myself, I'm not quite sure. My cleaned out wallet does not show anything about the fun, carefree person that I am. Nor does it show how important my friends and family are in my world. I still don't know whose phone number is on that slip of paper. And, as for the purse it is a complete disaster area.

Testing 1, 2, 3...