I’m going to stand on my soapbox. I dislike the notion that one must travel to a foreign country to have an adventure. You can have an adventure outside your front door, all you have to do is open your eyes to your surroundings— here’s a story.

I love the Christmas season. I love most Christmas movies and music, Christmas lights and decorations (especially when wrapped around bare trees—it makes the trees look brighter, cooler, and futuristic), and the smell of pine trees. Is it just me, or do people seem to be kinder this time of year? There is one thing that makes my crisp, pure snow idea of Christmas into a dirty pile of slush—I don’t know how to celebrate Christmas.

We're upon Spooky Spooky Skeleton season aka Halloween/Fall season. It's time to break out the creepy decorations, cozy sweaters, pumpkin spice lattes and your laughter for some things that freaked me out as a child.

I'm a sentimental packrat. On display or in storage are trinkets from places I visited, greeting cards with handwritten messages from family and friends, old gaming magazines from the 2000s, photographs from gatherings, and many other items that would fill up a page if I tried to list them out.