Meet a Gypsy, Love a Gypsy, Pay a Gypsy

Cheeks and the more obvious Abs. Those have pretty much been my consistent nicknames since forever. Cheeks a variant on Chica, coming from an odd encounter with my high school football coach. Interpret that how you will. Abs. Well. If you can’t figure that one out. You’re stupid. Of course there have been others, or people specific names. Emily and Jennifer call me Gabbey or Gabbeygail. My guy friends...

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A Little Yacht Week Disclaimer

Since I will be posting a shit ton of stuff in the next couple weeks. I want to spend a little bit of time thanking the people who made everything so great. First off, I did not take all of the photos in the Yacht Week posts. I have republished them with permission from my dear Yacht Week participants as seen in the following group picture of our crew. From Left to Right: Alisa Greene, Jon Farr, Mitch Hall...

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Trust Me, I Know How to Party

As seniors in high school, most school’s allow what is called a Senior Skip Day: a day when all seniors have an excused absence from school where they can spend time together at the park, a local museum, volunteering in the local community or – as most of us did – day drinking. For my senior class, our planned excursion was pretty easy to put together. Claiming at least partial ownership of an entire...

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Stop Bitching, Get Your Own Life.

This was posted on the bulletin board at Hostel Anton where I was staying in Tivat, Montenegro a couple weeks ago. For those of you who are living in 1990 (or in the middle of nowhere in Spain) I will transcribe. This is your Life. Do what you love and do it often. If you don't like something, change it. If you don't like your job, quit. If you don't have enough time, stop watching TV. If you are looking for the love of your life, stop; they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love.

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I’m getting old or boring… or both

I sit here researching hostels for a two week long backpacking trip I’m taking next week across Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Greece. As I sit here filtering my search down on hostelworld, I suddenly dread the idea of walking up long hills to find kitschy small hostels. I’m narrowing my search by the distance to the bus station so I don’t have to walk that far. I’m kicking out the hostels with high party ratings in the hope of...

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The Things I Miss the Most About the US of A

Being away from home changes the way you look at life. First it was moving to Texas. I remembered not being able to get Taco Bueno or Quiktrip and thinking I'd officially moved too far away. These little comforts at first were a pain, but I found other things to replace them or binged on them while I was home and everything was alright. Then I made the move out to Los Angeles and even more things were lost...

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Dictionary.com is a Fortune Teller

Yes, folks. That's right. I step off my plane this morning in London, log onto my wifi and... BAM! There it is. The word of the day, for today, March 20th, 2011, the VERY DAY that I arrive back in Spain, the word of the day is noneother than the namesake of the place I live and work: Los Alamos.

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CONTEST: Name That Inspirational Travel Movie.

Ok, so that is a little deceptive. Yes this is a contest. But, there is no prize. Well, I guess there can be a prize. Ok, fine there’s a prize. But I don’t know what it is yet so, I guess enter anyway and find out later. It likely won’t be worth your while, but I’m not asking much, so get over it. The title is also deceptive because the movie wasn’t really made famous because it’s about travel, though it is. And most people probably wouldn’t call this movie...

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