As Hannah indicated, I’ve been traveling the world, or at least part of it, for the past couple of weeks. Stops included Prague, Vienna, Berlin, Thessalonike, Meteora, Athens, and Nafplion. That’s a lot of travel for only 15 nights.
Highlights included all imperial palaces, castles, summer estates, and massive Greek temples, particularly those elaborately decorated with delicate inlays and master carvings. Sort of like my apartment. Or not.
Just like home.
Despite adventuring, I realize that I’ve returned without any killer stories. There were no crazy encounters. No out of body experiences. No swashbuckling tales. But there were some tasty morsels of food, excellent birds-eye views, and more than a few masterpieces along the way.
I haven’t taken a two-week vacation from work for nearly three years. Last summer I had a week-long escape to Maine, prior to which I had had a terrible fever (which led doctors to mistakenly believe I had cat scratch fever). My body was recovering when I left, I didn’t feel up to snuff, and taking antibiotics every morning and evening of the trip did not spur relaxation. It was not ideal.
When I was a kid, my dad and brother and I would take long, leisurely vacations to tropical islands—the more remote, the better. About five or six days in, my father would declare he was finally starting to relax. A highly knowledgeable seven-year-old, I’d counsel my father to relax more quickly. Who could possibly need all that time (practically a year!) to adjust to frozen drinks and blossoming flowers?
But when I arrived in Vienna (Trip Day 5), I realized it had taken that long to stop thinking about work. Day 5 was followed by a week of actual relaxation, and also full of museum-hopping. It wasn’t until the Friday before I flew back to the States that thoughts of current and future projects again pushed their way to the surface. Fifteen nights left me with seven blissful, carefree days. And now I’m thinking that two-week sojourns may have to be here to stay.
Weather: Mountains of snow. And even when it’s not snowing, the wind whips the snow around, making it look like we’re being further buried.
Moods:
Anna – 5 out of 10 on the “so miserable I can’t get out of bed” to “jumping for joy” scale. Still getting back in the swing of things.
Hannah – 4 out of 10. She’s had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Luckily, it’s a Friday.
Ditch the Umbrella 
You still can write. Why don’t you write a novel about the famous detective/agent Eliana Rachaelson, 20 years in the future, in those loose associations of island nations that have discovered not only a way to survive, but to prosper by deconstructing special services and unique products that can only be distributed through international customers dealing with each island in specific sequences. While on that much deserved vacation, she literally stmbles upon a series of communications that indicate something truly horrifying is afoot. Embedded within each island, like an undetected cancer, is a similar series of criminal terrorist cells, whose sole purpose is to make these little parcels of land disappear forever, making the world unsafe for luxury vacationers, also forever. Laugh, cry, tremble, and ultimately triumph with Eliana as she systematically hunts them down and eliminates them in ways heretofore unheard of in modern spydom, and then builds her simple, but elegant vacation cottage–small, yet coccoonish. Kay Scarpetta, move over and get out of the way!
Anna – Love the blog!
Tom – Amazing plot synopsis!