My much needed escape from reality will take the form of 8 days in New York City in the dead of winter. Time to walk, time to think...maybe see snow...and spend my birthday with some of the people I love best.

Back to my "Couchsurfing Hometown" of Chico, for another wonderful get together with my favorite people in the world....

A short trip filled with Travbuddies and Couchsurfers! First to San Jose California to stay with Seb - one of the 4 founders of Couchsurfing, and dinner with our very own Portia, then along with Amy (amypris) we all travel up to Chico to experience the twelfth annual Chico Bloomsday Festival. A silly long weekend party hosted by my favorite Couchsurfing Guru and Chico Resident - OOOOHHHH Donna.....

This blog is a direct response to Dougal's "Made in Sheffield" Blog; although not, I fear, as amusing, nor as well done. It's only goal is to share with him (and anyone else who cares to take a gander) the strange bits of living in Phoenix Arizona USA, on a day to day basis. Here you go Dougal...

So here's the deal; I went down to Mexico to stay with people I'd never met or spoken to on the phone because I loved their couchsurfing profile, and to meet a Travbuddy friend I had never met or spoken to on the phone because I loved his blogs. Think I'm crazy yet? One of my best friends Ed did... he thought I was nuts. I tried to tell him he just had no sense of adventure - he said he DID have a sense of adventure, but that HIS was based in common sense. Here's the story - you decide.

The long awaited weekend had finally arrived for me to go to Los Angeles for the big Couchsurfing Party that I had organized; but the question remained - would I even get there??

The blog that finally answers the age old question: Can a girl go to Italy and England for three weeks on her long awaited holiday, and avoid the pitfalls of illness, crime, missed trains, bad reservations, a lack of directions, and faulty electronics? ...eeerrr...no, apparently not. Still had a grand time however, and the Prosecco was SO GOOD...

Aspen for my sister's birthday...

A fantastic Christmas Weekend with some of my favorite friends!!

My favorite adventure to date - 3 weeks through Southeast Asia in November of 2004.