Thursday. Following my usual morning routine. Haven’t put on the news yet. I usually wait until about 10am so I have some time to be awake and enjoy the peace of the morning time alone before I tend to the chaotic reality of the world.

Woke up thinking about my family. Some days I wake up and my brain is already running the negative memory reel and I’m angry before I even have a chance to get out of bed. I don’t know why that happens. I do know that since the mushroom experiment, the feelings aren’t not quite as intense. It’s much easier to let them pass by me so I can focus on something else.

One effective tool I use for this is Instagram reels. I just search for Hong Kong or whatever random beautiful destination I’ve been researching that day. I find the most beautiful videos! OMG! Every time I watch a series of reels about Hong Kong, I get super pumped again. They’re mostly random pictures of daily life in the city set to fun music. It just gives me a sense of where I’m going and how life is going to be. Toto, we are NOT in Kansas anymore! Or should I say South Dakota, lol.

It’s nice to take time in the morning to meditate and focus on my dream life. Waking up, doing yoga, getting ready, grabbing a coffee & pastry from the 7-Cafe around the corner, hopping on the metro, heading into work, working all day, getting off late, meeting friends for dinner at the hottest new spot along the escalator, heading home for the day to wake up and do it all again. I’m excited.

Overall, I would say I’m not that worried about the big change. I feel very prepared to live in a huge, major, international city like Hong Kong. I grew up around DC and I’ve been to New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, London, Paris, and several other big cities by myself. I’ll be going to Dubai right before, so I’ll get to see what a super space age city looks like. I know how to use a metro card. I know how to take a bus (even though I usually don’t, LOL!), I know how to hail a taxi, and navigate a city when I’m lost. I took the Amtrak across the US, I took the Chunnel from London to Paris, I went to Qatar and India all by myself, I survived India all alone! As a woman! Le GASP!

Yeah, I’m not worried. I’ll be okay. I know how to live the city life! It’s my biggest dream! All my life, I’ve dreamed of that Big City Living. I’ve been trapped in the suburbs and in a small podunk town. Like, get me out of here and into the Big City! I don’t want to drive a car, I want to live within a few blocks of everything I could ever need, I want to go to events and pop-up shops and glamorous parties. I am about to live my best Sex in the City life in friggin’ Hong Kong and the people in my life are telling me they feel sorry for me!!!!

WHAT IS THAT?!

Well, now you know why they never show the ladies’ families on SATC. We get an occasional glimpse into the Connecticut Lifestyles of the Rich and WASPy with Charlotte, but nothing more beyond that. I guess we know Samantha worked at the Dairy Queen as a teenager, so you know she’s been on her own from Day 1. And we see that Miranda’s family is super Catholic and doesn’t get out of their little world much. And Carrie? I guess her dad left her when she was a kid, right? So, there you have it.

This is why no one on SATC has a family until they start making their own. It’s crazy how I’ve been watching this show since my early 20’s and now I’m 36 and it’s only really starting to make sense to me. It goes so much deeper with every re-watch. I must have seen it about 1000x now and it never gets old. I still get on the discussion sub to read the comments on the same 5 topics once a week, lol. It’s like my brunch time with my besties.

See what happens when people see positive representations of themselves on television? It changes the world!

I spent the time between yoga classes yesterday doing more research on the Gulf States in the Middle East. I learned so much I never knew before. Pretty sure I’m more qualified for a Cabinet position at this point than anyone in the current crop.

I feel so much more informed about the world now. Ask me anything about Yemen (which used to be part of Oman) and I will tell you why we need to stop blowing things up, stop fighting this stupid, pointless, decades-long proxy war that none of these assholes want to fight on their own land, and focus on bringing in humanitarian aid to fix the crisis there. You can even trust me not to leak any classified information in the group chat about all of this. Wow! Imagine having actual respect for a security clearance.

Ugh. So ridiculous.

I had friends growing up that still, to this day, have no idea what their parents actually do at their job. I never knew anything about my Dad’s job before he became a professor and started bragging to anyone who would listen about his illustrious career. All of it was brand new information to me. His students would ask me questions about it at the bar and I’d be like, “Uhhh… yeah, he never talked about any of that. That was all top secret classified information. All of it. Literally. So, yeah, lucky you. Please leave me alone now. I’m my own person with my own identity and it’s rapidly being eclipsed by my parents’ abusive, controlling behavior. Have a nice night!”

Anyway, all of this is why I have to move abroad. I wanted to move back home to DC, but I literally just can’t. I can’t be neighbors with that. I can’t watch that happen live in real time in my beloved hometown. Like, I can’t. So, I’m just gonna go travel the world, see what’s really going on in some of these places that I’ve been lied to about my entire life, and then I’ll come back to serve my country properly when the Millennials finally take over and clean up this ridiculous, embarrassing mess.

In the meantime, let’s go see the world! Get those stamps on dat passport and learn everything there is to learn from the people who know it best.

I’m starting to feel so much better about life now. I have things to look forward to. I look at my Pinterest Vision Boards and see my manifestations coming to life right before my very eyes. I take pride in my accomplishments in the last year. I’m proud of the person I’m becoming. I’m not the sad girl sitting alone at the bar crying over her bourbon anymore. I’m a strong, independent woman who don’t need no man, and I’m about to pack my bags and take off around the world on the adventure of a lifetime! There is no better feeling than that!

*stands up on the tip of the boat mast*

I’m Queen of the World!