One of the Best Years of My Life

I found health and happiness on the road.

Hello friends!

One year ago, I handed in my apartment keys and my employee badge and headed out into the world for a self-directed sabbatical. I have not posted much in the last few months but wanted to check in one more time at the close of this amazing year of adventure.

The past year has been transformational for me and redirected me onto a new path forward in a new hometown, San Francisco. It’s also an old hometown since I lived here for a decade in the 1990’s. A lot has changed in both the city and in myself, and I’m grateful to be reconnecting with this place and its people.

Am I imagining it, or are you seeing the stress melting away from me in these pictures taken throughout the year?

From top left: Sabbatical Day 1; sailing to Amalfi with Andrea; spring finally springing in Salerno; new 'do in Sardinia; Palm Springs; Badlands National Park; Martha's Vineyard; Manhattan; and Frederick (I added this last pic to show even with limited clothing options, my Athleta sportswear got me through long hikes, fine dining and even a funeral.)

I have received many questions about the year, and I’d be happy to share some responses with all of you.

What did you learn about yourself?

• Unstructured time is wonderful for your mental health. For the past decade, my calendar has been jammed, mostly due to work commitments that other people populated my calendar with. Spontaneity rocks!

• I am now in better physical shape than I was 10 years ago. (And 15 pounds lighter…hope I can stick with it!)

• There is a great deal to appreciate about the Italian lifestyle and culture. I could very happily spend a lot more time living there.

• Living on an island requires more travel planning (and money) than living on the mainland.

• I can cook(ish)! And on a budget!

• I love the freedom of traveling solo.

Overall, I learned that it is possible to have an enjoyable time anywhere if you have an open mind and don’t panic that you are untethered from a home and owning very few possessions. There are wonderful people all over the place who will welcome you with open arms. Over the past year, I have met too many great new friends to list.

Sights along the way: Assisi living room view; a baby Jesus-themed carousel(!); my confusing washing machine; one of "my" neighborhood kitties; Salerno with storm clouds over Amalfi; lemon trees along the Path of the Gods near Ravello; boogying with this woman and her dog on a wild night as Napoli celebrated its impending national football championship; my desk in Cagliari, Sardinia; stunning sea at Stintino, Sardinia.

What were your favorite moments?

• Seeing the view from my living room for the first time in Assisi, and tasting local Umbrian Amari after dinner.

• My friend from childhood, Andrea, coming to visit me in Italy.

• Walking the daily passagiata with the locals in Salerno.

• Swimming in Sardinia, and breakfast in Positano.

• My boyfriend Gary’s multi-day birthday party bash in the Sierra foothills of California.

• Driving solo across Wyoming and South Dakota.

• Selling eggs at the Martha’s Vineyard farmers market to benefit Island Autism Group. (And seeing the chickens jump up and down with excitement whenever my cousin’s husband Hap appears.)

• Regularly enjoying dinners and Thanksgiving with long-missed relatives.

• Unexpectedly jetting off to France for my new friend Kate’s multi-day birthday bash.

• Finding a beautiful apartment to share with Gary in San Francisco.

• My new neighbors, the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, who swoop over us every afternoon before sunset.

Road trips and pet sits: breakfast at Smoot's Grocery in Natchez; the endlessly long trains of West Texas; petsitting fetching dogs and kitties I could never tell apart; careful packing included compression cubes, photographed and color coded so I could find stuff; the BEAR room I stayed in at a slightly questionable Montana motel.

What might you do differently?

Honestly, I’m not sure I’d change anything. Financially, the entire year cost me about $37,000 all in, including health and travel insurance, rental of a small storage unit, and all out-of-pocket expenses. (If I had kept renting my unoccupied apartment during that time, the rent and utilities would have been $25,000, so not paying for a home was a game-changer.)

My biggest expenses were the two cross-country US drives. While I didn’t stay in first-class hotels, I didn’t stay in dives either, and I knew exactly where I needed to get to each evening. So I could have saved a bit of cash but instead had complete peace of mind. All of my travel outside the US was significantly cheaper than the US (except for Paris, of course).

My occasional pet-sitting gigs worked out great except for one three-week stay that the home owner in Santa Barbara canceled at the last minute. It worked out fine for me to stay in San Francisco but if I had purchased a plane ticket to get there, I would have been bummed out!

On the farm at the Island Autism Center on Martha's Vineyard. My aunt Margie, IAC Executive Director Kate and her son Mark; meeting up with Island cousin Maggie in Paris; finally getting in the coop; a barn raising; beautiful dahlias for sale to benefit Island Autism Center.

What’s next?

The main reason I have delayed writing this last dispatch for a while because I wanted to share some amazing new job with you…but not everything happens with a snap of the fingers and I’m still on the job hunt. I have seamlessly moved from one job to the next over the past couple of decades, and I’m finding the process to be quite different now that I’m starting from scratch in a new place. I’m available if you’re hiring!

In sunnier news, as I mentioned earlier I am now very happily in a relationship with a great guy, and we found the perfect place to live on Telegraph Hill. Gary has two sweet pets, and because my Daisy has feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), she has a compromised immune system and cannot be housed with other pets. So her amazing 2023 caretaker was thrilled when I asked her to keep Daisy, and we both had a good, happy cry! I love that I still get pictures of her, and that I can now enjoy Huck and Penelope in our new home.

Family new and not-so-new: Visiting with my mother and my daughter; Huck and Penelope; frequent hikes by the bridge; Gary and me on our terrace and at Rockefeller Center; lucky double rainbows.

In conclusion, I am grateful for an incredible year, and I am so glad to have been able to stay in touch while on the road through this wonderful Substack website.

There are too many people to thank by name, but to all my friends and family who let me crash on your couches and guest rooms, who fed me, who encouraged me to take the leap, and for all of your great suggestions, I am so grateful to all of you!

And readers, thank you for reading and for all your encouragement. There are a lot of happy nomads out there in the world, and I appreciate your sharing my posts and sending me yours. I may post again in the future if I have anything fun to share!

If you have a chance to take some time off for adventuring and self-reflection, do it! DO IT!