Of Writers and Travelers

Why is my room already a mess when I cleaned it last week? I feel like Ricky Ricardo is going to walk in at any second, take a look around the surroundings and say, "Ashley, you got some splanin' to dooooo!"

Well, looks like I am going to spend my Sunday cleaning. Until I go to the Jason Mraz concert tonight, that is. And get this, the concert is free. Who does that anymore?

Jason Mraz--I will have your babies.

Anyway, I am having a tremendous amount of fun reading Eat Pray Love, mostly because Elizabeth Gilbert is an outstanding writer; no, that's an understatement. I don't know if there is a word to describe her humble, hilarious, honest writing. All I know is that I absolutely love it. I hope I can write like that someday...because yes, I do think excellent writing takes some diligent training and experience.

Here is an excerpt that I especially relate to, and you'll know why once you read it:

"...traveling is the great true love of my life. I have always felt, ever since I was sixteen years old and first went to Russia with my saved-up babysitting money, that to travel is worth any cost or sacrifice. I am loyal and constant in my love for travel, as I have not always been loyal and constant in my other loves."

Ahhh...this quote has "Ashley" written all over it!!

And a side note, relating to traveling. I noticed on all the posts from my trip, there were a lot of "I'm jealous" comments. While I often say this to other people going on vacations, I just want you to know how do-able traveling is. My trip cost me a grand total of $1700...that includes the plane ticket, as well. There are ways around huge traveling fees. And while $1700 is a good chunk of change, it's still easily savable, and as Gilbert pointed out, worth every penny.

I will have more to say about Eat Pray Love this month, but until then, have a great Sunday. Hopefully you don't have to clean the whole day.