Here is what we’re not going to do. We’re not going to spend many, many dollars and fly halfway around the globe and not document it. We’re going to start where we are. We’re going to capture the life.

With that, here I sit in Melbourne, Australia. I’m on the patio of the home Rich, Rex, Jenna, Shawn and I are renting for another couple days before we take off for Sydney for about a week and then a couple days on the Great Barrier Reef. The trip we started talking about in, I don’t know, 2018 or 2019. The trip that seemed to live in the abstract more than a real thing until the day before we left. And now we’re here. Tomorrow we’ll go to the Australian Open and watch the best woman in the world play her preliminary tennis match.

It’s sunny and warm and there is a great breeze blowing through the palm and lime trees in this back yard.

It’s still early 2024. The horoscopes generally tell me this is a good year for Libra. It’s been a minute since I would have called it a good year. I mean, good things are happening all the time. And I’m lucky and fortunate, and I don’t ever forget that. But the last couple years of this job have been HARD. The word I most use to describe last year is « joyless ». Who wants that kind of year? This has to be the year I get out of that definition.

Year of magical thinking? Year of epic, magical comebacks? Year of looking forward to tomorrow? That sounds good.

Rich and I got breakfast before the others arrived. We walked a couple blocks to this cafe called My Oh My and the menu had a tagline about magic. And they brought coffee with a little sparkling water chaser. And then when I finished my coffee there was a message imprinted in the ceramic, reminding me to manifest original moments. I immediately declared Australia a magical place.

I have an appointment with Sherbet Birdie photography, aka Sasha Dobies, when I’m in Sydney later this week. I cannot believe this thing is happening. I cannot believe this person who I’ve been following from oceans away is going to know who I am. I made a playlist called Sherbet Birdie Magic to listen to while I’m there. Hoping it will keep me calm and also give me a little confidence and help me relax while I’m at this thing I’ve wanted to do for so, so long. I obviously added a couple songs by my new favorite Taylor Swift. But some Zumba songs from way back that I love. And songs that I think of when I lived alone in the coffee shop apartment or Eastmoor Manor. Songs that helped me train for runs.