Week 1 - Get Still
Hey all,
It's already an adventure!
Read on if you’d like to hear about my first week. Reply “Unsubscribe” if you don’t.
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Day One- The journey began on Monday, April 6 in Washington CT at The Mayflower Inn (aka Dragonfly Inn) for a day in the life of the Gilmore Girls. My daughters, sister, and sister-in-law met me at the Inn, then the five of us piled into my sister’s car and drove around the countryside to find and photo all the Gilmore Girls sites which are spread across a couple of cute small towns in the area. Washington has the inn, the diner, the café, the prep school, garage, and bookstore. New Milford seems the most Stars Hallow-y with the gazebo, town green, antique store, and dance studio. I’m not actually sure we saw everything Gilmore related in the various towns, but that was enough for us, it was a great kick off. My family departed around 5:00pm after helping me unload the car (thx guys!) and get everything up to my room. After I said good-bye and shut the door, I realized this trip was really happening. I looked around the room, smiled, and threw my arms in the air in joy, I was so excited for this amazing journey to begin!
Day Two – I slept great in the cozy bed overlooking the forest and felt more than ready to tackle the day at the spa, beginning with a 10:00am yoga class to get some good energy flowing. I got my space all set up with my mat, blocks and blanket, sat in by best meditative criss-cross applesauce pose and got still. I took a few deep breaths, started to really relax, then I felt it. Something prickly on my back left shoulder. I tried to shoo it away and it wouldn’t budge. I wondered for a second if I had a mole I forgot about but I didn’t think so. I asked the lady behind me to check it out and see if it might be a bug or something. She got her glasses, examined it and said “oh, it’s a tick.” Ugh! No! What do I do?? I ask. CT is ground zero for ticks so I hoped these locals had some ideas. I was frozen.
The yoga instructor took control, said he’d take care of it, and then just pulled the thing right out in three seconds, before I had time to weigh or worry about his offer. He asked if he should throw it away or if I wanted to save it. I’m like – huh? save it? They tell me I can mail it to a testing center to see if it has any diseases for peace of mind. If it doesn’t have Lyme disease, then I should be good. Then someone else says to just get the medication and take it anyway just in case. I say I’m not ready to make the decision so I stick the still alive bug in an empty water bottle and have a lovely Yoga class and day at the spa.
Around 4:00 me and the bug head over to the main Inn to get cell reception and call the doctor, who decides it best to take precautions and writes me a prescription for a one-day dose of an antibiotic. I drive 15 minutes to the closest pharmacy, which funny enough is back in Stars Hallow near the gazebo, pick up the $1.50 dose of doxycycline, and overnight my tick to the testing center to see what comes back. In the meantime, I feel great, so I carry on.
Day Three – I find another bug bite on the back of my neck while driving around exploring and taking pics. Ugh! This one itches. It’s not the tick, it’s something new and different. I let this one go for now, figuring it will fix itself.
Day Four – Went for a trail ride on horseback at a local farm, enjoyed the Inn, took pictures of my red spots to follow their patterns (gross).
Day Five – Checked out of my room and drove to Lake George, stopped in some adorable towns along the way. In Sharon CT there was a really cute house turned into a home goods store that I just couldn’t pass by. I dropped in and met the owner, Bobby, a great guy who told me he turned 50 and left his job in NYC to move to the country with his husband and start a small business. He said they never looked back and are so happy with the decision. I loved talking to him and was so glad I met him. It made me feel better about my own decision to leave work and take this trip. I felt inspired and hopeful about what could be next for me when I get back.
Day Six – Woke up in the middle of the night to a super hallucinogenic dream where plant wallpaper from the LAST hotel was all around me in 3D in the middle of the night at THIS hotel. So, when I woke in the morning with some more mysterious red spots, I decided this was a good time to pop into an urgent care to get some eyes on me and some meds for aforementioned critter issues that were doing weird things to my body. 14 days of antibiotics, now that’s more like it. I’m carrying on.
Day Seven– explored Lake George and surrounding towns. On to my next stop.
What I learned this week:
-Get still. You notice important things.
-Always check for ticks when you go for a walk in the woods, especially if you walk through brush to a private area to pee because the bathrooms near the parking lot are closed for the season.
-If you ever need to get a tick tested, here is the link for the UMASS tick testing center: https://www.tickreport.com
My favorite pictures from the week are attached:
“Stars Hallow” – Day one kick-off tour, infamous gazebo in background.
“Church Reflection” –Beautiful drive on country road in New Preston CT, love the reflection of the church in the hood of my car.
“Bobby and the Bag” – This is Bobby, owner of the store I couldn’t just drive by because clearly the Universe thought we should meet. I texted this photo to my sister later that day and before I could even tell her the story of Bobby, the first thing she said was “Did you buy something there? Is that your bag he’s holding? How are you going to get all this stuff across country and back?!” Busted. That is indeed my bag he is holding. Looking at this picture makes me laugh now and also makes me feel happy, like I’m on the right track, and that’s it’s okay to live the life I want to live.
“Library Period” - I thought this picture of the library in Lake George was hysterical. I guess it’s a clear indication you should expect nothing inside but one thing– books. It is a library. Period. Only a library. Unlike Dollar General, which I also went to that day. I had never been in one before and wanted to see what it was because Jim Cramer is always talking about it on Mad Money (good recession play apparently). This store basically has everything you would get at a Ben Franklin (and all the items seem as old as Ben Franklin himself), right next to grocery store aisles of food you are supposed to eat. Seems like a health code violation to me, but hey what do I know, and heads up, nothing was a dollar or a dollar in general. Just sayin.
“Hadley Sign” – saw this along the road, always loved this poem and thought it a fitting way to close out week one.
Website coming along. Will keep you posted when it’s up and running.
Thinking of you all,
Kim
