Nostalgia

Please forgive another post about childhood writing.  You see, I'm packing to move AGAIN and have been coming across a lot of great old relics.

These letters came from Auntie Julie, who saved them and later sent me photocopies.  The first two are from when I first started to learn to read and write.  I was three.  (I was very smart.  Unfortunately I peaked at about eight.)

DAR [sic] JULIE
FROM 
TO JULIE
FROM KADY
JULIE
I LOVE
YOU
HOW
JULIE
JASON
IS
MY
BOYFREIND [sic]

Why on earth would I scribble out 'I LOVE YOU'?  Well I didn't.  See below.

KASEY
DID THAT
SCRIBBLE
I CRIED
SO MOM
HIT HER
BUT THATS
OOOK
YOU CAN
STILL
READ IT

Justice was served.  "I cried so mom hit her."

The next one is dated November 1984.  Seven years old.

Dear Julie,
I'm sorry I didn't write to your
letter.  School  School is great.
We're talking about camma's [sic] and conten(?)
I'm in batton [sic] and I'm in group 4 and I've
been in for a month month
I really miss you soooooooooooooo
so much I I realy [sic] miss you
sooooooooooooooooooooo much
There's a picture on the back
I got a cabbage patch
Named Ethen Nathanial!
Love Kady

The cabbage patch was actually Kasey's.  My dad found it in the dumpster at our apartment complex.  It was naked and had a noose around its neck.  My dad didn't bother to take the noose off before presenting it to Kasey.  We were over the moon.

Julie     November
Sorry I didn't write to you the other

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"   Everybody gets boobs.  Except Julie.  Annie eyes.

This next one isn't dated, but judging by 'The Goonies' reference, it was 1985 and I was eight years old.

[picture of lips] "smack"
Dear Julie,
How are you?  We haven't
ben [sic] writing for a long time
cuz' I ben [sic] writin' letters
to other people.  Mandy (our
dog) just had baby pups their [sic]
cute their [sic] so tiny.  Gosh I 
hardly got any-thing to say
but I guess I can manage.  Do you 
think you can tell Aaron to
pull up his pants alright. Tell
Debbie I said, "HI" O.K.
We watched this one movie
called 'The Goonies' it wo-
uld be the best show you ev-
er saw ah it is good you 
should see it (if you didn't
see it) there's this one man
in the show he has one eye
down by his nose and has ab-
our 4 (four) teeth in his mouth
it's just cool.  See on
the next B side.  turn over

like I said I don't got any
thing to say I better go cuz' 
I got a lotta writin' to do.




Love,


Kady
Hexum


P.S. Love ya sooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
[picture of arms hugging]
much
Bye

I got nothing to say.  But I got a lotta writin' to do.

Always the Writer/Poet/Dreamer

You may not be able to handle the cuteness of this post.  Just a warning.  I.  Used to be.  So.  Cute.

A few years ago, I got a call from my second grade teacher Mrs. Myer.  She and I are pictured here:

If you can guess who I am you are amazing.
Second row, second from right.  Pink imitation polo.  Duh.  How cool was Adam Aili, with his hands tucked in his pants?  (Poor Adam Stromstad in the front with his sideways tucked in shirt.  You know his mom was embarrassed about that.)   And poor Mrs. Myer.  White tights?  Brown shoes?  Come ON.  I can't even spin that.

Anyway,  Mrs. Myer was so sweet.  She said that she had been saving a little poem that I had written and she wanted me to have it.  She was apt to save her students' best work and then return it to them post-high school.  Here, for your reading pleasure, is the poem that I wrote when I was seven, cerca 1984/5.

(Either I had or had not heard of iambic pentameter.)

I Wish I had an Animal
by Kady

Dreaming of poodles.  While cats remain trapped, below.

Amigo                     (*huh?)
His mother said,
Come Pete my son.
Tell me why your eyes are
sad My little one.  His father
said, How quiet you are
let me play a tune
on my old guitar.

Can you see the detail on that "H"?  Vines.  Like the beginning of all good story books.  That guitar is awfully big, BTW. Plus everybody knows guitars have six strings.  Idiot.

First of all, it's interesting that my poem is written from the point of view of my brother, Pete.  Maybe I was scared my parents would know that it was ME who really wanted a pet.  Better to lay the blame on poor Pete.  Second of all, my dad has never and will never "play a tune on my old guitar" because he doesn't play guitar.  It's true he might have had a beard, but the T-shirt slogan seems unfair:

Beer is all I dri-

nk

I don't think that's a fair representation of my dad.  He was more a Whiskey Sour guy.  Also he was never bald.

I want a cat any
old cat or something like
that.  A dog any old dog
or at liest [sic] a frog.  please
could I have a frog, or a
dog.  or a cat or something
like that

I remember being kind of proud of being able to draw poodles so well.  But what about the back end?  Who knows.  I like how I decided to scribble out and use "or something like that" later...moments later.

puppies are neat 
they always curl up at my 
feet.  Raccons [sic] have dark
black masks they scurry
to do their many tasks
they wash their food before
they eat something good
something sweet.

I realize now as an adult...raccons [sic] eat neither good nor sweet things.  They eat mostly garbage.

Now this is my favorite part.  It's all iambicly perfect, rhyme-y, and adorable:


as I said before to you
I want a cat with a eyes of blue
one that tries to look her 
best that washes wat east
and washes west that
washes north and washes
south with the washcloth
washcloth in her mouth

The tail is a little scary.  But that tongue.  That washcloth tongue.  I think I got the point across.  [Annie eyes.]

and papa if you think I want
a bird I think it is my 
prayers you've heard
I'd never turn on 
the big T.V. I'd rather
play with a bird in a tree

Ha!  Big T.V.  We didn't even HAVE a TV.  And somehow ol' Hal got a severe combover here.  And a new name.  Papa?  I never called him that.  Ew.  Weird.  "Papa can you hear me?  Papa can you see me?"  It's so...Yentl.  Not so...Hexum.  Even my combover 'papa' is like "?" in his thought bubble.    Why is the tree grabbing my boob?  And why am I me?  Wasn't I my brother Pete?  [Annie eyes again.]

The End


card

If you want to check out this book, it is available.  ...Strange.  It hasn't been checked out once since 1985?

Hal-isms, Vol. 21

"You misquote me at times in that magazine of yours."

"My memory must not be as good as your abbreviations."

"Kelly's off the list.  You're back on top.  She challenged me to a couple things and then remembered stuff from years ago I didn't do."

Sorry Kelly.  It's clear I had "favorite daughter" locked in years ago.

Sunday Favorites: Why I Love and Hate Flying

New to A Lady Reveals Nothing?  You've missed SO MUCH.  Not to worry.  Every Sunday, I dig through the archives to repost an old favorite.  Mostly because I'm too lazy to come up with new content every single day.  Enjoy!  This story first appeared October 11, 2008:




Favorite things about flying:

1. The plane usually is going somewhere cool.

2. Walking around with just a tiny backpack and everybody else has huge wheeled luggage.

3. Feeling independent and cool being a lone traveler.

4. Being able to cure myself of ear-popping by holding my nose and blowing out my ears.

5. Farting, but knowing nobody would ever blame it on cute lil' me.

6. Day dreaming about a crash where I am the hero, and I selflessly help everyone out of the plane. Sometimes I die, but sometimes I become the surrogate mother of the baby I saved who had no other family.

Least favorite things about flying:

1. All the farting that goes on. SHEESH! Maybe the atmospheric pressure change causes gaseous noxiousicity to happen...I don't know but planes constantly smell like poop.

2. Sitting next to people who don't have the good sense to put their arms in front of them, rather than in my seat; when I clearly am leaning waaaaay over to make room for their dumb arm.

3. Poor little babies crying the whole way.

4. Having to pay for ginger ale :(

5. Waking up and noticing that I had my head leaned back and my mouth open.

6. Waking myself up with a snort.

7. Having to pee so bad and the stupid Fasten Seat Belt is ON THE WHOLE TIME.

8. Sitting next to ladies who think their perfume smells so good that they need to bathe in it.

9. Finding wads of hair in your hand when all you wanted was to find the seat belt that fell below the seat.

10. Day dreaming about that crash again, but this time worrying that everybody will push past me and I will get stuck and burn to death.

Something...Seems...Off?

"I'm sorry -- you have two caterpillars crawling across...do you want me to...no?  OK."

Today's fortune cookie:

"YOUR INFLUENCE HAS A PROFOUND IMPACT ON OTHERS."

Yes everyone.  Caterpillar eyebrows are the new groomed eyebrows.

Friday Blog Love

This family adopted the "Zero Waste" lifestyle a few years back.  Seriously.  Zero Waste.  They're the kind of family whose garbage-in-an-entire-year-can-fit-in-a-thimble.  Even if you're not ready to make the Zero Waste leap, you can sure learn a thing-or-two about reducing waste from this awesome blog!

The Zero Waste Home

Refuse, Refuse, Refuse.  Then reduce, reuse, recycle.

Guest Post: Exploring The Twitter, by Minty Wafflefarmer

Looking for some insight on The Twitter? I'm still learning how the whole thing works. I follow a guy by the name of "Minty Wafflefarmer" and he makes me laugh every day. If you're not following, do it now.  I asked "Minty" to write a guest post to bring us up to speed on this whole Twitting thing, and he has also included his favorite Tweeters! Enjoy~ A Lady Reveals Nothing

Hello Internet word renderers,

My name is Minty Wafflefarmer (not a real name) and i use the "twitter handle" @australianimal and i am going to write about some things to do on the interwebz when you are bored or in the middle of a "very important" work meeting or job interview.

First off, there's the website called Twitter www.twitter.com Its pretty new. Maybe you've heard of it? Some people don't understand Twitter. Its kind of weird. Twitter can be used for many things, but most newcomers are like "what is this? a bunch of Facebook statuseses?" because you only get 140 characters to put in a thought or something. For example you could put:

"I just brushed my teeth, but instead of toothpaste I grabbed the Preparation H. OH NO!" 

You can be a little share bear about any or every part of your daily life. Lots of REAL CERTIFIED CELEBRITIES are on Twitter and do just that. That can be for some people I guess. But for me, I am enjoying using Twitter to tell little short "jokes". I am on there anonymously and I enjoy putting strange silly little one-three liner jokes which hopefully will make some of my followers chuckle. I guess it's like pretending I am a stand up comedian and the followers are members in the audience. Anyway, you can get feedback on your jokes if you link your Twitter account to a service called Favstar. (www.favstar.fm) When someone retweets a tweet of yours or Favorites it, Favstar counts up each of those for each tweet you do and then you can see if a joke you told was funny to however many different people. Its like the laughs at a comedy show?  Here's a tweet I did awhile ago:

"When Renee Zellweger was little she'd ask her mom, "Can I be an actress when I grow up?" Her mom was all SHUT UP AND EAT YOUR LEMONS."

Here is a list of people on Twitter that I think write the most consistently funny jokes. Most are good clean fun, but: "Language Warning" sometimes.

@trumpetcake 

@Matty_Softmitts

@Cheeseboy22

@christianduguay

@fleshcake

@bridger_w

@MarylandMudflap

@lizard_wizard77

@badbanana

@outerjohn

@kramediggles

@sbellelauren

@TheSofiya

@markleggett

@AmberTozer

@wolfpupy

@shelbyfero

@MaybeNotSteve

@meganamram 

You know what other sites are good for fun? www.pinterest.com and www.stumbleupon.com my goodness you could waste so much time on those and still have more fun than "going outside" also don't forget Words with Friends and Instagram if you haven't yet tried those/live in a cave. :) Thanks for your time today and follow me on twitter for a giggle or 40 or none depending on your tastes. 

Signed,

 the albino koala "Minty Wafflefarmer" https://twitter.com/#!/Australianimal

Shhhhhh!  Minty sleepy!

Currently Obsessed With...

...Lush Shampoo and Conditioner

You can find Lush in some Macy's, and they also have their own storefronts too.  Their products are handmade, they don't test on animals, and they try to use as little packaging as possible.

BIG.  It's shampoo.  But it's got coarse sea salt in it which just gives your hair tons of volume.  Tons.  This is why swimming in the ocean is so good for your hair.  But we're not all lucky enough to live next to an ocean.  It lathers up so thick too, so you're also going to get a nice clean shampooing.

Veganese conditioner.  It's Vegan, thus the name.  This stuff smells SO good and won't weigh down all the good you just did volumizing with BIG.

This is me before BIG and Veganese:

And this is me after:

**Bonus product review: Aromaco deodorant bar.  It has Chamomile vinegar, which "tightens pores, acts as an antibacterial agent and soothes the skin"; Patchouli, which "kills bacteria and soothes the skin";  Baking Soda and Witch Hazel.  Great option for folks who don't want to use regular deodorant (me.)  I recommend storing in a ziplock bag, and also getting the bar a little wet first otherwise you'll rub the skin right off your underarm as the bar can get pretty dry.

Meet the New Mr. A Lady Reveals Nothing!

Mom, Dad,
Meet your new future son-in-law (As long as his Widow doesn't mind):

Ted Hawkins.  He's gorgeous, he's a musician, and just listen to how he loves his woman.  If this song isn't your favorite song in about 30 seconds, there's something seriously wrong with you.





"What do you want from the liquor store?  Something sour, or something sweet?
I'll buy you all that your belly can hold.  You can be sure you won't suffer no more."

I love this whole album.

Summer-isms, Vol. 23

"I like a Katy Perry song."

"What do you call sportspeople?  Oh.  Athletes.  Athletes are the most uninteresting people in the world.  Unless it's David Beckham."

"What if we got accused of killing each other and we DID?"

"It was the 90s.  I mean it was 2001."

"Oh no!  I still think I'm 23."

Sunday Favorites: Tutor. Tooter. Same Thing.

New to A Lady Reveals Nothing?  You've missed SO MUCH.  Not to worry.  Every Sunday, I dig through the archives to repost an old favorite.  Mostly because I'm too lazy to come up with new content every single day.  Enjoy!  This story first appeared on August 1, 2011:

My cousin Jacqui takes an elderly woman named Mrs. Osgood into Austin to have therapy about once a month. She is the properest of propers and would certainly NEVER allow her children to use the word fart. One week Jacqui had to bring her daughters River and Willow along for the ride. Jacqui jumped out to pump gas, and as she stood beside her car, heard River say, "One time, when we were in Minnesota, my mom farted so loud it sounded like a tuba!" (p.s. I have heard Jacqui fart and 'tuba' is a perfect description.) Of course, Jacqui laughed hysterically while Mrs. Osgood sat absolutely stone-faced. Later, Jacqui asked Willow why River said that. Willow told Jacqui that she was explaining to Mrs. Osgood about how she was so relieved because she had just passed her standardized testing in math. She had been struggling but Jacqui and Willow prepped and studied and worked very hard and Willow ended up not only passing, but getting a perfect score of 100! Mrs. Osgood said, "your mom must be a very good tutor!" Willow said, "yah, she's the best!" Which reminded River of the time in Minnesota when Jacqui "tuted" so loud it sounded LIKE A TUBA.

Friday Blog Love

If there's one thing I'm good at, it's paying off debt and saving money.  (Is that two things?)  Anyway, it's the whole reason I have been able to be unemployed and irresponsible for the last two years.  Which is why I love today's Friday Blog Love.  

This shout out goes to Anna at And Then She Saved, a cool chick who paid off more than $17,000 in debt in the span of just over a year and lived to tell the story.  And you know what?  The main thing she did to accomplish that insane task was to STOP SPENDING.  She's currently SAVING money.  So cool!

I love her Spending Fast...and her Spending Diet...and how she documented every penny of savings here.

She's even going to be on the Nate Birkhus show!

Special Treat:

(And I'm very excited about this...)  You may recognize the author of her guest post today. 

Hint:  
It's Me!

Hal-isms, Vol 20

"Just because somebody says hi to you Kady, it doesn't mean they're hitting on you."

"Rowdy!  You consternation!  Why do you gotta be such a bectum?  Yah.  Wag your tail."

"I better go to the bathroom otherwise I'm gonna have a baby."

"I'd like to fish from shore.  Pick apples.  Grind a deer into a porridge.  Stuff it into a tube of gut.  Whatever them Indians ate."

"At work they called me Black and Decker.  Powerhead.  And it wasn't because of my big head -- it was because of how my head acts."

You Guys are Creepy Starin' it Right UP!

I got pretty excited in September of 2010 when I hit 50,000 page views.
I was even exciteder in March of 2011 when I hit 60,000.

Then I forgot about it for a while...But the other day I couldn't help but notice I was teetering towards the 100,000 hit mark.  And then it happened!!!

Anyway, excuse me, I gotta click some more to get my numbers up.  (Just kidding.)

Not me.

Nerdy Traditions

I was sitting around the dinner table with my mom, dad and my brother Pete and I noticed we were all very nerdily wearing our high school graduation rings on our right-hand-ring fingers.  Still.  After all these years.  My dad has been wearing his since 1965!

Before you judge too harshly, I should explain that we all graduated from Falls High School in International Falls, Minnesota.  A school which just happens to have the oldest graduation ring tradition in the United States.  Dating back to 1929, this ring design has been used every year since.  Everybody who graduates from Falls High School is offered this one option from Jostens for their class ring.  And most people buy it.

It's the kind of ring you actually want to wear for the rest of your life.  Check it out:

Missing from this family photo are Kim, Keri, Kelly and Kasey, all of whom I'm sure still wear theirs too.

It's got a waterfall (International Falls, duh) and some pine trees (Minnesota, duh) and all the way around the outside of that it says, in tiny tiny letters: "Falls High School * International Falls, Minn."

On one side, it says 19 and on the other it shows your graduation year.  Ours are:

Mom: '67
Dad: '65
Pete: '91
Me: '95

You get your ring before you graduate, and you're supposed to point the waterfall towards yourself, signifying the knowledge entering your body and at graduation they do a little ceremony where everybody turns their rings around, meaning now it's time to share that knowledge.  (See the comment attached from Auntie Cheryl).

Are you part of any nerdy traditions?  And proud of it?  Let me know in the comments.

Ricky! Ricky!!

When I go running up in Roosevelt, Minnesota, usually I just go north up Rocky Point Road until I get tired and then turn around and go back home.  It's a pretty boring route, with nothing much to look at except expanses of gorgeous farmland and skies broad and blue.  These days it's pretty cold up there and so I get all strapped down with loads of clothes.

The other day I went for my run and when I got up near the Ravendahlen place -- one of two houses that I pass along my route -- I noticed that a woman was knocking on the door.  (In small towns you sort of get in everybody's business.  'I wonder who's visiting Mrs. Ravendahlen?  At this hour?')  I waved.  She waved back.  Then I could feel her looking at me, even though she was about 100 yards away.  She started walking towards me waving her arms.  She was yelling something.  I popped my earbud out of my ear.

I yelled, "Hi?"  Because she was behaving really strangely.

"Oh!!! I thought you were my Graaaand-SON!"

(She had been yelling, "Ricky!  Ricky!!")

Sunday Favorites: Henry

New to A Lady Reveals Nothing?  You've missed SO MUCH.  Not to worry.  Every Sunday, I dig through the archives to repost an old favorite.  Mostly because I'm too lazy to come up with new content every single day.  Enjoy!  This story first appeared on March 19, 2010:

While traveling in New Zealand, my friend Teri and I stayed with the most adorable couple, Henry and Marion.  They're in their 70s and I just loved them.  So much so that after Teri went home, I stayed an extra week.  I was determined to be a good guest and so I told Henry one day that I would help him with any chores that needed to be done.

He asked me to accompany him on his errands which included a trip to the dump.  Mind you, the garbage man comes to Henry's house, and so does the recycling man.  In fact, they had just been out that morning.  But that wasn't good enough for Henry.  He wanted to deliver his own garbage and recycling.  And now I totally understand why! 

We parked outside the glass area, and chucked each and every bottle individually into it's proper bin (brown, green, clear).  He reckoned I couldn't throw very well and so I had to try it.  It was so fun to break all the bottles.  Here is Henry tossing his bottles:

This one was mine:
(Henry said, "get out your aggressions, Hexum")

Cans and plastic:

This pile of crap was home to the four gas refridgerators that Henry pinched and fixed up. Three went up to their cabin (bach) and he gave the other one away.

Then he brought me to the Foundry where he worked for many years. We got to see them melting steel and pouring it into moulds! And then of course we were kicked out for safety reasons. But then Henry talked to the guy for a while and convinced him to take us to an even better viewing spot and I got some pictures.

They made some of the Regata Sailboats here in Thames that were in a famous sailboat race in the States. Sorry, can't remember which one.  How interesting!

Henry is so full of pluck I tell you, he's always joking around. So anyway after our trip to the dump I did get a chance to help him lift some heavy bags filled with sawdust up into a truck. He had jumped up into the truck and I was handing him the bags. I found a bag that looked like it was completely full, but it was super light and so there must have been something different inside it than all the other bags. Anyway, I saved it for almost last and then pretended that the big bag was super, super heavy with my awesome acting skills and then he looked at me like I was so stupid for trying to lift something so heavy, and even coached me on how to hand it to him. He got prepared to lift a very heavy bag and when I let go he gasped!  The light-as-air bag went flying.  I got him! And then he threw it at me.

Country Song Lyric of the Day

"You can blend in in the country, be a stand out in the fashion world.  Be invisible to a white tail and irresistible to a redneck girl...
"Designed by Mother Nature and by God...
"Ain't nothing that dudn't go with camouflage."

Friday Blog Love

This Friday, I'm sending a little shout out to dbs of Think.Stew.

He's funny, he's Canadian, and he likes to combine words to make new meanings.  Another one of my favorite features is his "things that deserve the stink-eye", a hilarious showcase of life's little irritations.  Enjoy!

Hal-isms, Vol. 19

"This guy ought to be given a gasoline enema.  And then light a match."

"I don't want to learn anything tonight.  I just want to eat some popcorn."

"I kiss my rifle.  People laugh.  I tell you what.  But I shoot deer too."

"I'm beginning to think that movies aren't really real."

"One thing about a wet saddle.  You'll stick to it."

Uncle Joe

If you'll forgive a somber post...

My Uncle Joe is dying.  He's been a very 'special' member of our family, in the very politically correct sense of the word, as he is Developmentally Disabled.

Here's a little tribute to good ol' Uncle Joel Burgess, 58.

Handsome fella.  Cerca 1976.  Age 23.

Floatin'.  Age 47.

These next two were taken the day Joe cleared the beach.  He was playing with my cousin Ryan and lost track of him.  So he told the lifeguard that Ryan was missing and all the kids had to get out of the water, sending everybody into a Ryan-finding frenzy.  Of course Ryan was safely nowhere near the water.  Check out Joe's muscles!

Uncle Joe loved to go fishing with his brothers.  My Uncle Danny used to get a lot of guff because he always brought way too much stuff on the boat.  When asked what he thought Danny could name his new boat, Joe suggested, "The Kitchen Sink".

A couple life lessons we can all learn from Uncle Joe:

• Be happy.
• Smile.
• Never end a conversation without saying, "I Love You."
• If you're waking up from a surgery in the recovery room at the hospital, a funny thing to say when the Doctor comes in is "What's Up Doc?"

See you in the funny papers, Joe.  

Guest Post: My Embarrassing Tampon Story

From my Sister Kim:

Our front yard was visible from at least 30 apartments as well as the neighboring houses.  Once, I was wrestling on the front lawn while neighbor kids and family were hanging around.  I was wearing an adorable pair of powder pink painter pants that had a long, skinny tool pocket down the leg.  It was a perfect sized pocket to store o.b. tampons.  Or so I thought.
One of the tampons fell out of the pocket.  I didn't see it until one of the neighbor kids was holding it up waving it, and yelling, “Hey, Kim, do you smoke?! I didn’t know you smoked!!”

Care to share an embarrassing tampon story in the comments?  (Of course you can remain anonymous, but you'll get 1 Million extra points for identifying yourself.)

12 Things I Learned While Traveling the World

I spent much of 2010 & 2011 traveling the world, living out of a backpack.  Here are twelve things I learned:

1) I Never Met a Stranger
If you aren't able to speak the language of the country in which you're traveling, that's OK.  This deaf woman and I had a 45 minute conversation using only our hands.  Smile.  Learn a few phrases in every language.  'Hello', 'Goodbye', 'Thank You' and 'Excuse Me' go a long way.

Vietnam.

2) Soap is Soap.

You can wash your hair, your face, your body and your clothes with shampoo.  I recommend Pantene because it works great for all purposes, and you can get it everywhere in the world.

3) You Don't Need Much.

The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to carry.

4) People are People.

All over the world people are pretty much the same.  Mostly, they're nice.

Indonesia.

5) Face Fears.

They're not that scary when you're staring them in the face.  I'm claustrophobic and deathly afraid of sharks.  But pass up on a chance to dive the Great Barrier Reef?  Not this gal.

Australia.

6) Slow Down.

Going slowly reduces stress, and costs a lot less.  The best lesson I learned is how to relax, breathe, quit scheduling and enjoy life at a much slower pace.  You'll see and experience so much more.

7) Pack a Towel.

There are always going to be spontaneous trips to a waterfall, the ocean or a pool.  A towel also makes a great blanket and/or pillow on a long bus ride.

Nicaragua.

8) Try Something New.

Roasted grasshoppers taste just like roasted nuts.  Easy.  And no, I don't like tripe.  But I tried it, which made my adorable Italian-Brazilian hosts very happy.

9) Waiting Isn't So Bad.

A large part of travel is spent waiting.  For the bus.  For the plane.  For the museum to open.  Calm down and be prepared.  I listened to a lot of free podcasts of This American Life on iTunes.  Always have a book handy just in case.  You might be surprised to find you actually look forward to times when you're able to just.  Wait.

10) Everything's Negotiable.

Another helpful phrase to learn in the language of the country you're visiting is 'I don't have a lot money'.  I brought this home with me, and now I'll frequently ask for discounts while shopping or dining out.  The majority of the time I succeed.

11) Accept Hospitality Graciously.

There are so many opportunities while traveling to be gracious and allow people to show their hospitality.  I had to learn this one, because it doesn't come naturally.  Smile, say 'thank you' and vow to pay it forward to the next visitors who come your way.  

12) Home is a Precious, Wonderful Thing.

'Nuff Said.

*I love this woman's list of seven things you learn about yourself while traveling solo.