Suzanne Calling

In the past few months, I've had a few pretty cool revelations and conversations that have lead me to be pretty introspective. As a whole, though, the journey through college has definitely helped me to look inward more than I have in the past. The job search lead to offering some support to others going through the same thing and I was able to help a friend starting out in his career with the sage wisdom that your quality of life will ALWAYS trump your paycheck. Yes, I asked for more money than I had been making in the past, but this job offer came with less pay and more vacation time-which I gladly accepted. Ed and I are at the stage in our lives where the travel beckons, so more time off and a respectable salary makes both of us happier.

This time last year, we were preparing for our second cruise, after attending the first CTTE in April.  Celtic Thunder was more low key, as we relaxed more, spent time with some of our prog friends and I only made an effort to get to one show (Gaelic Storm, loved them). Prior to the first Cruise to the Edge, Ed and I both friended people on Facebook, but didn't know anyone else IRL going on the cruise (or so we thought-we ran into my first serious boyfriend the last night).  However, we made many friends during CTTE, that we spent time with on Celtic Thunder. This year?  It feels like a reunion of friends in addition to an amazing music festival. Two weeks from today, three of us head aboard.  Game Teen will be staying home and my sister flying down from NY to keep him company, as he had no interest in going.  This time, some long-time IRL friends will be joining us. The lesson from last year was that we would have no sleep and need to recover, so we booked a second cruise wi