I love my job. Hands down, it's an incredible job and I thank God, probably every other day, for putting this in his big picture for me (Thanks, G!). There are so many amazing perks that come with this job and for me, at the top of the list, (Besides the travel) is probably the fact that I get to stay at some amazing, AH MAZ ING, hotels worldwide. Take this girl... settled into a 5 star hotel combined with an amazing location...add her imagination and ability to get so far lost from reality and it's not hard to see what the equation is...Brittany thinks she's a Lady of Leisure! Yes, yes, yes, it's true, but I promise that if you get over the fact that you are a faux LOL (Lady of Leisure, prob not a coincidence that it's also Laugh Out Loud) you can really have fun with it! For example, I just came off of a three week trip at an amazing resort in Sonoma, California. The spa at the hotel where I stayed was recently ranked top 25 spas by Travel and Leisure magazine. Did I attend morning water yoga at the spa with the other LOL's, all the while imagining that I was one of them? Of course I did. Did I walk around the hotel in my cute, fall clothes (Non uni hours) and make believe that I was celebrating my one year anniversary of marriage with my gorgeous husband by touring wine country? Duh. Did buy lavender candles and votives for my room to create a sanctuary of luxury, leisure, and love, all the while pretending that I was in my very own room, in my beautiful spanish mansion? Is that even a question?
I just arrived on a program in Argentina. I am in the Andes (Thanks again, G!) and in the town of Bariloche. It is often referred to as the "Switzerland of South America"...and it's more than obvious why. Upon arrival, (24 hours of really bitchy travel), I was taken aback by the beauty (Puke Pretty... aka I could vom bc it's so pretty). Bariloche is a two hour flight southwest of Buenos Aries. It's remote, quiet, and unbelievably beautiful, so after an awful journey here, I arrived and what did I do? Sleep. Ugh! What a waste, but really, I was beyond exhausted. When I woke I decided to take advantage of my one night alone here (I came one day earlier than the rest of my colleagues) so I took a hot bath, got dressed and decided to walk around the property. The hotel is this beautiful, cozy, lodge, overlooking a huge lake, with the Andes Mountains (Snow-capped, of course) in the background. I did not get far, the property is not THAT big and I ended up at the lobby bar. I sat down and my waiter informed me that happy hour was going for 30 more minutes (All liquor=50% off). You have no idea how helpful this discount is to a faux LOL (I really wanted to take advantage and order four, but knew that would give away my disguise). I ordered one (and two and three very quickly) and fell hard, very, very hard. There I was, in a beautiful room with a huge fireplace and wood floors, beautiful rugs and chandeliers, amazing floral arrangements....and tons, and tons of LOL's with their lovers, and not the typical LOL (30 something plastic female with 50-60 something impeccably dressed male)....these lovers were all well into their 60's and looked beyond amazing together. They were sharing drinks, laughs and years of love while looking out at the lake and the mountains over early evening drinks (As I sat creeping on them alone with my drink(s)). Never have I EVER been so envious of couples (Seri). Pretty sure on this particular evening I didn't come off as an LOL, they probably thought my parents were sleeping or something, but either way, I think I fell harder, on this particular evening, than Taylor Swift does on any given Tuesday.
So the upside to my crazy job? Envisioning myself as a real LOL. The downside? Ugh... being an FLOL. Why order the pork steak when you can have filet every night? Get my point? It's easy to get spoiled and it's getting very hard (Who am I kidding, it always was) for me to differentiate fantasy from reality and I know that as a SCL, my end goal is not to be an LOL, but every girl can have a dream, right?!
Until tomorrow, I will enjoy my one evening alone, sans work, and savor life as an FLOL.
