A Long Overdue UPDATE!! and Happy Thanksgiving to All!

Whew! So much has happened since my last entry! Where to start?! WELL, I guess I'll just start...at the beginning!

I quit. Yep, I'm done. As of 19 November 2008 (which happens to be my birthday!), (and yes, I've adjusted to the way the rest of the world writes the date...makes more sense really) I no longer work at the resort. I originally wanted to stay for exactly a year just for my own sense of accomplishment (my contract was open eneded)...which means that 7 January would have been my last day....but then realized that our annual bonus is given out on 31 January, so I should at least wait until then....but then that means that I can't put my 30 day notice in before getting the bonus (because its quite a subjective bonus scale), which means I would put my notice in on 1 February, and thus my last day would have been 2 March...which when I'm feeling done NOW, 3 more months for a bonus that could potentially amount to peanuts seems way too long to wait!

So my next option was, do I really care about making it exactly a year? My contract was open ended, so that didn't have to be a consideration. Bali has been calling my name ever since I read Eat, Pray, Love when I first arrived here. I've been dreaming about kicking back and relaxing there before going home....finding some amazing little place for $10 a night to just chill out at for a month or two...dedicate my time there to being a writer...catch up on all the blog topics that I have yet to write about...and turn this blog into a book! Then I remembered that my aunt Marie & uncle & cousins will be there for Christmas!! So that was that! Decision made!

I put my 30 day notice in on 1 November to allow myself time to explore the lush mountainous regions of Northern Thailand during the first two weeks of December before heading to Bali. But here comes the hiccup. Management had originally approved my vacation with my Dad and Jean, scheduled to be from 18 Nov to 26 Nov...but suddenly two days after putting my notice in, I received an email on 3 Nov that said they were only going to approve the first 2 days of the vacation, and that occupancy was too high to approve the rest. (Given the history of the way they operate, I am SURE that me leaving right before busy season had NOTHING to do with their change of mind...NOT!).

So my choices were, have Dad & Jean fly all the way over to Asia to see me but tell them that I had to work, OR have my last day be 17 Nov so that I may enjoy the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to explore Asia with them. Except for the fact that by leaving before working a full 30 days from when I put my notice in means that I will be out having them pay for my flight home...ouch...it was an easy decision. One of my favorite mantras I use when traveling is this: As the years go by, I will always remember the amazing memories I've had, never the money I've saved.

So along came 18 November, and I was off for Bangkok to be reunited with Dad & Jean. (Lots to say about my last day of work...all the tearful good-byes to the amazing people that I have met...that last minute regrets, such as "Why the heck am I leaving a steady paying job in the midst of the economical climate of the day?!"...packing up my entire life into little boxes, again...) ...and then there we were, Dad & Jean & I, all together in the lobby of their hotel, as if not even a day since we last saw each other had passed.

We had an amazing three days in Bangkok (which would take me another hour or two to write about, so maybe once I'm chillin' in Bali)....an amazing two days in which they stayed at the resort and I was lucky enough to still be allowed to stay in my room...and then three days ago, we flew to Cambodia and were blessed enough to witness one of the most architectural and artistic wonders of the world, an 800 year old temple called Angkor Wat. Google it!

So yesterday was the day of loving goodbyes, full of gratitude for the amazing time we had together...but not without a glitch. If you've been reading the news, you are aware that political protestors have taken over the Bangkok airport and it has resultantly been shut down. Dad and Jean have continued their travels to Vietnam, but I was meant to return to Bangkok, and then head up north to start my adventures up there...But I'm still here in Siam Reap, Cambodia...No flying to Bangkok for me.

We all went to the airport together with the expectation of catching our respective flights...but then headed back into town together, to find me a hotel. That was yesterday. So here I am today, 26 November 2008, Thanksgiving Day in America, and I am by myself, stuck in Cambodia...and FULL of gratitude of a whole different kind.... Not only of the harvest, and the abundance of food that I have had access to throughout my entire life, but of the endless list of other blessings that fill my life....the ability to travel and learn from other cultures, to see amazing sights literally all over the globe, for my heart to be filled with endless love from my family and friends, to have money in my pocket and a desire for adventure pumping through my veins, my health, to be safe, to be warm, to have clothes..that are clean, to have a roof over my head everywhere I go, to have a bottle of clean water in my beautiful purse, to have food in my belly...and to know that in a few hours I'll have some more, to have confidence in my talents that wherever I end up, I'll be just fine...

So as I end this entry, I want all of you reading this to know that I wish you the very best for a day of deep gratitude for all of the blessings you have in your life, on this day of Thanksgiving. :-)

And for me, instead of eating turkey & pumpkin pie, I'm about to head out of this little internet cafe, along this busy, dusty Cambodian street, full of motorbikes darting this way and that... to figure out, where the heck to catch a bus, to wherever the heck I decide to go next!! Sending love to you all...bye for now!