Sarah’s Creative Journey

            To answer my own questions from last week... How do you use creativity in your day to day life?             If setting alarms on 5:53 or 6:02 or 6:57 is considered creative, then I definitely do that.             I usually start my day (drive to work) with music, so whatever is in my CD player to give me a kickstart as well as thinking about lyrics (or trying to figure out what the lyrics are)             Throughout the day I am usually trying my hardest to make latte art.             Coming home from work is where it really starts to become challenging- how will I spend my time?  I am pretty much never bored, so there is an endless list, but I try to mix it up some and just follow my instincts.              Believe it or not, dinner is usually the most creative part of an...

Calling all family, friends, acquaintances, friends of friends, and even strangers!  My mind has been going crazy lately with more thoughts, ideas, and questions.  I have trouble staying focused on any one thing, because I feel inspired by only a million other things.   I often feel stuck.  I can tell myself what I need to do, but can't always pull the energy to follow through.  I have so many paths I can travel, but which one to take? Since there is never a clear answer, I keep asking questions, pondering, challenging myself, extending and improving any and all abilities I can with the time I have.  My hope, through doing these things, is that something will stick to the wall and I will find myself climbing up instead of looking down. So after the past year of weddings and planning one myself, I have had more time to focus on my artwork and creativity.  But the more time I spend out of college, the more I find wanting that community-that ...

Italy Time 9:00 am - wake up, pack, eat breakfast 9:40 am - check out of hotel 10:17 am - catch waterbus to airport 11:17 am - arrive at the terminal and go through security (in Venice airport) 12:50 pm - board the plane heading for JFK 1:30 pm - leave Venice Eastern Standard Time (6 hours behind Venice) 4:30 pm - arrive at JFK 5:45 pm - go through security, get food, found out flight is delayed until midnight 6:20 pm - found out flight is 'on time' 6:22 pm - walk to gate 351 6:30 pm - walk to gate 349 6:50 pm - walk to gate 353 7:25 pm - still waiting for a plane? (purchase a salad, proceed to mix it by shaking, and spill it everywhere)  7:40 pm - flight delayed 'only' until 10pm now 8:45 pm - chat with other people waiting 10:00 pm - flight delayed until 10:05pm 10:05 pm - of course no word or movement, and desk attendants have been gone at least 30 minutes at this point and the phone is ringing nonstop (a good 20 of those 30 minutes) until (FINALL...

Venice was a big change compared to the beginning of our trip.  The difference- Venice is an island with no automobiles, only tourists, boats, and gondolas.  That and instead of an AirBnb this time we had a hotel.  Luckily our hotel was very close to the Rialto Bridge, which served as a landmark for our location.  Knowing where you are or even where you are going without (even with!) a map is pretty difficult considering there are so many "roads." I say roads lightly because they are so small they are more like alleyways. Gondolas! St. Mark's Square Alleyways, canals, and bridges, then add many many tourists, and you get one very small, crowded and busy island. Tim and I weren't too crazy about it, but we had to explore! We got lost, shopped around some, then got hungry and stopped for dinner in a not very crowded ristorante.  Afterwards, we decided we should try to find our way back to the hotel before it became too dark.  When we found our hot...

Eager to continue our journey of a more rural Italy, we used the next day to travel to Fiesole, a small city right outside of Florence (NE).  We found out about this particular city through a friend at a winery here in Columbus, who grew up there.  And only a short bus ride away, it was hard to say no- especially since there was a great view and another gelato shop to try out. So funny side story- the buses in Italy are based on a sort of honesty system.  While also enforced by a few ATAF "guards" I guess you could call them.  Tickets were only 1.2 euros a piece for as many rides in a 4 hour period (so pretty darn cheap considering!) If you wanted to buy a ticket on the bus, they sold them for 2 euros. Well, before we left the states, we were warned to make sure we always validate our tickets - bus and train- meaning to get them stamped or punched before or when we get on.  The first time we rode in Florence, everyone seemed to be getting on and off without va...

This day was one of my favorite parts of our trip.  1-We weren't in charge of transportation, 2- We got to drink Italian wine and visit the vineyards (kinda) or at least the wineries where they made and stored the wine, and 3- 'Free' (we did pay for tickets after all) bus tour through Tuscany!  Plus, the weather was perfect (not too terribly hot that day).   My day started by waking up in our Bnb, having a nice peaceful colazione that consisted of caffe nero, la frutta, and of course a croissant, as I listened to a neighbor play piano! We hung out for awhile before getting ready and heading out for an early and quick lunch so we would be ready for the bus and a full day of drinking.  Our tourguide, Kiko, was born in Japan, raised in the US, and moved to Italy at some point and seemed more Italian than anything else, was sarcastic and pleasant as she told us about herself and the history around the vineyards as well as a bit of Italian history.   We had 4...

My first thoughts before leaving Rome: "Spending three days in Rome should give us plenty of experience to be able to figure our way around Florence right? We'll be fine once we get to there, the directions are pretty straight forward, it will be a breeze now!" Riiiiight. Because we totally knew all of the small city names around Florence and therefore knew exactly what bus to take where! Hah! And finding the bus was just too easy.  We just waited around the bus station looking at maps and the bus schedule for an hour for fun! Haha!  It's much easier to laugh at now, but when you're really hot, have 4 bags you're dragging around, can't communicate or read well in another language, and not sure how to find the bus you're supposed to be on, it's not as fun as it sounds.  The irony about it is that when we got fed up with finding the bus we compromised to start walking in the direction of the AirBnB and as soon as we walk out of the building, what...