National Lampoon's Family Vacation

I am lucky to have grown up in a family that traveled. Every summer, my parents (who were not wealthy in the monetary sense) would take my sisters and me on trips to beautiful places, historical sites or the beach (sometimes all three) for a week or so, making me not only appreciate but yearn for a world outside of the small town where we grew up. I realize now, as an adult, that I saw more states and Civil War battlefields on family trips than most American children. And I am so grateful.

My parents have always appreciated the value of traveling. In fact, their first trip to Europe was when I was a year old and my sisters and I stayed with our grandparents for two weeks. I grew up watching photo slides of my parents' trip and aspiring someday to follow their path. When I was 27 my parents took me on a 3-week trip to Europe - driving from Paris down through the most beautiful areas of France, over to Italy, up to Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg (because of a wrong turn) and over through France again. It was incredible!

Since that amazing trip, I have been lucky to have traveled all over England and to Austria. And this summer, I am going to Austria again to visit one of my sisters. While I'm there, we hope to go to Budapest in Hungary and Slovenia and Croatia for weekend trips. Exotic trips for such a frugal traveler!

I don't make a lot of money as a manager at a non-profit organization. However, travel is a priority to me, and I make room in my budget to make it possible. I realize there are others my age who have families to support and who have other expenses (houses, fancy cars, credit card debt) that make travel difficult. I made my choices just as they have theirs. Yes, it's easier to put a portion of your paycheck towards "travel" when you don't have a family to feed (the only one who suffers from an all-ramen noodle diet on my paycheck is me.) But, if my one income in the 1970s parents could make a trip to Europe work, so can you. Lack of money is no excuse when your priorities are defined.

I Love You, Man

Growing up, my family was very close, especially me and my sisters. However, we weren't one of those "I love you" families. We didn't really say it to each other, although there's no doubt we felt it (we're of German descent, what can I say?) I never doubted that my big sisters or my parents would go to bat for me at any moment during any conflict, and my normally calm demeanor can only be riled (violently!) by someone who tries to mess with my family (I won't even get into the high school drama or when my sister decided to play on the tennis team.) And then came my sister's two boys. There's nothing anyone in the family wouldn't do to protect them. All of us would risk life imprisonment or fist fights with other parents (or their douchebag kids) for those boys. And I could fill an entire blog post about comments my mom (Grandma) has made to baseball refs making "bad" calls on our two ball-playing boys. So, with my nephews it's different. We have suddenly become an "I love you family." Nothing against my parents and the way my sisters and I were raised, but it's a good feeling regularly reminding these boys (my nephews) "I love you."

As I get older, my parents, sisters and nephews mean as much to me as ever, but my friends have also become my "family," especially my Louisville family. My friends and I often say "I love you," (I've probably declared my love to more gay men than Bette Midler in the early 80's,) and it's wonderful!

A friend who I truly ADORE recently had some medical issues. As his close friends worried about him and eagerly waited for status reports, his partner sent a beautiful message letting us all know that he was doing better, our positive thoughts were appreciated and that knowing how much we love him was helping (or maybe it was making the poor guy's blood pressure spike... well, whatever...)

Anyway, the moral is, say "I love you" to those who mean a lot (friends, family, the Chinese food delivery guy who shows up quicker than Superman...) to you. What's the worst that could happen - it's one-sided? I can think of worse things than making someone special feel appreciated even if it does suddenly get awkward with your new boss or the guy who restocks the "Two-buck Chuck" at Trader Joes.