Friday, June 19, 2020 at 11:18AM It seems strange, but more updates to my travel blog this week - be sure to head over and check it out!
COVID-19, content, coronavirus, pandemic, travel, travel blog in 2020, Content, Updates Friday, October 25, 2019 at 8:11PM I was going to take this time to post about my short work trip to Virginia earlier this week (found here on my travel blog), but as I'm sitting in my mom's living room in Pennsylvania, it occurs to me how quickly things can change, and how you can find yourself under very different circumstances than what you were expecting.
I'm posting below what I shared on my Facebook page earlier this weekend...
After a particularly challenging work week for me that included a trip down south, my mom recommended that instead of trying to make my way through the endless hell of traffic on 95 yesterday, that I should detour through Kennett to have a bit of a pit stop before heading back to the office this morning.
After a lovely bottle of wine after dinner (you know how we Rutledge’s roll), she recounted that all week she’s been feeling my dad around the house, something that hasn’t happened really at all since she moved in. I thought this was quite serendipitous, as all week I’ve been thinking about my dad due to some crazy times at work.Cut to 2:30 this morning, when she had me drive her to the hospital after waking up with numbness and chest pain. Good news is that everything is alright, but all I kept thinking today was that I shouldn’t have been anywhere near here. Most of you know that two summers ago, my mom, grandfather and I got into a car accident that ended up with us all in the hospital - which unbeknownst to us at the time probably saved my grandfather some future additional grief from an undiagnosed illness that was caught while we were all in the ER. We’ve joked since then that it was obvious my grandmother intervened because she knew Gramps needed to go to the hospital; since he was just being stubborn about seeing a doctor, she simply made it so he HAD to go see one.
Although I’m currently running on fumes, too much caffeine and only two hours of sleep, it’s now entirely obvious to me that dad and Grams have been conspiring the same way about mom, and maneuvered me here at the right time. He would make sure it was the weekend before Halloween too - if he was going to “haunt” my mom towards a doctor, there would need to be some ghost-related humor involved in the situation 👻
Thanks to Jennersville Hospital for their amazing service and staff, including the nurse who took one look at me this morning and made me a fresh pot of coffee from the nurses station. I’m going to give dad bonus points for that one too - he always made sure mom and I had our morning caffeine to start our day.
I'm not always the biggest believer in religion, but I am a believer in things happening for a reason. It just goes to show that when things don't seem to go to plan, maybe they're actually working out the exact way they're supposed to.
content, fate, good thoughts, travel, travel blog in 2019, Content Sunday, June 9, 2019 at 5:02PM I swear, this year has been one for the ages lately in regards to traveling, especially in regards to the west coast. Hop on over to my travel blog (links below) in regards to my trip to California. I've also added some photos from my trip to my digital photography gallery - be sure to check those out too.
Tuesday, April 16, 2019 at 6:05PM It's taken me a little bit to get my thoughts together regarding the fire at Notre Dame. My trip to Paris in 2012 was my first real trip out of the country; I was a junior in college, going into my senior year, with a love of art history. Notre Dame is a place that is easily on everyone's list when they're visiting the city, and I was no exception. I always hold a little bit of cynicism when it comes to locations or pieces of art that are that famous - there's always a worry they won't live up to the hype. I can honestly say that Notre Dame was everything you could have imagined it to be, and even some things that you probably weren't expecting. Not being a religious person, I've always found places of worship interesting, and the ancient cathedral was no exception. Walking through the pews both during a Sunday service as well as during the week gave me an appreciation of the acoustics and architecture, with the cherry on top the awe-inspiring stained glass windows. Notre Dame is one of my fondest memories from my time spent in Paris, and the video of the fire gutting the spire is one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen.
The title of this post is a quote from Lou Holtz that I believe captures Notre Dame in a nutshell; not just for me, but for anyone who was lucky enough to walk through the doors. I can only hope the next time I visit Paris it's been restored back to its former glory.