Fall Friday

Lauren and I ventured to the monon this week; a week night treat. There are two beautiful horses that reside in a field by a monon entrance by our house, so we stopped by to see them before we set out on the trail. I see people stopped with their strollers, admiring them with their children. And if there are horses to be seen, then my Lauren is going to see the horses!  We strolled (literally) over by the fence, and they galloped over to greet us from the middle of the field. No doubt they thought we held carrots or apples, and we did not. The beasts were huge and magnificent and beautiful. Lauren was very impressed. Chalk one up for mommy!

Next, we headed out onto the trail.  The air was crisp, the sun was shining.  The leaves were too beautiful to describe. It was a perfect fall day, and we, together, were spending it in the perfect way. ♥

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A friend of a friend forwarded me the link today of her blog describing her travels through Africa. I know her friend; we are acquaintances. I have stayed at her apartment in Chicago where she lives. Recently, she turned 30 years old, quit her job and began traveling all over the world, but mostly in Africa, for months.

So there I was, drinking my coffee, going through my Friday routine, and reading about her travels to Africa.  It was beyond fascinating. She's working with children, teaching them in school.  It's at this point when you begin questioning a few things about your own life. What makes one person decide to uproot her life, and not another? Are my options to do something like this gone forever, now that I am a mother of a small child? (And let's be frank: I am not suggesting I am the type of person to take showers from a bucket and live a foreign land.) 

I think about travel a lot, because once you have a child, your options become limited. I also think about travel in terms of my job, because I may have to travel again eventually if my new position leads to a leasing position.  Here is what I have decided: it is great to live in the moment. And it is great to live each day as if it were your last. But all of us simply don't have those options, all of the time. There are children to be raised, and men that need us at home. I still have dreams of traveling again, to faraway places and even more extensively here in the US. But right now, at this Time In My Life, there are people that I have to care for at home. 

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I start my new position at Simon in less than 6 working days. Six! Several people have asked me what I will be doing. Well, I'll tell you what I won't be doing: Accounting.  I'll be working in a department called Portfolio Review as an Analyst. Basically, I will be a liaison between our leasing reps (sales force, who lease our shopping malls) and the tenants (i.e. Gap, Gucci, etc.) The tenants often come in and negotiate global deals for more than one mall at a time. I will be helping coordinate those meetings, sit in on the meetings, work with leasing to forecast "what if" situations for different deal scenarios and form relationships with the tenants. I will be watching the leasing reps, seeing how they negotiate deals, see what works, and what doesn't. It will be an entirely new and different world than what I am used to.

This is one of the last Fridays I have in my current position. I'm trying to enjoy the feeling of knowing what I'm doing, because I suddenly won't in a little over a week. To celebrate, at lunch I picked up the new issue of Allure, my beauty bible, and a slice of pumpkin bread at Borders. I sat down on Monument circle and enjoyed the sunshine, and read my magazine, and enjoyed the hustle and bustle of the people around me.  It was a beautiful way to wind down the week. Everyone have a lovely weekend.

♥ V :)