Blog From The Balcony: Bon Jovi And A Noisy Neighbor

It's a Friday afternoon, and I'm sitting out on my balcony. It's probably around 80 degrees and breezy, and I came out here with a vision of writing and listening to Bon Jovi and having myself a lovely day.

But then my upstairs neighbor decided to come out on his balcony and practice his guitar.

See, several days ago my roommate came home and told me she ran into said upstairs neighbor, who told her that he'd just gotten an electric guitar and apologized if we heard him practicing all the time. And, yes, I heard him playing that electric guitar ALL DAY yesterday and was going a little bit out of my mind. I like to think I'm a pretty patient, tolerant person, but sheesh, take a break, man!

I hadn't realized an acoustic guitar was also in the mix until, after about a half an hour of silence today, I decided to get iTunes going. After less than a song had gone by, "Thank You For Loving Me" was suddenly being overlapped by some random strumming from above my head. With a sigh, I hit pause.

Several minutes later, the strumming stopped. After several more minutes of silence, I figured he'd given up his practicing, so I happily went back to iTunes. But seconds -- literally, seconds -- after I hit play, he was back at it. It was like a bad sitcom.

So I paused again, and decided to just let his guitar be the soundtrack to my writing instead of Bon Jovi. And y'know? He's not really all that bad. I was pretty content with my decision. But now he's talking on the phone (on speakerphone) really freaking loudly about girls and getting high, and I know I should be annoyed but I'm actually really amused.

What's the point of this story, you ask? Hell, I don't really know.

Completely unrelated dog selfies for the win!

But it's nice to not be annoyed. Being annoyed sucks. And maybe it's just because the weather's nice and I'm still feeling inexplicably positive about my life despite all the uncertainty, but I'm kind of realizing that annoyance is a choice. I could choose to be angry that I can't listen to Bon Jovi right now, or I could choose to laugh silently to myself about this dude talking to his friend about various tips he's read about how to pick up girls. (Did you know girls all fall into certain "tribes" and only look for guys that fit into the same "tribe"? I know, my mind is BLOWN. Obviously we can all be pigeonholed like that! I'm learning so much about my gender, guys!!!11!!1!)

And I think the same sort of attitude can be applied to life. Right now, the Bon Jovi playlist of my life is on pause, and I'm currently stuck listening to my neighbor of questionable intelligence talking going to bars and getting high and such. But if past is prologue, eventually he'll shut up (metaphorically speaking, of course) and I can get back to rocking and rolling. (How's THAT for some introspection for ya?)

Oh, bless, he's off the phone!

...Nope, wait, the guitar is back. So close.

The Master List Of Olympic Trips

I found out the other day that the Olympic Stadium that hosted the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games has hosted its final sporting event and is being torn down to make room for the new 2020 Olympic Stadium. Maybe I hadn't been reading about the 2020 stadium enough, because this is the first I've heard of the 1964 stadium being torn down. And I'm SO SAD! I like that stadium! And it's no secret that it's my goal to visit all Olympic sites, so the fact that this one will soon no longer exist is just flat out depressing. I've been all worried about places like Sarajevo and Athens and Sochi, but Tokyo?! Not so much. Sigh.

The fact that a perfectly good Olympic stadium is being demolished was a good, albeit harsh, reminder that I have a crap ton of Olympic cities I still need to visit, and that those venues won't all be around forever. It's kind of hard to plan big trips, let alone take them, when you're not sure where (or if) you'll be employed in a month's time... but nevertheless, I've started planning my (dream) Olympic trips!

Back in the good ol' days, when backpacking through Europe was a thing I did. Berlin, you're fab.

I did a kind of hilarious amount of research for this, what with finding all the cities and Google mapping things and such. Do you realize just how many Olympic cities there are? Because I'm pretty sure I didn't. I'd be trucking along just fine, and then realize CRAP I FORGOT ABOUT ALBERTVILLE and have to go back and tweak things. Why is it always the French cities I'm forgetting?! (Maybe it's because France has hosted the Olympics five freaking times and still doesn't have much sports legacy to speak of. I mean, uh, what?)

Ahem. Getting out of France... Let's begin! (And if you would like to be a travel companion or host me in any of the following cities, please form an orderly line and express your interest in the comments. Thank you.)

 Sydney, Australia | Melbourne, Australia

Yeah, there's not really much else I could do with these two, is there? :P But I'm down for some exploring in Australia, so no complaints here.

Salt Lake City, Utah | Squaw Valley, California | Los Angeles, California

True story: America is very inconveniently large. This is either a beast of a road trip or a couple of extremely short flights. Or three separate trips. Y'know what the funny thing is? I have flown into or through LAX, SLC and Reno-Tahoe, but never done Olympic things. Actually, I'm pretty sure I flew through SLC while going to Reno-Tahoe. So next time I just need to leave the airport (or, uh, not be working).

Vancouver, Canada | Calgary, Canada

The only Canadian city I've ever been to is Toronto, so some Canadian quality time is definitely in order! Vancouver and Calgary were a couple of awesome Games, too. Might have to pick myself up a pair of those awesome Canadian mittens!

Montreal, Canada | Lake Placid, New York

Okay, so, I've been to Lake Placid before, but I did it wrong. It needs a redo. And I didn't know until now just how close it is to Montreal! (Fun fact: these Games were also held in back to back quads, in 1976 and 1980. What I wouldn't give to have lived nearby back then!)

Sapporo, Japan | Tokyo, Japan | Nagano, Japan | PyeongChang, South Korea | Seoul, South Korea | Beijing, China

These little countries sure have a high concentration of Olympic cities! I'm down with a whirlwind tour through Asia, especially one ending with the Bird's Nest and the Great Wall of China. Uh, yes please!

Lillehammer, Norway | Oslo, Norway | Stockholm, Sweden | Helsinki, Finland

I love Scandinavia. My trip to Copenhagen was only about a lifetime in the making. And the prospect of this trip excites me greatly. Like, I don't think you understand.

London, England | Paris, France | Antwerp, Belgium | Amsterdam, Netherlands | Rome, Italy | Barcelona, Spain

Want to see the great European capital cities? Well, the Olympics sounds like a perfectly valid excuse to me! (Also, yes, I've been to London. And Paris. Aaaand Rome. But I didn't do anything Olympic in Paris or Rome, and only went to one of London's Olympic stadiums. Pretty sure this was me subconsciously giving myself a concrete reason to go back, besides that gaping hold in my heart that's been present since I left.)

Grenoble, France | Albertville, France | Chamonix, France | Torino, Italy | St. Moritz, Switzerland | Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany | Innsbruck, Austria | Cortina D'Ampezzo, Italy

Alright, eight Olympic cities all within a couple of hours of each other? Yes. Just lots of yes. All of the yes. Albertville and Chamonix are about 20 minutes away from each other. How epic is that?! You could do three cities in one day! Basically, this trip needs to happen, and pronto.

Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina | Moscow, Russia | Sochi, Russia

Technically Yugoslavia was never in the USSR and was only an ally of it until 1948... but sshhh. Sarajevo's venues are abandoned and crumbling (and destroyed by war), and I wouldn't be surprised if Sochi followed suit (except maybe not the war thing), so I should probably start practicing my Russian and get my butt over there before there's nothing left! Ugh, that's so sad to even think about.

Olympia, Greece | Athens, Greece

Ah, Greece. It's been on my "must visit" list since 2004... which is when Athens' now crumbling and abandoned venues were brand spankin' new. It's also kind of where this whole Olympic thing began, so it's kind of a big deal. Kind of.

Atlanta, Georgia | Mexico City, Mexico | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

These are the cities that, try as I might, just did NOT fit anywhere else. However, for someone that hasn't already been to St. Louis, that could be worked into a trip with Atlanta. But since I have been to St. Louis, Atlanta is a floater. And there's really nothing to do with Mexico City and Rio. Sorry kids. Those are solos.

(Please note: I left off Munich and Berlin because I have already been there and frolicked in those Olympic stadiums. But for anyone actually reading this for legitimate trip planning ideas, Munich and Berlin is easily it's own trip. Take an overnight train between the two and you're good to go!)

So basically, now my wanderlust is acting up and my bank account is cowering in fear. I'll probably be working on this list for the rest of my life. Here's hoping some cities are awarded future Games for the second and third times, 'cause the prospect of this list getting longer is mildly frightening.

However, earlier today, Kara and I promised each other that we're both going to Rio 2016, whether it be for work or as spectators. We pinky swore, too, so this is legit. Two-plus years and counting! Let's see if I can make anything else happen before then!