Identity Theft

I woke up today and was shocked to find my identity had been stolen. The young care free girl from Dayton, Ohio, who eventually became a nurse, a wife, a mother, and a very recently a grandmother, was all replaced with a 70-year-old lady.  I can barely say it out loud. It sounds soooo OLD!!! 70!!!

I know the old cliché- it’s just a number and it is. But 70!  A friend said I should be glad to say it out loud -70. There are those who did not make it to 70 and will never be able to say it. True.

I plan to celebrate the entire year, just like I did on my 50^th and 60^th. 

Decades can not be celebrated in a day or even the birthday month- they need and deserve an entire  year of celebration.

So, my plan is to spend my 70^th year traveling the world as a nomad, on no more than $70.00 a day.

I put all my belongings in storage a few weeks ago.   Part of my journey will be working with HelpX, as I did in my past travels, and I recently added Trusted House Sitters. Trusted House Sitters is world wide and one can stay in a home, generally to take care of an animal or two at no cost to the traveler. You must pay your way to the location and are not paid for any services, but rent is free and there is always a kitchen to cook in. 

I started applying in Ireland and received these sweet rejection letters. “We are so sorry but you were not chosen for this house sit,BUT don’t become discouraged, keep applying.”  So I did, but after a few dozen more of these nice rejection notices, I became discouraged. Was it my age, nationality, my profile?  Maybe I should have mentioned I am catholic , well not Irish catholic, but still catholic.

I decided to apply in Tennessee hoping to get at least one house sit on my profile. More rejections. Finally, a family living on a farm in south Tennessee accepted me. The lady told me the problem was I did not have any recommendations on the site. And she stated ” No one ever lets anyone in their house without experience and recommendations from other house sitters.”

This is like your first job, you go for an interview and they ask for experience, but you have none because, well it is your first job.  I was accepted by default- no one else wanted it. It is a farm out in the middle of NOWHERE and I am taking are of a horse, 4 goats, a 10-year-old farm dog with cancer and arthritis, a pregnant cat and a goldfish.  I pray the goldfish does not go belly-up so that I can get a good recommendation and get over to Ireland.

I have a short list of things I want to accomplish on my travels this year and one is to learn different languages. I have learned that in “Tennessean “  y’ll  means “You All”- I am still working on the accent.

I will keep you posted.

The hardest part of traveling the world is not the logistics of the travel, it is finding the courage to take the first step.