Midnight Madness + Mariarosaria’s Road Trip + Podcast

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1bKmdGi98yHTSe70pLcbyf?si=555f0ed0b31049f3

Subscribe, listen to, and share Happiness Between Tails Podcast on most any platform; from Spotify and Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts and Breaker, to Pocket Casts and RadioPublic and Castbox, plus many more and an RSS feed. The full list of 50+ places is H-E-R-E.

Ever wake in the middle of the night with anxiety smothering you worse than any pillow could? Last night, I woke at 3am and couldn’t calm myself enough to get back to sleep until 5:30. Needless to say, this post might be a bit wonky. It may not have helped that just before bed, I muscled halfway into an utterly disappointing novel by one of my favorite authors. Part of me hoped the book would improve. Part of me despaired over how it is that some authors can get horrible books represented by great literary agents, while I’ve yet to entice a nibble of interest for the novels I’ve written.

Aging was on my mind. There was only the intermittent hum of the refrigerator to compete with the silent harangue.

Over the last couple of days, friends have brought up their fears about aging. One’s mom is ailing and the family has gathered in the worst sort of John Waters movie nightmare way. No surprise, my friend punctuated his grim frame of mind by predicting that the government is sure to soon discourage aging, once it determines that oldsters are nothing but drains on society.

The other friend just retired and now relatives circle with more relentless precision than Alfred Hitchcock’s feathered actors in The Birds. Over the years, the family has already guilted a bundle off of her. At this stage, however, she’s worried that if she pushes back, there won’t be anyone to help her when she’s old, feeble, kid-less, and mate-less.

Moving on to cheerier things, Mariarosaria, is originally from Italy and blogs from Washington. A biologist and natural health investigator, her blog reflects her interest in integrative medicine and natural health. She also enjoys traveling…

Trip Road from Florida to Washington and From Washington to Georgia by Mariarosaria

I am an Italian citizen and the reason I am in the States is because I married an American citizen Navy active duty at the time I met. We married in Florida and lived there for couple of years spending some periods at the same military base, as in other military bases along the years.

When my husband was called to a new assignment aboard of the Abraham Lincoln ship stationed in Everett, Washington State we had to leave Florida, and we did with some regret for leaving a place like the Sunshine State.

I can never forget the trip that we made from Florida to Washington, fantastic, incredible for someone grown up in a town like me, but hazardous too! I could never imagine having to face something like that in my life; we were traveling in a rental truck carrying the car on a trailer; I know, these things are normal for Americans, but they were not for me, or at least at that time, now I am getting used.

A very long trip, there was to cross half of the country, and we did mainly crossing the South. We went through the coast of Mississippi and Louisiana where the weather was still like in Florida, hot and humid; and, unfortunately, we encountered one of the typical tropical storm that usually hit these areas, it was not fun, but we made it.

Then we arrived in New Mexico where we could start to enjoy the dry heat and to taste the Mexican flavors stop by stop till to Texas and California. Unbelievable how wide and immense  the State of Texas is, hours and hours of drive, it never ends, but it is also dry and warm, and where they serve the best tortillas and hot sauce I ever had in the States!

In California instead we had a little bit more troubles because we were crossing the mountains instead of the beautiful coast, and, of course, there were more risks traveling in the way we were doing, in a truck and with a trailer, strong winds were blowing and the roads were narrow and with curves, and with snow accumulated by the sides, more incredible for myself to discover signals of warning of bears in the area!

Fortunately, we went through this adventure too, and finally we arrived in Nevada and Arizona, really dry and heat! Wonderful, blue sky all of the time, crossing the desert of Arizona, what an incredible experience, the red sand, the “ Grand Canyon” and all the characteristics features of those area; I will never forget these beautiful scenes.

Finally in Oregon, still warm and blue sky, prosperous vegetation and mountains, and beautiful cottages; we enjoyed a nice stop in one of this, and so on during the whole trip; there were moments more difficult where we couldn’t even stop to go to the restroom, or for eating, and moments more relaxed where we could enjoy the beauties of the places we were crossing.

Here we were in Washington, and we were lucky because we found a nice weather here too, probably because of the spring period, and so we could appreciate the beauties of Washington State also: mountains, hills, lakes, ocean, and more; the only thing no one likes is the rain, but I have to say that the last years have been not so bad, I have seen many sunshine days while still living in the area close by Seattle, then we moved again always because of my husband’s job duties in a more central area of Washington where the winters can be very drastic with ice and snow and bitter cold but the Summers fantastic, hot and dry as much as Arizona and Nevada or even more, and actually from the Spring till the Fall we can enjoy this type of weather.

We actually crossed the country two more times after this and this time from Washington to Georgia, and then back from Georgia to Washington, the routes were a little different going towards Georgia when we did cross more the central part of the States, but we still and again went through the beauty of the South on the way back with the only difference that at this time was almost winter time and things were a little more difficult when we arrived close to the mountains, snow and isolated roads, scary stuff for me, not so much for my husband as a tough Navy Guy.

Incredible adventures that I will do more times for as much as I like travelling and visiting new places and enjoying the specialties of the areas.

How do you handle middle-of-the-night anxiety? What’s your preferred midnight worry? Or do you sleep like a baby (without the crying)?