Faux Nostalgia

Have you seen Midnight in Paris? Although I'm generally not a fan of Wood Allen stuff... this movie was cute and super weird! Where is he going? Where did the cab come from? How is Marion Cotillard so DAMN GORGEOUS? Who knows. But, the movie dealt with  the destructive nature of nostalgia, and a sense of yearning for the past.

The mystery in the sense of nostalgia comes from our unease with change. And the inability to 'go back'. In the spirit of entering the new year, and with our upcoming adventure looming on the horizon, I'm beginning to feel that am currently living in the past, and that I just haven't caught up to my present yet {living on a boat/somewhere sunny}. This has begun to cause some problems in my day-to-day... as I am lacking considerable amounts of motivation to complete tasks (like my job).

I read a great essay on why we use things like faux-vintage photo filters {like the pic of us above} to recreate the sense of value that comes with truly vintage photos that have been saved for years and years. Having recently gone through a chest of old photos that go several generations back, I can attest to the inherent value they carry - I'll never know what that world was like. As we move this feeling forward we become nostalgic the future's past - our present. The next generation, my kids included, won't know what the world was like now. That moment is gone, and what I have left is a sketchy iPhone photo.

The essay of The Faux-Vintage Photo interestingly describes this phenomenon in the context of social media today. Do I keep a blog, and post 'old-fashiony' photos as a documentation of the present purely for the future?

Here's what he has to say about it:
"We come to see what we do as always a potential document, imploding the present with the past, and ultimately making us nostalgic for the here and now." - Source


Interesting, isn't it? This is more that I usually write in the blog - but I thought it was relevant because of the dramatic changes that are upcoming in our lives. As brave and adventurous as we seem - fear of change and nervousness over the loss of our lives here are definitely still an element in our choices! 

If you're thinking about/currently planning to 'throw it all overboard' know that these things WILL come up! If the pros still outweigh the cons {as they do for us} you'll be ready to move ahead - perhaps a little wiser...

I'm a Landlady!

Nobody will ever argue against me on this - Passive income is the best income. I mentioned before that we don't mind working hard, but easy money is great! Here's something else about our financial situation: I'm a Landlady!

Yep, we own a condo that we rent out. Again, this tends to separate us from the 'usual' freelance travel bloggers.. we DO have some financial ties to 'home'. The condo is great - actually, we lived in it for a year! It was our first home as a married couple, and still dear to my heart :)

When we bought our townhouse, we had the opportunity to keep the condo as an additional property. Our other option would have been to sell the condo and buy a big-ass house - which we neither wanted, nor needed. So... townhouse for two it was!

So, the condo has remained in our possession for several years. We've been luck to find some great tenants {mostly using this website if you're local to Calgary} that wanted to stay with us for a minimum of a year each. One of our long-term income goals is to grow this business of landlord-ing and purchase additional property for income generation. {This is a 'takes money to make money} prospect - so a bit longer term for us!

While we're away, we hope that our tenants stay happy and cozy in our little apartment (about 780 sq ft) and don't move anywhere! ha ha... But if they do move out - we're going to have to get a backup plan to help find new renters! We have a couple of options, including using a rental agency ($$) or bribing family/friends into interviewing potential tenants if this comes up.... These are some strings left a bit 'untied' that we'll have to deal with as we go.

Since I've made you read all about it - want to take a tour? This is the condo as it was when we lived in it! Tour is after the jump:

Happy New Year Happiness

 I love New Year's Eve so much! It's a great way to celebrate everything that you did in the previous year, and holds so much hope for the coming year. The eternal optimist in me comes out to shine - all for a glass of champagne and a kiss at midnight. I could be biased though:

 Look how young! How Excited!  If I could go back for a minute, I would say be brave, be adventurous and don't let anything stop you from doing what you dream of. Don't compromise {too much} for other people's opinions. Here's what else I would say:

How to be Happy out of the Current

{according the the de brito epistles, which have no authority over anything}

Take responsibility for you life to date. Don’t blame anyone else for your situation, own up to all the elements of your life - good and bad as 'We are the Architects of our own Adversity'. Your life is the sum of the consequences of your actions, which are regulated by the choices you make. Not all actions are choices that you WANT to make… but here you are.

Cut out the Bullshit!  This can include people who cause you drama or situations you dislike. These can be big or small. Are you endless fixing the same piece of technology or talking to the same person about the same thing ?? Work on permanent solutions for these problems, or cut them out of your life completely. When you're surrounded by drama, you expend SO MUCH energy dealing with it - or feeding its fires.

Drop your old baggage – you can't move forward in this life with the endless negativity of your past weighing down on you. Regrets, grudges and resentments don't get you anywhere. They cloud your judgement and close you off to new ideas or opportunities. I know it's hard, but Let It Go.

 Question everything – ask yourself WHY you are doing why you’re doing. WHY you work in the field you do, WHY you live where you do, WHY you believe what you believe. Don't just give yourself the 'cocktail party' answer, really think about it.

Be brave and be vulnerable. Leaving elements of your life behind is hard. It causes you to question many of your choices, values and theories on things. Do this! Be brave when you make a decision and stick to it. Be vulnerable with your questioning and to the people closest to you.

This is just a list of things that we're going to working on, and moving forward in 2012. Check out this Resolutions post for some more info about the specific things I want to learn/do this year! 

 Try a couple of simple things at home to put you out of your comfort zone. These are all experimental, and we’ll be doing them throughout our leaving process to help with the ‘culture shock’ of leaving the familiar…

o   Go to a restaurant and try food you’ve never tried -  Get crazy with it!

o   Learn a new sport. Even if you’re crappy and sports and always get hit in the face with the ball... so what’s the point of even trying?! Yeah, that’s me. Hello.. surfing.

o   Take a class - it's a great way to discover a new world and meet new people

o   Do something you’re scared of - even if it's small. I'm going to try more blue runs!

o   Give up something comfortable. I want to eeeeaaaaase myself into. Personal Space, Privacy, Independence and Proximity to Family are some of the big things we'll be compromising on this year. One step at a time.

Sorry for the list of cliches, it's an inevitable at this time of year. 

Enjoy the rest of your Holiday, Make 2012 a year to remember!

**Side Note** Want to know why we're always wearing white at New Years? It's a Brazilian tradition.