some (necessary) wardrobe changes

Tomorrow, I'm off to the Dominican Republic with HHI. Although I couldn't be more excited to get the show on the road, packing is a complete nightmare. My room looks like eight tornadoes and two hurricanes and maybe a rabid raccoon worked their way through it. In short, it's a disaster zone. I only have a small backpack in which to haul all of my belongings, so I have to make sure what I pack really counts. But I have a lot of t-shirts; I've been proudly cultivating this collection since the seventh grade, and I'm a pack rat who doesn't let go of things easily. It's been a challenge to figure out which shirts will make the cut, but some edits have been easier to make in my wardrobe than others. Take this shirt --

This one screams, "Come at me, bro! I'm an American!" Great for the 4th of July. Not so great for engendering goodwill in foreign lands.

After the break are some more t-shirts that - although hilarious and ironic and appropriate here in the U.S. - are entirely inappropriate once taken out of the American context.

"knapsacking abroad"

Today my family and I went to my grandmother's house. We're in the process of cleaning it out so that she can sell it and move into an assisted living home. This seems like a daunting task, and it has definitely been a challenging and emotional process, but there is a bright side. And that bright side is basically that I get to go through all of her awesome stuff from the 1960's and take what I want. (Vintage stand mixer, anyone?!) So I was in my dad's old bedroom and was rummaging through the bookshelf when I found this gem from 1967 --

It's called Knapsacking Abroad. My dad told me that he bought it when he was a senior in high school, which made me giggle. Now I don't need to wonder where I got that travel bug from.