We were sitting at a wobbly aluminum table, topped with a beer tower for two, on the sidewalk outside a restaurant on Bangkok’s famed Khao San Road when she approached. Dressed in too many layers for the summer heat in Thailand, she was selling black wooden frogs in assorted sizes.

6 ways to beat the social distancing blues that don't involve getting drunk or binge-watching Netflix.

Not only is the coronavirus devastating lives, families and industry, but it caused a black hole of an existential come-to-Jesus moment for me last week after some unexpected work news. Read on, but be warned: There is some serious vulnerability in the paragraphs ahead.

I can’t believe I even have to go into further explanation here. Sea turtles. Babies. Bam. Every travel blog I consulted before my visit to Puerto Escondido suggested the turtle release as a must-do event. And although they all raved about it, somehow their descriptions didn’t do it justice. Call it my skepticism, but it just didn’t sound thaaaat amazing. Happy to report that I was way off base and to pass along the same advice as all the others: this is one thing you MUST do when in Puerto Escondido.

Oaxaca is the largest state in Mexico and includes not only the artisan-hub capital city of the same name, but also miles and miles of sand and surf of chill and beautiful beach towns along the southern pacific coast. Mazunte is one of these beach towns, a cool six-hour drive from Oaxaca City and about an hour and a half from the most popular beach destination in the state: Puerto Escondido. I decided, instead of venturing to an entirely new area for my final days in Mexico, and getting just a tiny overview of each place, that I would take a six-hour winding ride in a little passenger van, after a 12-hour ride in the opposite direction just days before, all the way back to the Oaxacan Coast. It was worth the drive, because Mazunte is magic.

I’d been wanting to start volunteering in Mexico in some way, shape or form, since I finalized the idea to come and live here. It’s a good way to become more involved in the community and to feel a connection to the people of the city. It could be a way to make new friends. And of course, great practice for my Spanish-learning. So, why didn’t I start sooner?

Recently I had one of the most quintessential flight attendant days. It was like something out of a movie—a comedy, where the protagonist (me) can’t catch a break and finds herself encountering one obstacle after another in an almost too-much to-be-true fashion. I was on zero sleep and a time crunch and shit was just going wrong. But honestly, it was so typical I should have expected it. And so, rather than becoming frustrated or giving in to feeling bad for myself, I laughed. I laughed at the situations I get myself into, the lengths at which I have to go sometimes to get myself out, and this crazy scattered life we live. It was so good I decided mid-day, between one missed flight and one cancelled, that I’d write a piece about it here.

We’re almost a week into 2020 and I’m just now taking the time to pause and reflect on 2019. From what I’ve seen on social media I’m days late, but truth be told it was a realllly awesome year and I wanted to savor every last moment. Once the hustle and bustle of the holidays ended and I had time to sit and think about this year gone by, counting all the incredible experiences and small pleasures I’ve encountered along the way, I realized it was enough to fill a blog post and certainly a worthy subject. I know what you’re thinking: Barf! Someone’s braggy highlight reel about their awesome year. I certainly hope it doesn’t end up coming off that way. But this year was a big one for me, and since I write this thing more for myself than for you, I’m going to have to get into

month ago I packed my bags and left for Mexico. With an apartment booked until February there, and none here in Boston, my primary residence for the time being is Calle Salvatierra, CDMX. I’ve been back in Boston, working on airplanes, staying up overnight, catching up on schoolwork and freezing my tail off. I’ll be here for another full week and it feels like an eternity to be away from the new place I’m trying to settle into. But I’ve got to work and its not a quick flight home and its also not free. So I stay a bit longer, stack all of my trips in these few weeks. And then I’ll go back. This is commuter life. I knew it would be different, and I knew there would be challenges. And I’m still figuring it out. So how is it going?