Celebrating Wanderlust
Some people think wanderlust is a bad thing… Me? I’m glad for the affliction. It has taken me to wonderful adventures around the globe and enabled me to pick up and move to a lot of different cities around the United States. My wife Lisa is exactly the same, so when I was pondering a nice gift for her this past Holiday season, I was excited to find an amazing collection of State and City Glasses from the creative folks at Cat Studios. They have created an original piece of art which is like a retro-modern montage for each place in what they call their Geography Collection.
For every place we have each lived, I put together my own custom collection of drinking glasses for a very well received box set gift. My collection includes:
Massachusetts – my birthplace, and Lisa’s family’s home base.
Virginia – Lisa’s birthplace, and that of her ancestry (she’s a direct descendant of Pocahontas… really) and the location of my first job after graduating from college.
Maine – we both went to rival colleges, and I grew up in the state’s mountains and lakes.
Pennsylvania –Three years of cheese fries and Iron City beer at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Wyoming – a semester of living outside at the National Outdoor Leadership School.
Illinois – where Lisa and I met and fell in love while attending graduate school.
California – where I barely escaped being trapped under the collapsed freeway in Oakland in 1989 and the place Lisa and I lived after graduation for a couple of years.
Texas – where all of our kids were born, the state we started our first company together, and the place we learned to appreciate fine tequila.
Washington – the home state to the island we currently live on.
Instant favorites from the drinking glass cupboard, we use them as fun story telling prompts with the kids at dinner. They also eliminate the need for wine charms at parties, and it is always fun to ask guests why they chose a particluar glass, almost guaranteeing a story I had never heard before. I also find myself reminiscing and dreaming about wonderful memories and moments as I sip a fresh-squeezed margarita in my Texas glass; enjoy a cold beer on a hot day with Pennsylvania; or savor a gin and tonic transporting me to the beaches of Cape Cod with Massachusetts.
Next time, I’m going to make a collection of places we’ve visited around the world… I can’t wait!