May Highlights: The Highs + Lows

May was absolutely bonkers. I was at my house all of 12 nights and the rest of the time was spread across eight cities in six states. While I love traveling (duh), I look forward to when work projects space themselves out a bit more later this summer. I prefer a good week to two between trips, otherwise everything—my health, my sleep, my stress, the works—seems to suffer.

With all that said, let’s recap the last month, shall we?

Highs

I attended the opening of Volcano Bay. Ever had a theme park to yourself? Yeah, neither had I until the Universal Orlando Resort team invited me to preview Volcano Bay the day before it opened to the public. There’s no other way to describe it other than game changer.

Team Mayhem came to visit! My good friends Sydney, Angie and Keith came up for a couple days to work on a project with one of my clients. Then, I turned around and saw them in Georgia the following weekend. It’s a good season when I get to see them once, let alone three times as this spring has turned out!

Speaking of which, my family went to a wedding in Atlanta. All six of us spent a quick but fun-filled 36 hours based out of an Airbnb in Atlanta celebrating our friend, Lisa, who we met on a cruise ship a few years ago.

I made 30 new friends in Utah. I went to St. George again this May for a quick three-day InstaMeet, and it was bigger, better and even more fun than the one I participated in last year. Posts to come on my Zion and Utah state park exploration!

I started writing for Kimpton’s Life is Suite blog. I can’t wait for the new Nashville property to open, but in the meantime, you can .

I also started writing for Marriott Traveler. My first piece was on bourbon and my next two on Tennessee—triple threat!

I spent some quality time with friends. Even for being gone more often than not, I manage to squeeze in friend visits with some of my nearest and dearest, like as this Derby party in my hometown with a few of SVV’s and my favorite couples.

I fell in love with Savannah all over again. Seriously, if you haven’t been yet, what are you waiting for? I wrote you an entire play-by-play, long weekend guide right here.

I learned to make chocolate. You guys, have you noted by my 54,891 mentions of Goo Goo Clusters on the blog that I’m a huge fan? Well, I AM and I finally learned to make my own chocolatey goodness via the Goo Goo Shop’s new Candy School.

I’m in the Smokies! If you follow along on Instagram Stories, you’ll know I’m currently holed up in a charming cabin in East Tennessee. I’ll be bopping around Sevierville for the next few days creating plenty of outdoors content to share with all of you in the next month.

Lows

I spent one horrendous night in Las Vegas. On the way back from Utah, I opted for a night in Sin City so I could take a morning flight instead of a red eye. Big mistake. HUGE. The Flamingo is an absolute hell hole, my room was filthy with hair all over it, people were screaming in the hallways until 5am (on a Sunday night), and below was my view. Gross. I’ve never been a fan of Vegas, and this 14 hours did nothing to help that feeling.

I was a victim of IP thievery. It was brought to my attention a few months ago that a PR firm had been swiping my content without permission (or credit) and using it for marketing for a client. Uh guys, I’m sure I needn’t even tell you that that is so many layers of wrong (and also, uh, illegal). In a future post, I plan to elaborate more on the intricacies behind putting your content out there for free on the web as I do, but man, this sucks, and we’re currently weighing our options on what to do next.

I ended a contract early. Though I never want to part way with any client, there was one that just wasn’t a good fit for my (lack of) bandwidth and skill set, so at the end of the day I had to exercise the age-old “it’s not you, it’s me” and “this just isn’t a good fit.” That’s always been a hard conversation for me to have, but I’m getting there.

What was the high point of your May?

Source: camelsandchocolate.com

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