Planes, Trains, Automobiles…and a Goodbye

Hi all! I hope everyone is safe and sound after this crazy storm! Cory and I have been stuck in DC without any luck of getting out of this hotel. If you follow me on social media then you know that we were in Europe for the past week and a half. On our way home we flew through Washington D.C., no problems on the way there, but on the way back we were stuck, with no way of leaving…it was a complete white-out, and a ‘state of emergency’ was called. My uncle and his family only live twenty minutes away, but there was no way of driving in these conditions, so we are holed up, ordering room-service, getting delirious, and waiting patiently for a flight, a train or damn arc to open at any time.

“Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow”…that was the exact sentiment I had about a week ago running around the streets of Salzburg, Austria singing show tunes from ‘The Sound of Music’. I have been MIA here on the blog because of our little excursion across the pond.  Cory and I literally felt like we were transported to another place and time….or Epcot during Christmas. Either way the history of Austria, the quaint little towns, Mozart playing through the streets, our trip was again, purely magical. They say when you are first dating someone, the true test is not moving in together, it is traveling together. Luckily Cory and I do that very well. I keep telling him he should start a travel blog because he is the best planner! He devises a points strategy with airlines and credit cards, and away we go on another adventure. I am very lucky in that sense because I do much of the household planning, bill paying etc, but when it comes to travel he is great at research, strategy and implementation, and I can just sit back and enjoy.

Last year we went to Paris and Barcelona, and this year it was Austria and Switzerland! I know what you are thinking…you live in Miami, so why did you go to the freezing cold? Well, our dear friends were performing in a circus show in Switzerland. So we decided to make a trip of it! I must tell you this was no Barnum and Bailey’s. In Europe they have a circus culture that is unlike anything I have ever seen. From the outside it looks like a little old venue, covered in twinkly lights. Then walk through the Palazzo doors, and you are transported to another time. Plush red drapery, candelabras three feet high, men and women in tuxes, it was a sight to be seen, and the perfect way to end our trip with song and dance.

Speaking of song and dance, over the past year many of you have seen my posts about Janice Aguilera, my dance teacher and dear friend that has been battling pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, on our last night in Europe we found out that she had made her way to heaven. She was a fighter in every sense of the word, and I think I am writing this post right now in remembrance of her, and as therapy, as I have exhausted every attempt in getting back to New York for the service to say my final goodbye. I was able to spend two months in New York last winter, and thankfully got to spend many days and nights with one of the most incredible women I have ever known. We would have lunch or dinner, walk around the upper west side, venture to Columbus Circle to get salmon for dinner, and she would make me laugh and laugh, and sometimes we would cry. That was OK too.

The time I got to spend with her and her boyfriend John were some of the best I have ever had. As an educator you have the ability to change lives every. single. day. I had the honor of attending Long Island High School for the Arts my junior and senior years of high school. Janice was my jazz teacher, and one of the main supporters of my career to this day. She was the one who encouraged me, no forced me to enter the Wilhelmina Fitness Contest in 2013. She was constantly checking in, being my cheerleader, even sick, she would send me a message as she was sitting in a cafe, saw me in a commercial, and was continue to tell me she was so proud, and that she was still fighting!  When she got sick, she remained a beacon of strength for everyone around her. The past six months my schedule has kept us apart in distance, but never at heart. She will forever be my hero, and although I cannot be there to say goodbye, I know she knows how much she was loved by me, and everyone around her. Her family has become mine, and I am forever thankful to have had someone in my life who believed in me the way that she did, and for that I am forever grateful.

Please keep Janice’s family in your thoughts and prayers. I would love to hear some of your favorite memory of Janice was.