A Time for Everything

I'm always amazed at how quickly time flies yet a single day can feel really long. Lately, I've been trying to juggle too many things at the same time and my days feel like a never-ending check list. Frog usually pushes me to accomplish more but even he's telling me to slow down my pace because I'm spreading myself thin. Since last September, I've been pushing myself to do my best at work, obtain my certifications and develop my photography. I was afraid that if I took a break, the momentum would be lost. However, with each milestone accomplished, there was just another bigger challenge ahead of me. I became impatient and lost vision of the progress that I had made. Even though I tell myself to appreciate the present, my head was always thinking about the future. I need to remind myself that there is a time for sowing and there is a time for reaping. The results of my effort won't appear instantaneously even if I run towards my goals at lightning speed.  

On this note, I wanted to share the last installment of our Italy photos. Frog and I visited the Pompeii ruins. We joined a walking tour and our guide brought us to all the fun spots in town. We walked through the gladiator's dormitories which were tiny cells where 4 or 5 of them were squished together. The gladiators were very skinny and short because they lived on a diet of wheat and barley. None of the hunky men that you see in the Gladiator movie *sobs*.  Apparently, the combats were nonlethal because slaves were expensive so their masters could not afford to have them killed. We also visited the red light district which had well-preserved frescos of ancient porn. The beds were super small and made of stone because they wanted their customers in and out without all the fluff. The guide told us that the population was very young (you were considered a dinosaur at 40) because of poor hygienic conditions and lead poisoning from lead water pipes and kitchenware. Chamber pots were being dumped right onto the streets and the pedestrians had mounted stones for them to step on if they didn't want to dirty their feet. I imagined myself trudging through ghost poop the entire time we visited Pompeii. Frog and I wanted to visit Mount Vesuvius but sadly, the last tour of the day already left at 3PM. So instead, we took the train to Sorrento and finished our day eating lotsa pasta and shopping for limoncello in penis-shaped bottles :-) Don't be offended, it signifies good luck and prosperity!