Four months ago if you had asked me where I would be living right now, Vermont would not have been an option.  I might have said Memphis, or even Portland or Nashville.  But never the tiny village of Ludlow, VT.

So what happened?

A long series of events, really, that all start with the blog I write.  If you weren’t aware, I also write a weight loss blog called A Merry Life.  I’ve been writing it for almost two years (it started out as a photography blog) and have a nice group of readers involved.  I write about trying to live a healthy life, about dealing with my body image issues, and I even occasionally take my clothes off for a good cause.  It’s been an evolution in personal development more than anything, but has also created some amazing opportunities for me.

Those opportunities have all come from the people I’ve met who read my blog.  One such person is the fabulous, Marsha Hudnall, who helps run the health spa for women Green Mountain at Fox Run.  She read my blog and we communicated on Twitter for a while before I attended BlogHer09 in Chicago in July.  There were tons of people I wanted to meet at BlogHer and she was one of them.  We met briefly, maybe 5 or 10 minutes, after a lunch I attended.  We chatted in person about what we did, what was happening, how we enjoyed the conference.  I briefly mentioned that I had just quit my job to travel and was trying to figure out my future plans while on the trip.

I didn’t think much of the meeting since it was so brief, but afterward I recieved an e-mail proposal asking me if I wanted to accept a staff participant position at Green Mountain where I could utilize my skills in all things internet while also participating in the program which would be great for me on a personal level.  I would be blogging for them and doing other great tasks I enjoyed so it sounded like a win for everyone.  Without much thought I accepted the 3 month gig and moved myself up to Vermont.

Two of my three months in Vermont have already passed and the experience has been amazing.   If I get a chance to snowboard while I’m up here there won’t be any comparison: best experience ever.  (It probably will be anyway, I just really want to go snowboarding up here.)

So thanks to my blog I was offered this interesting and unique opportunity.  I’m lucky that I chose to be open to these kinds of experiences and it came at the right time for me.  I’m glad that I’ve found ways to use the skills that I have in a way that helps other people indirectly.  I’m not sure where I will be after this, or what my future looks like, but I’m excited that right now I’m working for a place that is amazing and helps women change their lives.

And okay, even though the population is next to nothing, I’m pretty excited to be living in the gorgeous Green Mountains of Vermont for a while.

I love this park surrounded by the huge skyscrapers. The guard in the park took her job seriously, telling kids not to mess with her flowers or ruin her park. Green spaces in cities still always surprise me despite knowing they will be there.

The Bean:

Outdoor concert:

Chicago at night.

Chicago was a lot of fun mostly because of the people I met while I was there. I met a lot of the women I interact with on my other blog. It was awesome to meet people for the first time that have been reading my blog for months. They already felt like part of my life and meeting them wasn’t awkward at all. I also ran across a lot of self-promoting, self-important mommy bloggers that weren’t of any interest to me… but I will stay away from that topic.

After waiting YEARS to visit Chicago, I wasn’t disappointed, but I wasn’t overwhelmed either. It is a nice city but not a magical one for me like I thought it might be. Maybe if I go back and experience more of the city and less of the conference atmosphere it would be better.