Get out there By Gina Carbone gcarbone@seacoastonline.com

I’m a bad influence on you. This issue is supposed to be a motivational tool to get you to go out and do stuff, but basically it’s a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do deal.

I’m lazy. I regularly complain that I don’t have enough time or money to do any of the things I want to do, when deep down I know that’s rubbish. There will never be a perfect time to do anything. There will never be enough money to do everything. I agree to do certain things with people — events, workshops, committees — then struggle to find a way out of it at the last second because I’d really just rather stay home and watch “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” for the 900th time.

Frankly, I’m sick of my attitude. And I knew this issue was coming so I took the plane by the wing and turned it in my direction. I know what I want to do: Travel to the U.K.. So I am going to do it! This September, instead of going to the Toronto International Film Festival with my friends for the fourth or fifth time, I am going to London. By myself. God knows what I will do there, and He’s not sharing details. I want the surprise. Right now I’m shopping on Travelocity.com, Expedia.com and any other place I can find to get a good flight/hotel deal. I’ll only go for a week, and I’m not setting a tourist itinerary. I want to get a feel for the streets the same way I always do in a new city — be it Sydney, Boston, Santa Barbara, Toronto or here in Portsmouth — by walking around.

I’m not exactly sure how I’m going to pay for this little excursion and I’m scared about losing luggage or getting lost — but otherwise I’m thrilled just at the idea of an adventure.

Flip through the following pages and you’ll meet other women who are also using their summer hours to “get out there.” Not that that means everyone has to travel the world or do an extreme sport like cover girl Hannah Smalltree. Sometimes it just means trying a new thing — maybe something that scares you. Or catching up with old friends you’d lost touch with. Or reading a new book. Trying new recipes. It doesn’t have to be earth-shattering, just a different way to look at the world.

I feel like Bilbo Baggins creeping out of his hobbit hole for the first time in years! I’m going to explore a new part of our version of Middle-earth and no matter how the trip turns out it’s going to change me in some way. For the better, I hope, but even if it just amounts to a few pages of notes for my journal it will be worth the time and expense.

No matter who we are or what stage of life we’re in, we all have the same number of hours in the day to work with. I’m restructuring mine to fit in something I’ve always wanted to do. Isn’t it time you did the same?

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