In my professional life, projects are spoken of endlessly- construction projects, rehabilitation projects, community involvement projects, continuous improvement projects, even self-development plans (the project of yourself). A project can be anything that you spend a considerable amount of time on to get to some end goal. When you have a plan for a project, priorities stick to that plan while other details might fall to the wayside. Sometimes areas of your life might bleed together, and those ‘details’ can include personal life, relationships, or free time. One of those details that has fallen to the wayside for me is creative expression. And I am going to do something about it.
I am starting my own Creative Project. Yes, I capitalized it. My Creative Project. Like other projects, it will include a plan and measures of its own. This will not allow my creative expression to fall to the wayside as one of those ‘details’ that can be sacrificed for other priorities.
Where to start?
I’ve found myself at a point in my life where I have time to travel. Not just a weekend here or there, but real time. Two weeks at a time! Hello rotational role, I never thought I’d love you so much! But I won’t be here forever, and I want to make the absolute most of this opportunity. This is where my Creative Project is going to start. Now since I can name it whatever I please…
Every project needs a plan and measures.
I will write a post about a featured location (wherever my travels take me) once a month for one year. Tacos and Moscato will house that post. Each post will consist of four consistent, predetermined topics to explore my chosen highlights of that location. Those topics will be explored shortly.
Tacos and Moscato is not aimed toward monetary value, social advancement, or publicity. This is a purely amateur blog, designed to give structure while allowing freedom in my very own Creative Project. So whether or not I (and possibly my mother) am the sole reader, here it goes!
And so the location topics are defined…
I love food. It’s a necessity and we spend a substantial portion of our income on it (some more than others)- so we may as well enjoy it as much as possible! Which is why it’s not so surprising two of my four topics consist of what I ate. Here they are:
- What I fancied: the delectable, maybe more unknown or outlandish, dish that I stumbled across.
- What I recreated (or attempted): that local cuisine that is on every corner and that everyone tries- when in Rome, as they say. Food is a fundamental column of a culture; what better way to immerse myself than to have a go at their culinary claim to fame?
My next gets me away from what I had for lunch… or does it?
- Where I ventured: This isn’t the city or the mountain range- that is the base for each feature article itself. THIS is the flower stand that proved there are at least 300 shades of blue. The waterfall that washed my thoughts away. The tiny deli on the corner that recreated my idea of what a sandwich could be (still talking about my lunch). Whatever spot it was that left me lingering on longer than expected.
I have two ‘what’s and a ‘where’. For my last topic, I considered having a ‘who’. Who was that fascinating person that both awed and inspired me on meeting? But I know that I would have trouble sticking to this choice. I didn’t want to give myself an agenda for meeting people- this isn’t a job after all, it‘s a Creative Project. And adding such an agenda had the potential to make me feel less genuine in taking interest in individuals, or even stretch to taking an interrogative approach to conversations. So I left myself room to flex instead…
- Who/what/where moved me: that experience that makes you question your view or approach on life. Hang in there- this doesn’t mean something that created a mass epiphany. This topic is aimed at allowing space for me to spend some time on the experience that will stay with me after my trip for years to come- whether that be a person, a process, an injustice, or a new idea. It is that space for me to dig a little deeper than what I had for lunch.