I was MIA last week because I was busy playing hooky from life, which everyone should do!
Collage of some of my favorite photos from Life Hooky! Big thanks to the two minxes in the top left photo, sporting their LBDs, for this experience!
I went to Costa Rica and met 19 “hookers” that quickly became life long friends, travel buddies, and business brainstormers. “Life Hookers” is what we affectionately called ourselves through the five-day trip of luxury, culture and risk taking with a side of business.
The excursion was concerted by the saucy minxes over at The Middle Finger Project in the form of Ash Ambirge, her partner in crime Jess Manuszak and their comrade Carlos. (Luckily, no arrests were made on this inaugural trip, though the bail money was ready.) I had the privilege of meeting Jess last May in Vegas at Bloggers in Sin City and she told me about TMF’s new venture, Life Hooky. Baller name, smart business women, fun adventure, all inclusive. Where do I sign up?!
When I initially registered, I’m not sure I knew exactly what I was in for. “If Jess digs it and is apart of orchestrating it, it’s gotta be good,” I thought. SOLD! Also Ash is a biznass genius, so there’s that. I love to travel and since I’m of the only-child origin it was nice to go somewhere by myself (especially a different country) where people were on the other side waiting for my arrival.
Many of the “hookers” connected before the trip through a Facebook group where there wasn’t a shortage of banter, humor and fuzzy mustached selfies. But the trip wasn’t about the mustached selfies, ziplining, plunging 80 feet into the pacific from a catamaran, volunteering at a local school, salsa dancing, cooking in a local’s backyard, or even lounging by the pool with a rum and fresh pineapple juice cocktail taking in the sultry sunsets night after night—it was about the people.
These “hookers” were all open-minded, ready for adventure, ready to talk business, ready to take life by the gonads, ready to crack inappropriate jokes, ready to LIVE.
The craziest part? We’re from different countries all around the world (seriously…France England, Australia, Canada were all represented), at different stages of our lives, but we jelled. It’s a bit unexplainable and many of us during the last evening all together had trouble articulating just what it was that made us all cohesive. They all inspired me. And I’m not quite sure Ash & Jess know exactly what they created.