Hi! My name is Jane. Born and raised in NYC and currently living in Brooklyn with my husband (Keith, the other half of this blog) and our two dogs. My birthday is September 28th and I'm the epitome of a Libra and also somewhat into astrology. My parents are from Moscow, and I like to say that I speak Russian fluently, but my mother would probably disagree. Aside from the people in my life, I cannot live without music, good coffee, chocolate, red wine and the occasional martini (with a twist, please!)
I used to be a corporate manager until I got my dream job in Brooklyn, felt restless, decided I needed a complete life-reboot and jumped at the first idea I had: to become a writer and photographer. So�?I bought a camera! I sold our stuff! My husband cheered me on and helped me carry the luggage! At the time, he was a work-at-home graphic designer for a big company, so for a few years we traveled like this, with two dogs, laptops and enough camera gear to make your average TSA agent break into a sweat.
Then we had a baby. (His name is Cole)
We kept traveling! Well, without the dogs this time. (The dogs live on a farm in Oregon now, where they are getting really fat.)
One day, we decided to film a documentary about other people who had quit their jobs and decided to work online while traveling. We raised $10,000 through the generous readers of this site to buy the video and audio equipment necessary to create a theatre-ready full length feature film.
My friend Helena took this photo. Thanks to her!
Three months later, Drew lost his job! We panicked. Hard. It still worked out. Between our joint efforts, we found a way to work on creative projects �?writing to photography to video �?and get paid for it. While traveling. With a toddler.
We are as surprised as you.
We finished filming the documentary, I am working on a book for Gotham/Penguin that is due to the publisher in 2014 and Cole hasn’t lived in the US since he was four months old.
At the moment, we live in Mexico. Cole and I are trying to learn Spanish. Drew is trying to finish editing the film to submit the film to festivals.
I’ve been writing about all of this, here on this blog, since the very beginning in April 2008 just one month before I quit my job. Whirlwind? Yes, absolutely. What have we learned? Anything is possible.
Where We’ve Traveled
Not to count countries or anything, but a lot of people ask, so here it is: all the countries/territories we’ve visited (38). Alaska, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Burning Man (Black Rock City), Cambodia, Canada, Canary Islands, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, France, Greece, Guatemala, Hawaii, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Laos, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Panama, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United States, Vatican City, and the Yukon.
