Looking Forward

Tomorrow will be six months from my first blog post about this trip.  Tomorrow is also the very first day of said trip.  And, I’ve got to admit–I’m kind of sad.

After spending thirty years with myself, I’ve come to realize that I always need something to look forward to.  Nothing sends me into a downward spiral of crankiness and general unpleasantness like having nothing to plan or anticipate.  And, to be fair, I’ve already come up with several projects and trips–and one awesome project/trip combo–that I want to get started on when we return.  But right now, I am really trying to only focus on the ‘adventure’ before us.  Because it is right there–I can practically reach out and touch it at this point.

We are both totally packed–see pictures below–and ready to go.  My backpack weighs in at 24 pounds–which is frighteningly a lot, in my opinion, but I think I’ll be ok with it.  It’s not like I’m hiking with it–just dragging it through multiple airports, train and metro stations, and city streets.  Despite my extreme over-organization, my husband keeps coming up with new things that ‘need to be done’ before we go–but at this point I’m pretty sure they are down to mundane things like ‘get a new watch strap’ that really DON’T need to be done.  I’ve downloaded lots of apps and podcasts that will be beneficial (or that we will never use–only time will tell) and my Kindle is loaded with enough to read to completely distract me from the entire trip–so not the goal, but it is good to know that I’ll have entertainment on the long flights.

So, clearly, being sad is insane.  I’m leaving tomorrow for the trip I’ve been looking forward to, planning, and writing about for half of a year.  So why am I sad?  Because I have nothing to look forward to or plan at this point!  And very little to write about–though I’m sure that part will change as soon as we get on the bus.  Thank goodness I’ll still have my precious unlimited data package for the first two days–when we are still on this side of the Atlantic.  While this will likely be the last (mostly) grammatically correct, typo-free post done from a normal sized keyboard, I’ll surely be typing away the entire time we are in NYC.  As I’ve mentioned before, I have lots of time to blog whilst the husband…ahem…powders his nose.  For ten to fifteen minutes at a time.

What packing for a month looks like on my back.