I started my day making the Kid's breakfast for the last time in the next two months. He is heading back to Tucson today, something I always hate. Next month, when I should be picking him up at SeaTac I will in Bangkok instead. That's my news and all that I needed to get me through the day.
The idea of my long-awaited trip to Southeast Asia has become the reality of "hey, I'm leaving in less than a month". So I allowed myself the luxury of moving from the theoretical to the practical. I got out my travel gear list, being nothing if not organized, and piled everything from the list on the bed. Then I carefully rolled, folded and stowed until everything I need for a month's time fit inside one 40 litre back pack that I can take on the plane as carry on. I was very pleased to find that without too many re-packings, the entire pile fit inside the alloted space. As a bonus, while I was going through my passport wallet, I found 30 Euros from my last trip! That's another $40 for travelling.
I try hard to avoid living for something in the future, shortchanging today on the promise of tomorrow. But seeing my bag completely packed, ready to go, and knowing that with one quick trip to the bank and then the airport I was ready to leave, I got pretty excited. Like I said, it has all been theoretical up until now. This summer I went to my employer and bought back a month of my life by reducing my salary. I did my homework on destinations and what I want to see and do. I made the reservations I needed, booked flights and a moto, did the footwork. So far it has all just been planning. Now that there is a bag, packed and waiting, it isn't theory anymore. I am excited.
I am ready to immerse myself in what a friend recently called the two great aspects of solo travel: anonymity and autonomy. There is just nothing like moving through a new part of the world on one's own. Travelling as an individual, the journey is wholly owned outside of the whims of the travel gods. There are no excuses or compromises, just oneself and one's sojourn. Go here or there, stay here or there, eat this or that, talk or don't, interact or not without the need to consult one's fellows. I hasten to add (not least of which because she will read this) that I like travelling with the TBG. She is a good traveler, adaptable, adventurous, culturally aware and fun to discover new things with. But she has taken to calling this next trip my "pilgrimage" and maybe she is right. I invited her, repeatedly, to go with me but I think she knows, better than I do, how much I really need to be gone. And so I will be. Gone that is.
I have a few more weeks that call me here, require my attention and presence and I will give it. Now, however, I am lending more than part of an ear to the siren song of a promised journey and that song, tonight, that song sounds damn fine.
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