Anticipation

Training notes: did a half day today, only 5200 steps total. Tendonitis in the left foot kept me from doing more. Finding that I am getting restless for movement which is, I think, progress!

Travel notes: I am starting to think about this trip in real terms now. I've thought about gear, I've thought about places to stay and researched the route. But it hasn't felt real. It is over a year away and that is part of the problem. I still don't have all the logistics worked out, I don't even have the actual dates yet. There is a lot to be done. Like find the money to pay for the thing for starters.

And yet somehow, the last couple of days, it has begun to feel like a reality. Maybe it is writing about it here. Maybe it is the tracking of my fitness progress. Maybe it is a combination of the two. But whatever the reason, I am beginning to think about this as something that will happen rather than just a nebulous plan, a dream, an idea.

Trip planning is often that way for me. I remember my first trip overseas. It didn't feel real to me for a very long time. I did lots of research, talked to a lot of people about it, even bought the ticket, and still doubted I was going. I booked hotels, made plans to meet up with friends in two different places, and bought a new suitcase, and it still didn't feel real to me.

I literally stood in the airport and thought I was insane for doing this. It couldn't be real. I wasn't seriously going to get on a plane and go all the way over there - was I? In fact that whole flight, and most of the first day, there was a pervasive sense that it all wasn't really happening. My second trip, which really wasn't that much later, had a similar feel to it.

Now the reality generally hits the moment I purchase the plane ticket. There is nothing like putting out roughly the same amount of money you pay in monthly rent for a plane ticket to bring reality crashing down around you. And yet, even with that, I still get that lovely sense of anticipation, of the dream coming true, each time I step on a plane to go somewhere. A little voice whispers to me 'you really are doing this!'

And here it is, starting again. I am really going to do this.