October 19, 2006
Around the World in 365 Days
Yesterday I told my mom that I would not travel as much in 2007 as I have in 2006 because I was just exhausted from all of it. "Except for Savannah in January and Florida in June, because those are for work. Oh, and when we go to Florida in the spring." And then I remembered: New Orleans in February for the Mardi Gras Half; the Missions team is planning a return trip to Romania in June. And I'm hoping there will be at least one wedding - if not two - in Ohio and I can't go an entire year without seeing Michael and I'm sure my dad would like it if I came to Houston at least once. So there I am again with a full year of traveling in front of me and it's still only October.
I love traveling, but it's hard to do when you have a pet. You either have to burden your friends or come up with a few hundred bucks for boarding (that I can now increase by 33% with the addition of a second dog - thankfully they don't double the price), not to mention the tickets and parking/cab fare/MARTA money to get to the airport in the first place. And I'm a homebody by nature - I like being in my house. When the dogs and I went back to our house yesterday after their eight nights at the Coole's (and my four), I was never so glad to be home, ever.
Sometimes I'm amazed when I look at my Flickr sets and see all the places I've been over the past year. How did I manage it all? How is my house still standing, unrobbed? Why is Montego even still speaking to me?
But I'm so grateful that I got to travel to all those places and see all the things that I saw. I got to hang out with my dad in Houston; see one of my best friends get married on a beach in Jamaica; spend a long weekend with my favorite female family members in Florida; gamble in Vegas; see the sun set in Hilton Head Island; stand among Roman ruins in Transylvania; hold my brand new nephew in Ohio; worship with 800 of my closest friends on the sands of Destin; and see hundreds of hot air balloons ascend into the sky in Albuquerque.
In two weeks I'll be in the waters off the Yucatan Peninsula and two weeks after that I'll be back at my dad and Ginger's house in Texas - one of my favorite places on the planet - to eat turkey and watch lots of DVDs and take long walks with their dog.
I am lucky; I’m not complaining. But sometimes I wonder what I am missing here when I’m gallivanting off over there. Maybe in 2007 I’ll find out.
Posted by hannah at 11:14 AM
