Anticipation of a Journey

As in most journeys in my life (not all!) getting there was most of the fun. Just think how much you looked forward to one such journey when you were still young and innocent. Well, maybe not innocent, but you know what I mean. The way there was full of little joys that were enhanced by your knowledge of good things to come. If you were lucky to share your thoughts with one you loved you formed memories upon memories.

Just before you arrive you look at the scenes and participants with great expectations, and think that it will be a little sad when you have to leave a few days from now. But for now it is great in anticipation and the beginning of experiencing the reality: it is no longer an expectation. This is it! You arrive and get busy with settling in. Time goes fast, and before you know it, it is tomorrow. Except that it is always today.

Then next day arrives. You begin to do that for which you came. Your senses are still highlighted with the joy of realizing the goal of your journey. You still have plenty of time to feel all the goodness in it. You still have days full of plans of doing and not doing a lot of things. By the end of the day it is as if you had enjoyed this life for a long time. You are settled in an almost normal routine, except that it is not normal for you since you are on this journey that is different from what you do at home.

Days fly by and you are now beginning to think in more rational, more mundane terms. You know that in a day or so you will have to prepare the final phase. You wish that you had a few more days, yet you know that all good things come to an end. You could not really continue this joyous journey in this form long. You have things to do, obligations to fulfill. You give up to the inevitable, and plan the last day.

As good as the stay was with all of its fun, excitement, and challenges, you now look forward to the way back to home. Well, sort of. I have done this many times (that gives a hint to my age) and each time it is nearly the same. The exceptions are when some of the expectations are not met, or some kink develops that spoils the journey. But we will not delve on that, will we?

MW and I have such journey planned for the first of December. Although it is only an inter-state road trip with a few days’ stay in a historical city, it will take extensive preparations. Our life is not exactly simple, so we have to make sure that all who and what depend on us will be maintained satisfactorily until our return. Then there is the matter of selecting and packing the useful and useless items that we plan to take, my prepping and loading our vehicle, reservations made along the way there and back, etc. But then, all that is part of the anticipation and the journey.

We needed this getaway for more than just the obvious enjoyment of it. MW usually paints herself into a corner with all of the activities centered on the last three months of the year beginning with a couple of weeks before Halloween. It is usually over by the first week of the new year, but then she has her parents’ visit to dread. Oops, did I say dread? I meant anticipate later in January. A week or so before, during, and a week or so after, she is kind of living in a delicate space. I have to be very careful.

For example, she hates Windows based computers, as she is an Apple person. Regrettably, my son and I gave her a Windows machine when her Apple computer crapped out a year or so ago (the third one in a succession of Apple computers). This temporary replacement computer is very capable and does all that she needs to do on a computer. OK, maybe not all that she wants to do, so there is the rub. Plus, she just absolutely hates the logical approach that is needed to coexist with Windows. You see, MW is an intuitive and artistic female who does not want to deal with stuff that are irrelevant to what she wants at the moment. That is one of the reasons for which she married me. I do the irrelevant stuff for which she has no use but which needs to be done daily. So, when stuff needs to be done, she calls me to do it. Being touchy because of the holiday-induced activities, I must be very circumspect about my attitude and results. If I don’t deliver as expected, bad things happen. Not that she is an ingrate, it is just that she has a way of looking at things that my logical mind is not capable of understanding. So I get into trouble even without trying. But, as I always say, life without tension is deadly dull, and our life is not deadly dull. As usual, I will likely get myself into trouble with this, but the pain will be worth it.

Now you see why we need a week of relaxation. I will post the details later.