Shorewood,
Illinois,
United States
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
So it begins as it usually begins with me: too late, too slow, and far too analytical. It doesn't help that I suck at multitasking either. In any case, I spent the better part of yesterday and this morning: cleaning shit out of the closet, washing four year old poision ivy off the back pack, watching the latter half of "The Deer Hunter", eating lasagne with the grandparents, and bouncing around on tangent packing and preparation assignments till all that remains is this very text. Actually, thats not true. I'm only mostly packed, the car still needs to be emptied, I have yet to buy travel insurance, and the painting I've been working on for two months is about a week away from being completed, but who's complaining. As my wise old fooball coach used to say, "Charles, you're killing me!....(something explicit followed by the real gem of advice)...it's like bugs on a windshield, you gotta look right thru'm and see the BIGGER picture." The bigger picture in this case is that eight consecutive months of global travel is going to happen whether I pack the extra gauze or not. Besides, when you don't plan, you get to improvise, and that just means fun for the whole family. Anyway, bugs in the windshield aside, my first stop is christchurch NZ where a month of south island appreciation awaits. As for later destinations:
Chicago-Christchurch
Christchurch-Melbourne
Melbourne-Singapore
Singapore-Bangcock
Bangcock-(overland)-chengdu(china)
Chengdu-Beijing
Beijing-Tokyo
Tokyo-Osaka
Osaka-Madrid
Madrid-(overland/sea)-croatia
Dubrovnick-chicago
See you again on the flip side. The flip being 23 hours of flying not including airport layovers:) Bugs, Bugs, Bugs.
