I leave for the Lower 48 this afternoon. Usually, I'm so filled with excitement, I can hardly sit still. Today, parallel to our rainy (first rain since August) weather, I'm a little on the gloomy side.
I think it has the most to do with this being an over-night trip. I don't know why I keep letting Matt talk me into them. In addition to being jet lagged from a 4 hour time change, I get a night of restless sleep. 4 hr flight to Seattle. and another 5 to Detroit. When we get there, I'm not able to get a nap---it's 6am there and the day is just starting. Saturday is planned to be full of Craig's graduation stuff....so no snooze at all. I hope I'm imagining it worse than it will really be. At least we're flying down with AK Air...their seats are a little roomier and more condusive to sleep.
Also, I don't like to leave my kitty. She's my baby and it feels like I'm leaving my family behind. I've toyed with taking longer trips to see family (month-long ones), but always shorten them when I think of my Zoey, home all alone.
NOW FOR THE POSITIVE SIDE OF THE DAY:
I'm getting really good at packing light. Growing up as a chronic over-packer, it is a hard habit to break. I lightened it up as much as I possibly could for our trip to France, and found that I actually like packing light...even though I have to try really hard to do it. I went a little overboard for our trip to Vegas, taking only a hiking day pack, just a smidge larger than the average school backpack. I ended up feeling like I was wearing the same clothes every single day. This time, I'm armed with a carry-on suitcase and a backpack. We'll see if I feel like I forgot something essential.
This time tomorrow, I will be with my buddy Sam. He and I were high school/college summer buddies. We met at band camp when I was in 9th grade.. and played in the DCAB together every summer through high school and college. We bonded over our deep love of music, which is sometimes hard to find in a small town. I'm very looking forward to seeing him. :)
We'll be one step closer to the marathon. One of the biggest problems runners face with the taper is going crazy. For 15 weeks, it's all about building more mileage, strength, endurance. The last three weeks are called "the taper", and decrease by 50% each week, designed to rest the body before race day. Suddenly, I'm not running as much and am sitting here thinking to myself, "shouldn't I be doing something? running more?" Before my first marathon last year, we went on a backpacking trip, 7 days before the race. Bad idea. Not keeping with the resting mentality. I'm kinda glad that family visits will keep me distracted during this resting period.
Matt likes to do projects when we go visit family. He likes to play farmer when he goes to visit his parents : work in the field, feed the animals, etc. That's fine, except it usually leaves me alone in the house with his mom. She's really protective of Matt and sometimes takes little teasing comments the wrong way....kind of creating a rift between her and I. *sigh* so this time I'm bringing my crochet project, a yellow blanket for Andrea and Jason's soon-to-arrive baby boy. I'll get to play with the baby goats though, so very looking forward to that. I want a baby goat.
He's redoing my parents' bathroom with Chris when we are in IM. Emily has a photography project she's working on, so that will keep her and I busy. :)
WOW. Too much coffee = long post. :) Time to finish packing and cleaning...
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