Automobiles, Trains, and Planes

I didn’t really sleep last night. I dozed off at a couple of points – I know this because I had a dream that I was having a really good hair day – but true sleep eluded me. There were many contributing factors to my insomnolant state: the highly caffinated tea I drank late in the afternoon, the dog tap dancing in his sleep, the other dog hogging the covers (maybe sharing a twin bed with 80 lbs of dog had something to do with it), but the primary culprit would have to be Europe. Yup, the entire continent of Europe kept me up most of last night, because in two hours (as of typing this), I’ll board a plane to France and after a four hour layover, I’ll board another plane to Hamburg. From Hamburg I’ll travel to Kiel to meet up with the rest of the Writing Excuses Retreat attendees and on Saturday we’ll board a cruise ship for a writing retreat on the Baltic Sea.

So, yeah, I’m a bit excited. I’ve been vibrating with excitement for weeks now. I think I’m more excited than I wass last year when I attended my first Writing Excuses Retreat. Last year, on top of being excited, I was nervous. I was traveling alone to spend a week with people I didn’t know. There was a lot that could have gone wrong. This year, I have friends from last year and my brother’s coming with me.

At the moment, I’m sitting in Logan Airport trying to contain my glee: this time tomorrow, I’ll be in Germany in the warm embrace of writer nerdom. I’m going to try to maintain my blog while I’m traveling. I’m not making any promises because, as those of you who have followed me for a while know, I tend to state I’m going to write something and then promptly fail to follow through, usually because life get’s crazy or because I find something more interesting to write, but I’m going to try.

And that brings us to the title of today’s blog – yes, I know it’s out of order. I live two hours from the nearest airport and there aren’t many flights leaving Portland, Maine for Europe, so this afternoon I drove down to Portland (thanks for the drop off, mom) and boarded the train for Boston. I could have taken the bus. It’s cheaper and goes straight to the airport, but it’s more cramped too and my motion sickness is really bad in buses, so I decided to take the Downeaster. There’s nothing quite so pleasant as sitting in a comfortable seat, watching the countryside roll by.

If I could travel exclusively by train, I would. One of my fondest travel memories is from a trip my mother and I did when I was ten. We toured England and Scotland by train and it was one of the most magical journies of my young life. Another fond travel memory is of the time my family took the Amtrak from Otumwa, Iowa to Denver, Colorado to visit my Grandparents for Christmas. We were too excited to sleep – my brother and I – and so my mother spent much of the trip reading aloud from The Lord of the Rings.

So this afternoon, as I sat on the train wrapping up a project for work and turning my mind towards the adventure to come, I realized that I’m living the life I always wanted, but had given up on living. When I was in high school, I had a fantasy of being the jet setting writer, traveling the world, writing my fantasy stories. As I grew older and learned more about how much something like that would cost, I despaired of ever doing it, or if I did do it, it wouldn’t be until I was older, my kids moved out – a retirement tour.

I’m lucky to be in the position I’m in. I know that. Some days I can’t believe how lucky I am. I hope I’ll always be this lucky, but I don’t think that’s how luck works, so I’m going to embrace this oportunity and run with it and hope another one like it comes along.

Thank you for reading.