In Another Part of the World

This week I’ve been re-scheduling dental appointments, arranging for a cat-sitter, and – perhaps mostly importantly – officially requesting time off from work. I’m “window shopping” online, deciding which clothes I already have at home that I can morph into this season’s trends. I’m checking out guidebooks from the library, doing online research with abandon, and I’ve dusted off my long-ago read copy of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. I’ve checked to make sure my updated passport is right in the same spot where I always keep it at least 800 times since Saturday.

My friends, I am headed to Spain in May.

!!!

I know. I can hardly believe it myself.

And if we’re going to get technical, I’m actually headed to Spain AND Portugal.

There are an awful lot of spots I’d like to travel to in this world, but in the past few years Spain and Portugal have risen to the tip-top of my short list. Ironically enough - because I’d never mentioned these countries and their predominant spot on my traveling dream list to her - a dear old friend from high school emailed me earlier this spring explaining that she and one of her college friends were setting about to plan a trip to these very places…and would I like to come along?

After much hemming and hawing and online price searching and bank account checking – tickets across the Atlantic aren’t cheap these days - I finally pulled the trigger on Saturday night. Do you do this with airline tickets? You check and plan and plot and select seats and get all the way up to the “purchase tickets” button and then think “well...I’ll come back later and do it.”

One afternoon, about a week ago, I rode into work with my headphones in, iPod on. I rarely listen to music during my commute as I’d much prefer to squeeze in twenty minutes of reading each way, but when the trains get packed to a sardines in a can kind of level, music is usually the only way to go as you couldn’t pull your paperback out of your bag even if you tried. There I was, swaying along with the motion of the T, watching the Boston skyline in front of me, feeling a bit Groundhog Day-esque about that whole morning. Then The Talking Head’s Once in a Lifetime came up on shuffle. When we hit the chorus – Same as it ever was, same as it ever was, same as it ever – was. I knew I had to get to Spain. I was weary of my routine, the same as it ever was unwinding of my days. Why not shake things up with an international adventure? See new sights, soak up new sounds, new smells, and be a part of something that’s once in a lifetime?

Let the countdown begin. Ole!