My journey starts today

I have two of my best friend's blogs bookmarked, and I check them regularly. Not religiously, but then again there are very few things that I am able to wrap my scattered mind around doing on a daily basis. Brushing my teeth? Three times a day (or more). Other than that, I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached. Anyway, I have been debating creating a blog of my own. I love to write (that's what I chose to study in college - GO TAR HEELS!), and I'm getting ready to embark on the trip of a lifetime and am so worried that I will forget all the little details as soon as they happen. So...this seems like a good time to start my travel journal, photo diary, rambling thoughts, and the record of my creative journey through this crazy life.

Lucy always starts her posts with a quote. I love that format, but didn't want to copy/use her template without the proper credit. I hope she won't mind...


A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step
— Lao-tsu c. 604-c.531 BC


Packing drives me crazy. I know it shouldn't be a big deal, but it's one of those things that fills me with dread, so I procrastinate as long as possible. Like I said before, I'm leaving home soon (today or tomorrow, depending on what Tropical Storm Gabrielle decides to do) to go with my mom and my Aunt (I'll call her Rocky, since she has been my rock and a source of strength for me for most of my life).

We will fly out of Norfolk, Virginia to San Francisco, California. We'll rent a car and spend a week traveling up the west coast to Seattle, Washington. Mom and Aunt Rocky have planned the drive around scenic locations, and I will hopefully be able to capture some beautiful images for my portfolio. At the end of the week, we'll get on a Norweigan Cruise Lines ship and cruise for a week up through Alaska, making four stops for shore excursions. We will return to Seattle and fly home.

Mom, a CPA, and very organized person, has a binder full of information with all of our plans. I have stayed away from the planning process because my life is so crazy if I stopped to think about this trip before it happened, I wouldn't be able to foucs on the day-to-day issues, like school, feeding the children, the gallery, or anything else. I am just happy to do anything and everything they have planned.

When the trip first came up in conversation with my mom, my husband (I'll call him Tico, as Costa Rica is his 2nd favorite place in the world), was thrilled - he decided I HAD to go. I was a lot more apprehensive. On the one hand, I will not get this chance again. I don't want to miss any opportunity to make memories with Mom. She was diagnosed with breast cancer a couple of years ago, and while there is currently no sign of the cancer anywhere in her body, it had spread to about 30 lymph nodes before they caught it...so that was a reminder to not take a single minute of time, with the people I love, for granted! This is an AMAZING chance for me as a budding photographer to see and capture some amazing things, and to get creatively "recharged" (I have been in a bit of a slump lately). But on the other hand...I have never been away from my kids for this long. I will never forget that the last time I went to San Francisco (for four or five days), Tico called to say that one of our twins, A, had broken her arm and was getting ready to go into surgery. That was one of the absolute worst days of my life. My baby was more than 3000 miles away, about to be "put under", and I wasn't there. And, while Tico is a great dad, and more involved with the kids than many other moms and/or dads that I know, there are times when the kids just want their mom if they need to talk or something goes wrong. OKAY, so I may be a little melodramatic, but it's how I feel. The bottom line is that I realized that the family would survive without me for a couple of weeks, and this is something that I would regret for the rest of my life if I missed. One of my favorite sayings is that it's "better to do it and regret it than to regret not doing it". So I'm going.

Now I just have to pack.

I've been thinking about packing for about three weeks. I've had the list from my mom (what she's packing) for about a week. I have had some clothes laid out for three or four days. Yesterday I put most of the clothes in my suitcase(s). And still, I'm not packed.

"On packing: Lay out all your clothes and all your money. Then, take half the clothes and twice the money."
- Susan Andersen

Three women, in a small car, with luggage for two weeks, most of my camera equipment (which weighs about 20 pounds!), who don't know where they are going - although they have a great plan for how to get there. This really should be fun! Mom is taking her computer so I can post daily and keep in touch. If I can figure out how to post some pictures, I'll do that as I go.

I'd better go pack.