California Dreamin'

I don't like traveling.

Well, honestly, that isn't true. I love to travel, what I don't like is getting ready to travel and thinking about it before it happens. Once I'm on an airplane or a train or even a bus or driving my car, I get all excited and love the experience. But I am, on the other hand, a 'homebody' who misses his own bed and his wife and his dog and familiar routines. Those are the things I fret about getting ready for a trip.

I've been carrying around this 'to do' list for over a week, doing what I need to do and marking off the 'done' stuff. Most of it is done except climbing up in our attic and finding a large suitcase and shipping some stuff FedEx to Anaheim and buying some clothes--something I truly do hate!

So Sunday I'm off to California for the General Convention. I messed up since I really could have waited until Monday to go--but trying to change my reservation would cost more than the reservation! Plus the airline keeps changing my itinerary because they want full planes. Getting there isn't 'half the fun'--though I do love airports and wandering around and watching the people who are willing to get on vehicles that weigh as much as a four story building with hundreds of other people and trusting that they will fly! How crazy is that?

I've decided, after my last few adventures going to NYC airports, to only fly our of Hartford. On the way out I go from Hartford to Newark and then non stop to Orange County. On the way back, which when I made the reservations was about that simple, I fly from Orange County to Houston and then to Cleveland and then to Hartford--God help us! I leave at 6:30 a.m. and don't get to Hartford until 8:30 p.m. Even with the time loss, that seems like a long trip.

I'll love it once I get on that plane on Sunday--but right now I'm whiny and thinking this is not a good idea at all.

If I can figure out how to use the lap-top I'm taking to General Convention, you'll be hearing from me more than you want from there. And, while I'm gone, you are part of what I'll miss, no kidding. Really. Shalom, JIM