June 16, 2004
Heading Over the Atlantic Again
Well, a week from right now I'll be in London. To be specific, I'll probably be just waking up from that first sleep after a day's travel disoriented, trying to adjust to the 8-hour time zone difference.
[Material referring to work has been deleted.]
I told him that I was committed to running the Stonewall Young Dems booth at LA Pride this weekend, but I would be able to leave as early as Monday. (I'll actually leave about 6am Tuesday morning.)
So now I have to get ready to leave for a month. I managed to find a 3-point flight from LA to London to Denver (to visit family in Colorado for a week) and back to LA for only $6 more than the lowest simple LA-London roundtrip would have been, so I'll get a little one-week vacation at the end of the trip.
There are many things to figure out before I get on the plane next week. There's the obvious packing for a month's journey, cleaning and taking care of anything that'll need my attention before I go. (Bills, paperwork, etc.) I think I'm going to charge Hans's girlfriend Anne with the task of making sure my new plants get watered. (I'm going to miss my new pets. By the way, here is a photo of Seymore. He's growing nicely!)
I also want to get a tourist guide of London and do some pre-planning of places I need to go and things I need to do. For some reason, last time I was out there I was too tired and disorganized to figure out where to dig up "fun things to do". And I can't let myself get burned-out like I did last time out.
I also want to document (blog) my trip better than last time. On my first trip I had intended on bringing my digital camera but discovered last minute while packing that my charger had gone missing. I've since replaced it (thanks to eBay for making it easy to find obscure items!) so I will have my camera with me.
I think this next month I'll be dedicating much more blogging time to my own personal journal (this) and much less time talking about political stuff on my Stonewall Young Dems page. There's nothing like a long trip away from home to get "out of the fishbowl" of my life and examine it from an outside angle. As much as my stomach clenches at the idea of being away from my familiar surroundings for so long, it should be a fun adventure... if I plan for it well enough.
The last concern is saying goodbye to everyone here for a month. Recently I've found myself growing quite close to my social network. A year ago I was really isolated and didn't know people out here in L.A. but now it's much different. [Material has been deleted.]
Okay, time to get moving.
Posted by Murray Todd Williams at June 16, 2004 08:50 AM