Killing Time On An Airplane

We fly from Greensboro to New York and then New York to Gatwick—a full day of travel.  I’ve been mentally compiling a list of activities to keep myself occupied during this time period. My ideas for mental and physical stimulation include:

• Diving into the literary novel I’ve been saving for the plane
• Working on my next Pet-a-Scopes column, due one week after our return
• Seated Yoga Poses
• Quiet, Inner Meditation
• Plotting my next novel
• Spontaneous writing on my current novel
• Journal about my life and my progress. Am I where I want to be? What’s keeping me from my dreams? What do I need to change or be more open to?
• Bond with my mother and my husband in the form of quiet airplane conversation, card games, shared jokes and knowing smiles.

Lovely. Now here’s how I’ll actually spend my time on the plane:

• Sleeping
• Watching the inflight movie, “Cheaper By The Dozen II”
• Eating
• Peeing
• Reading the People magazines my Mom will most likely bring
• Whining that I’m bored and when will we get there?

So much for self-improvement—bring on the snack cart!

Does TV Really Matter?

I know I spend too much time watching TV and I frequently say I'm "addicted" to certain shows. But it came to my attention this week that it's not so much about addiction as it is just laziness or habit.

I'm a huge American Idol fan and I've been pulling for Chris Daughtery, hometown North Carolina boy and rocker extraordinaire, to win. If you watch the show, you know that Chris--to the astonishment of the nation--was voted off this week. Blair and I were chatting about it and I was speculating on who might win now. Then it hit me.

"Oh my gosh," I said. "We're going to miss the finale. We'll be on our trip!"

Blair looked at me and shrugged. "I don't really care," he said. "Do you?"

I thought for a moment and realized to my surprise that, eh, I really don't.  Not when there were so many other exciting things for us to be doing. But that's what I mean about habit and laziness. I'd watch the show if I were home, even though I just admitted I don't really care who wins or not.  I'd watch it because it's there. Now, is that "addiction" or is that I'm just too lazy to find other--better--things to occupy my time?

Same realization with The Amazing Race--another show I'm "addicted" to.  We forgot to record it on Wednesday night and then realized that we didn't really care that we missed an episode. That kind of freed us up to admitting that if we didn't care about an episode, we really didn't care about the final outcome, which we'll also miss while we're on our trip. It got me to thinking that if I don't care about the final outcome of these shows, why watch in the first place?

Don't misunderstand--I'm not saying TV is bad or wrong. Sometimes vegging in front of the TV is the exact right thing to be doing to blow off steam and relax. My point is that convincing myself I "must" see these shows isn't doing myself any favors. A big trip isn't going to come along each week to remind me that I really don't care that much about them and could be spending my time in more fruitful ways. 

Now They Want To Hire Me...

In the last 3 days I've had 2 potential freelance jobs and 1 speaking engagement come my way. All very exciting but a bit frantic as I send e-mails that read, "Would love the work.  Leaving the country on Saturday. Must have all details in place by then. Respond ASAP." 

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but it does feel rushed.

I have entered list-making mania. Daily, I create lists: "Items to remember to pack," "What to leave out for the house sitter," "Items to carry-on the plane," "People to send itineraries to," "Books/Activities to Take on Plane..." It goes on from there. I wonder what would happen if I never made a list and just winged it? I suspect 98% of what needs to get done would get done anyway.

We're having one hotel problem. The hotel we wanted in Inverness is full. They recommended another nearby hotel but it's pricey and looks stuffy so today I started a new search. I found 3 places I liked, e-mailed them all for availability and got back replies they were all  full. Perhaps we'll be camping with Nessie on the shores of Loch Ness?

Quick update: Another battle resolved, thankfully w/out a battle. We had a pleasant meeting of the minds at my Writer's Group board meeting and all came unanimously to agreement on issue we had been divided on. I think poor communication played a large part here, as it does in most "battles." 

My head is racing and I've got 3 "To Do" lists by my side. One of the items is to post blog entries. I've asked my house sitter/friend/blogger extraordinaire in her own right to publish my entry every other day. Basically, Squarespace (the host of this site) allows to hold "unpublished" blogs. So I'll have my friend go in and click the "publish" button every other day so there's something for you to read.

I jogged on the treadmill this morning and am hitting yoga class at 6:15 tonight. I feel confident one day of serious exercise will shed the excess 5 lbs I'm carrying (assuming that hunk of chocolate cake I had at lunch just disappears).

Cheers!

Travel Planning

Last night Blair and I spent three hours in the office--he at the computer, me at my laptop--planning our trip.  It's unusual that we've put off the final details--room and car reservations--until the last minute like this.  But things seem to be running smoothly.  This morning we received confirmations from all but one of the hotels.

I"m a little concerned because we're doing a lot of "rent a car here, drop it off there, grab a train here, rent a new car there" maneuvering.  Our plan is to start in the English countryside in Bath for 2 days (rent a car) then head to London for 3 days (no car). We'll drop mom off at the airport on Friday and grab a train to Edinburgh. There we'll rent a car and head to Inverness. We ditch the car in Glasgow and take a train to the Lake District, where we rent another car  for 2 days. Return that car and catch a train back to London for the final two days. 

I think what makes me nervous is that with that many travel switches there's a greater chance of something going wrong than if we just got a car and kept it. But neither of us have the desire to try and drive a car in London and I've been told the train ride to Scotland is spectacular, so we'll soldier on.

We're staying in what look to be some lovely hotels. We consulted both Fodor's and Rick Steves to come up with places to stay. We considered staying at a few smaller B&B's to get the "homey" feel of the country but in the end, we chickened out.  Well, perhaps that's not the right term. In many places we could get a larger hotel room with amenities for almost the same price as a small B&B room.  The hotel is more centrally located and has a restaurant, etc. Yet I can't help feel we're missing something of the travel experience, staying in hotels versus doing it the Rick Steves way. Maybe if I get a little more travel under my belt I'll feel more comfortable going off the beaten path. I hate to think of myself as one of those touristy American travelers who only hits the main sites and never gets a real feel for the country she's in but that's exactly what I am.

Still, I have expectations of us returning to England at some point. Some places, like Alaska, we viewed as, "We better hit every main site that we can because the chances of us making it back here are slim."  But there is so much history in England that I think a second (and third and fourth) trip would be well worth it. So maybe we'll take the plunge into the B&B world the next time around.