My Protanopic Life

It's the night of Memorial Day, the Memorial Night. I'm sitting in 4211 #1 having finished a bottle of Bogle 2006 Old Vine Zinfandel with Lauren. I was just developing photos from a day out with Donna and listening to jazz as Brianna got dressed for a date.

I love music.

I love jazz.

I love my friends.

I love photography.

Lauren and I were talking about her upcoming trip to Austrialia. She was melancholy about it, spending a month in Queensland a few miles outside of a small town in a remote location. I was telling her she should find it to be a vacation, a joy to have time off. She was free to ride bikes or motorcycles, paint, draw, take pictures, sleep, tan, read books, do whatever.

It then occurred to me that this is exactly what I will have time to do in Asia. It is exactly what I will have time to do after Friday when I have no job. It was an inspiring realization that the effort I'm going through to take this trip is actually for good reason. So much of this preparation has been going through the necessary motions, and I haven't taken much time to anticipate the relaxing and awesome free time I will have. I think I've just removed myself from the reality and gone through the motions because it's such a drastic life change, and the effect of that is that I've neglected much of the positive excitement that goes along with it.

Sure, after Friday I won't have a job. Sure, after Friday I will be in a country where I don't speak the primary language. Sure, after Friday I'll be 5,000 miles away from the nearest familiar place. It's still exciting, it's still great, and it can still be very very very awesome. I sometimes just forget that aspect of this, as if it's a chore.