much like roast beef, i’ve been feeling a bit of a need for a vacation in the past while. i haven’t really been anywhere in a good long time, particularly between ‘not really working’ and ‘working all the time’ i’ve finally found a happy medium that includes paid vacation time.

so tomorrow morning i’m going to get up at 430am and get on a plane that will eventually deposit me in athens, greece. i’ll be back at the end of the month.

if you’re interested in my detailed planning, i’ve got a few pages in my wiki that i’ve been keeping notes in. the wiki has been really handy for that, basically being an implementation of notepad that i can use anywhere i want with a bit more markup and a nicer interface than say using emacs to save text files. the most interesting link is probably our itinerary, though i am partial to the fact that i wikified a detailed inventory.

i have a fair bit of non-specific travel anxiety, and it’s the sort of thing i can never quite put my finger on. i don’t particularly remember having any bad travel experiences, and when i’m there doing it i always seem to have an enjoyable time. it’s just beforehand the way the excitement wells up for me comes with a payload of back-of-the-mind concerns and nervousness. i’m kind of hoping it’s charming.

i’m also particularly concerned because i am travelling with people who are at best rough acquaintances of mine. i know them through the soccer team and have hung out with them a bit, but mostly only in a few party-social circumstances until now. certainly i don’t think we’ve ever had any deep conversations, the sort of which my close friends know i am fond of. now we’re going to be spending two weeks together, in airplanes, on ferries, and running all over greece. i’m looking forward to getting to know them better, and hopefully i will be a good travel companion and have a positive attitude. so that’s a prayer request right there.

my second prayer request is that i can be ‘present in the moment’ or ‘mindful’ as they refer to it here at work. for me that primarily means not worrying about things here in seattle that i obviously can’t do anything about from greece. a zen koan comes to mind:

Tanzan and Ekido were once traveling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling.

Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection.

“Come on, girl” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud.

Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself. “We monks don’t go near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”

“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”