The Countdown

I just looked closely at my calendar and realized that the countdown is on. We (The Hubby and I) are leaving in a week for our Europe trip. I'm not really nervous because I haven't really had time to get nervous, but I will be by next week. I have never been in a foreign country, unless you count the Bahamas, and the farthest I've been is Hawaii. The Hubby has traveled to Africa and Prague. We are going to Paris, Normandy and then the last 3 days to London. I am really excited about this excursion. My lists are mounting and I plan on semi-packing next week. #1, who has traveled to England, Germany, France, Prague, and India has given me some tips on her travel experiences. She gets a journal and starts pages on what to pack, dates, addresses for postcards, exchange rates for money, and she even gets travel guides and cuts and pastes maps in the journal. Then when she travels she will fill in the rest of the book with her journaling. Sounded like a great idea and so I followed her lead. Finding a new journal was no problem because I have a stack of them I haven't even cracked open. I have a small obsessive compulsion to buy new ones all the time. Not only do I blog here online but I do journal handwritten at least every weekend. I don't seem to find the time during the week but every Saturday morning at the cabin I fill several pages of my weekday happenings.

I am a writer although it is not really good writing, I love to write. I try to write fiction but sometimes I just can't get what is in my brain to the clean white paper. It is a struggle. I have written a teenage mystery, of course unpublished, and it is bad, really bad, but I have a beginning and an end to it so I call that an accomplishment. I've written several short stories and started others but I just can't sit long enough to finish. I'm always interrupted by people and my inability to sit for long periods. I love to write letters too. I opt to hand write very long letters so know if you are my friend and move away expect letters. It may be only a couple a year but they can be 10-15 pages long. Long hand written letters are really a thing of the past and I think it should not be lost. I remember in high school in the 12th grade sitting in a classroom with a substitute teacher that I thought was 150 years old, and probably was. He as a distinguished looking older man with snow white hair sitting at the teachers desk while we did busy work. When he entered the room he was carrying a leather folder and while we did our work he opened the folder, pulled a fountain pen out of his shirt pocket, and then on unlined paper began to write a letter. His penmanship on that paper was absolutely beautiful and flowing. I was sitting at the front and I couldn't take my eyes off of his hand as the pen swirled across the paper. Absolutely amazing. See, a lost art.