I can't wait for this year to be over.
I’m sure it came about because of our travel this year. We’ve spent:
- 69 days in elevators full of pushy, rude, and downright obnoxious passengers. In all my years of riding elevators in real life, I have never, ever come across the kinds of behaviors I see in cruise ship elevators.
- 55 days cruising on the Royal Princess where we walked a minimum of 2 miles every single day. It's a big ship! But these old joints need a break.
- Way too much time going through airport security. Despite having TSA precheck, I complicate things by having knee replacements. Even though they tell me that's not what is showing up on the full body scanner, 10 times out of 10 I get patdowns. During those full body patdowns every inch of every single body part is touched. And sometimes places they have no business touching. So not fun.
- Too many days of seeing too many out of control kids on cruise ships. When kids are running around and screaming - and running into other people - it's probably a pretty good time for someone (a parent maybe?) to step in.
- A three hour flight sitting next to lap infant just a few months old. One mom couldn't manage. Ear plugs would have come in really handy today.
- Too many minutes standing in line (or on the phone) trying to get other people's mistakes corrected. Things would run so much more smoothly if businesses looked for ways to be proactive instead of reactive. If I hear one more I'm sorry. It's not supposed to be this way. I'm going to scream.
Traveling for long periods of time can do that to you. While it's exciting and fun at times, it can also be frustrating and exhausting and even monotonous. It can wear you down. Make you want to hide in a cave, never to be seen in public again.
But we can't do that right now.
Our travel year is far from over. In fact, our biggest, baddest, most adventurous adventure is coming up soon. One which will test our strength, stamina, and patience. We'll be traveling to a part of the world we've never been before, doing and seeing things we could never have expected. It'll be a former history teacher's (ie hubby's) dream itinerary. It's a bit scary to go all out like this, in a bit scary part of the world, but as J, the blogger at Yellow Fish cruises frequently says, "We are not getting any younger, the flights are not getting any shorter and the world is not getting any safer."
So we must suck it up, push on, and put on a brave face.
I'm sure there is so much more to add, but I'm tired, in an airport hotel, and don't have my luggage with me. Tomorrow will be my third day in the same set of clothes so I'm a bit grumpy and a bit spent. A good night's sleep will hopefully clear my head a bit.