ready, set

Today, I am ready to go. It fluctuates wildly, and I am sure it will continue to do so, but today, I am ready to leave. It's a good thing, too, because exactly one month from today, I will arrive in Ushuaia. And so it will begin.

Last weekend, I went to LA to see friends. I still don't miss the city, pretty much at all (except you, House of Pies! I miss you most of all!), but it really hit me how much I miss the indepenence of having a life on my own. Don't get me wrong - I recognize how forutunate I am to have been able to move back home, and how even luckier I am that it has been such a great experience. For most people, living with the 'rents at age 28 isn't exactly ideal, but my parents are pretty awesome, and I seem to have some innate sense for when I am supposed to be home. Plus, looking at me a year ago and me today, it's pretty clear that it was what I needed. But I am still ready to once again be living on my own. It won't be the same when I am traveling, obviously, and as my tethers to my permanent mailing address, I am still going to be leaving on mom & dad pretty heavily, but I am once again eager for the sense of self-sufficiency.


I also watched Sicko this weekend. Naturally, I got re-depressed at the woeful state of American affairs and I thought a lot about heading out to the world. First, please, all illnesses and injuries, if you could hold off until I hit the Scandinavian countries, that would be AWESOME. Mmm, free health care...


But really, I keep coming back to the part where he is talking to a group of American expats living in Paris, and how the society is set up so that the government prioritizes quality of life above profit, and therefore, things like family, wellness, and happiness are of paramount importance (of course, most of this is because the French will riot and strike whenever they are unhappy, which is not good either, but still). I am not really planning to just stay somewhere I like, necessarily, but I like the reminder that there are places out there that are not America, and that is becoming more and more of a good thing.