16 days

[hells_half_acre]

I like this little comic by Somerled.

16 days until my Epic China-Singapore-Vancouver adventure (with side-trip to Redmond, WA)!

I did some laundry last night and realized that I had not done laundry for a month. This means two things: A) I own a lot of underwear. B) I have been wearing nothing but pyjamas way too much.

Really, the only thing left for me to do is to exchange my currency (for which I have to drive into Ottawa) and figure out how I'm packing everything I need for 6 weeks into a carry-on backpack. Thankfully, there's one thing doing laundry has taught me: If I do laundry more often, I don't actually need that much.

I also have to write down phone numbers of the people I'm going to visit, both for myself, and for Mum in case she needs to get in touch with me. Mostly though, I am looking forward to being MIA when it comes to communication. I would like to take this opportunity to run-away completely for a bit.

I want to have adventures and not tell anyone about them, because that is my favorite part of travel - all those secret things that only I know. I like to dance around people's assumptions...tease them with random unconnected details. Make them think they know me, think they know where I've been and what I've done. I'm probably not good at it. People probably figure it out, or at least some do. Others I tell honestly...or as honestly as I get. My friends know me better than I know myself, so there's no point playing with most of them. 

It's because I'm partially obsessed with perception - the way we are all numerous people at once. A thousand parallel worlds that we can never see, but that are the reality for others. I am not myself to you, and I never will be, so why should I try? It's easier to discover - to guess a little at - who you think I am, and play to that. Reinforce the ideas that I like, that I wish I could be maybe, that I'd like to think I am, and try to diminish those things that I don't agree with - whether true or not. I never lie, mind you. I omit.

I think I like traveling because it is a constant state of metamorphosis, in which I never ever change. I am always the same and I know who that is better when there is an illusion of change around me. When things stay the same too long, I forget sometimes what it is like to just have myself and nothing else.