Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Getting Ready to Travel Again

I can't believe that I haven't written a blog in so long. But now that we are getting ready for our next trip, I suddenly feel like writing again. In a week we will be on our way to Venice and Turkey. In fact, next Tuesday at this time we will be squirming in uncomfortable seats in O'Hare, waiting for our Alitalia flight to board. I can hardly wait ... but ... well ... I'm not exactly ready for this trip.

I know, I am an experienced traveler. So why wouldn't I be ready? How much is there to do? We have arranged for a cat sitter. We have put a hold on the newspaper. The travel plans are set. In fact, since the Turkish part of the trip is two Rick Steves' tours, back to back, there wasn't that much planning involved. So what's the problem?

I am still editing the paper I am giving at the Renaissance Society of America conference in Venice. I have cut out a chunk and tomorrow I will read the shortened paper to Peter and hope that it fits within the time limit. I've never had a paper run this long before. Especially one that I had so much trouble writing. One that I dislike. But at least I will have something to read. For a while I was really worried that I wouldn't have a completed paper. That's never happened to me before. And fortunately it won't happen this time either.

As usual I am also agonizing over clothes. When you take one 21" carry-on bag, you can't take very much. I need something nice to wear for the conference and comfortable things to wear for traipsing around Turkey. I can't bring extra shoes and everything has to go with everything else. So I need to decide on a color scheme and figure out exactly what to take and make sure that my bag isn't too heavy. If it is over 8 kg, the airline might not let me carry it on. You never know how strict they will be.

I'm sure that by next Monday, I will feel pretty prepared, but right now I don't feel as if I will be ready. What day bag, what shoes, what jacket! What next ....

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