Transit

[illusionofjoy]

Yesterday I chose all of my vacation days. Where I work, one is encouraged to pick their paid time off in advance, which I can understand, but still doesn't change the fact that I find it inconvenient. If I had my way, I wouldn't pick any time off from work until I knew that I had filled said time with activities that had the potential to be great fun. Let's face it: hanging around my apartment in good ol' Pittsburgh doesn't constitute "great fun," though, if done right, it can qualify for mild amusement.

The last time I took a trip was last Thanksgiving, for a reunion of my mother's side of the family. This took me to the state of Texas, my least favourite in the union. Suffice it to say that I enjoyed the flights to and from the destination much more than the destination itself. For my forthcoming time off, I'm hoping for an enjoyable destination.

It has become painfully clear to me that I really need to take a trip somewhere. I don't even know if the destination matters so much any more as does the act of going. As I said, I don't like Texas, but I enjoyed going to Texas, that is, I enjoyed the act of travelling there.

For me, bus stations and airports, despite sometimes being intimidating and frightening places are wholly fascinating. In of themselves, they are not destinations, but merely routers along the lines of transit between destinations. Within these terminals, lies some of the best seats one could ever hope for in the theatre of humanity.

I remember being at one airport where a Caucasian couple in their mid-forties had three small Korean children in tow. A triple-adoption, I mused. It was with some sense of amusement that I watched this family while waiting for my flight; the children were well-behaved, yet energetic while the parents seemed less stressed than one would expect from a couple tied to three small children. About a week later, I was listening to a report on NPR, where a woman was discussing her career as a writer and also that she and her husband had adopted three Asian children. "No," I thought to myself, "it couldn't have been..."

I know for a fact that I like travelling alone that with others. When I was young, family trips were a pain because it always seemed that no one could get their act together. I didn't particularly enjoy them until I was in the plane and it was taxying down the runway. Frankly, solitary travel not only gives me time for reflection, but also lets me know exactly where I stand. I am only responsible for me and I don't have to worry about one of my companions losing a ticket or forgetting about the pair of tweezers they left in their luggage at airport security.

I also simply have this selfish desire to do whatever I want when I want to. On one of my trips back from New York City, I had decided to take a bus overnight. To get to Potsdam from Gotham required a transfer at Syracuse. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning when I made it to the bus terminal in Syracuse. Sleep was the last thing on my mind as I got a couple of doughnuts and a cup of coffee from on of the food kiosks. I settled into a table with my duffel bag to watch CNN and the sunrise before my connecting bus started boarding.

I'm thinking about what I'm going to do with my vacation time that I have coming towards the end of this year and early next year. Aeroplanes will definitely be involved. While I like Greyhound and all, I think I need to spend some time away somewhere that's further and I need to get to faster. I also just want that thrill of looking down upon the landscape...

Any suggestions?