Pause

7 days until the project begins

It never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes. Two weeks ago I was working a full time job; seven days ago I was visiting two of the biggest and (arguably) best U.S. national parks. Today I sit on a plane back to San Francisco. In exactly one week I will board another plane bound for South America.

Yet there are clear points when just for a moment the clock seems to stop. It's as if fate is giving us a chance to appreciate the present before it rushes into the past. The last two weeks have given me a rather large dose of those pauses and it has taken a while to fully absorb them.

Close encounters

10 days until the project begins

Conspiracy theorists believe first contact happened in the middle of the New Mexico desert. After a night drive across western Kansas, I've come to the conclusion they should consider adding a new set of coordinates to their list. 

Mountains and moose

15 days until the project begins

"I think we just passed a moose."

"Are you kidding? That was a deer. They don't have moose here and that animal was too skinny to be a moose." 

"It absolutely was a moose, and they do have them in Wyoming. Didn't you see the warning signs?"

It was a rather circuitous argument about a brown blur on the side of the road going through the Teton pass. My father and I had been in the car for about sixteen hours and still had another 30 minutes before we reached our destination in Teton Village. The silver lining was that the sun did not fully set until almost 10pm.

Calling all bookworms

28 days until the project begins

One of the less glamorous aspects of a round-the-world trip is a collection of extremely long flights, bus rides, etc. I'm certainly not complaining....it is part of the bargain for such an incredible trip. But since one cannot simply sleep for the entire duration of 10-20 hour flights (even with a good dose of Xanax and cheap in-flight red wine), I need to figure out other forms of entertainment. More specifically, my reading list. 

My personal reading as of late has been dominated by guidebooks and travel writing. Which is not a bad thing per se, but it definitely leaves one feeling a bit off balance. I've gathered my collection of post it notes, random emails and Facebook posts and compiled them into a comprehensive list. It still feels a bit bleh (maybe because I'm just sick of my own thought process...who knows).

So I kindly ask you, dear friends and readers, for your submissions. As you can see from my tab on the Google doc, my tastes are pretty eclectic. I am always looking for something fresh. If there is something you loved reading or feel like I would love reading, please add it onto the list. And if it is available for the Kindle/iPad (brownie points if I can borrow an electronic copy from the San Francisco public library), please mark it as such.

Thank you so much in advance. Again for easy reference, you can find the list here.