countdown

My first appearance in the fine website, Worldhum.

So … the days before a big trip are kind of an odd combination of perpetual motion and suspended animation. I have a strange otherworldly feeling as I go about my business, a sort of “last time, last time” feeling. (Neurotic? Me?) I’m nearly packed and organized, the trip is almost completely nailed down. It’s been a wee bit of a struggle, because I am a terrible travel agent and kept screwing up dates, because the Indian way of doing business seems to be a lot less Type A than my way of doing business, and because the Internet went down in India this past weekend. Oy gevalt.

But, we’re almost there and I am now in the phase of trip prep that involves a lot of walking in circles around the house. This is a good thing, because that means when it’s time to go, Tom is good and sick of all my nervous energy and is ready to get rid of me.

I like today’s Libby Gill column in the Dallas Morning News about what she calls INR—the immediate negative response to fear. One might argue that fear is a negative response, but I think she means the kind of negativity that causes us to believe we cannot transcend our fear. Anyway, I know exactly what she means—sometimes you have an opportunity to do something new and your knee-jerk response is No F***ing Way! even though if you take a deep breath and think about it, there really is a f***ing way. (You know I don’t usually shy from profanity but for some reason, it looks better to me here with asterisks. So whatever.)

On a somewhat related topic, the New York Times on the imposter syndrome. I like the fact that sometimes people are imposters about being imposters.

I’ll have more for you later but now I must rush off and do things…