I was driving the kids to the aquarium yesterday, and as I was going along the freeway, I felt the biggest urge to just keep on driving to some exciting destination. For those who have taken the color-coding personality test, I have a strong secondary yellow personality (primary white), which means that I'm a non-confrontational seeker of fun. My desire for fun often manifests itself in this huge desire to travel somewhere. When I was single, I traveled a fair amount and to some very fun places. I don't like the idea of traveling without the whole family, so now my longing centers around Disneyland and other kid-friendly places that don't require a really long flight. Unfortunately, we can't afford to travel anywhere, and I feel a bit panicked when I think about it too much. A while back Tori said that it would be fun to fly to California instead of driving. I told her we couldn't afford a trip right now, so she said, "OK.........drive," in a resigned sort of way.
So as I was feeling this urge to travel, I thought of a quote from Steinbeck that often comes to mind and that ought to be recorded here in my journal of sorts:
"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age, I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked. Four hoarse blasts of a ship's whistle still raise the hair on my neck and set my feet to tapping. The sound of a jet, an engine warming up, even the clopping of shod hooves on pavement brings on the ancient shudder, the dry mouth and vacant eye, the hot palms and the churn of stomach high up under the rib cage....I fear the disease is incurable."
Part of what I like about traveling is seeing and experiencing different things non-stop. But it has occured to me another aspect is that I am different when I travel. I'm generally quite frugal, but on a trip it is assumed that you'll eat out much of the time, buy souvenirs even though it's not a birthday or Christmas, etc. and I relax a bit when it comes to spending money. Hundreds of dollars are set aside for those very things, so the pressure is off. Real life is so much more....rigid.
Well, the kids need lunch, so back to raviolis and real life. :) It really is a great life. Oh, I had already uploaded some pictures from the aquarium and other things. In the first one, the rays were coming right up out of the water, and Eli is reacting to that:
2 comments:
Hey Marnie, What you say is never a shallow topic and you do say some life changing things, just like your Winnie the pooh card.. I loved it! It makes me think that just like our kids want to make sure we will always be around we also as adults like to know someone is there for us. I feel my blog is really only about sharing about the family and our life, but once it a great while I have my moments of wanting to share my feelings in hoping it will help someone else. That is why I love blogs. And just like you said in your last section about traveling I also love to travel and don't always have the money, and as I read what Steinbeck said I have come to the realization that I will also have the urge to travel and it gets to worse the older I get which sometimes scares me.. You are great Marnie and don't worry if what you post isn't always meaningful in your eyes, because to someone else it is.. Thanks for sharing!
You just took me back to Guatemala about 15 1/2 years ago. I too love to travel, but have given it up for the excitement of raising a family. I am hoping that someday I can travel because there are way too many places on my places to visit list. Love ya and thanks for the post.
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