....and I'm off!

The current time is 5:56 am...and that means it is really early or really late...depending upon your perspective. Unfortunately for me, my perspective is telling me that it's really, really, really late.

I kinda have this bad habit: procrastination. Though it definitely leaves for some sleepless nights, it usually helps fuel my actions into completion. I remember when I left for my summer working/living/traveling in Israel and my friend Maria came to pick me up from my house to take me to the airport. Guess what? I was still stuffing things into my backpack and checking things off the list. And when I went to South Africa, I didn't even have my freaking visa until about 4 days before I was scheduled to leave...so, I'm grateful that I've at least improved a little bit for this trip. (I'm so proud: I got my visa 2 months in advance! Talk about improvement!)

But...I did just finish the last bit of organizing and packing for my big Eastern adventure; and shit, I'm tired. However, the good thing is that I have a twenty and some-odd-number hour flight ahead of me...where I'll pop in some melatonin and sleep soundly on the plane. Thanks to Continental Airlines, I'm flying from Austin to Houston then from Houston to Newark and then from Newark 15 hours later...straight to Delhi. Brandon (my friend who I will be traveling with for the first month) left for India yesterday (or today, depending upon whether you've been to bed tonight or not...) so I'll be meeting him at the hotel on Thursday night, which will be Thursday morning for yall back in the States. India is 10 1/2 hours ahead of Austin time--they do the half hour difference in order to keep the whole country in one time zone instead of splitting it up into two. So hopefully I'll sleep a lot on the plane and then shower and go straight to sleep when I get to the hotel in Delhi.

Today I spent my day running about 5 gabillion errands and trying to organize myself and my life before I head out for 168 days...but, as life goes, I didn't get to accomplish everything I wanted to do. It's times like these when I wish there were 50 hours in a day, instead of 24. BUT, as yogis & yoginis strive to do: find acceptance...so, I am grateful that I actually finished packing before my flight, with enough spare time to write this blog entry.

I'm only bringing a travel backpack (which, whoa...is kinda stuffed to the brim. I'm actually bringing very little clothes; it's the toiletries & 2500 different types of pills, vitamins, medications, and malaria meds that I have to bring that is taking up all of the room!), a regular backpack (filled with a hundred books...why didn't I invest in a Kindle again?), a purse, and my yoga mat.

As I sign off for tonight/this morning...I'm filled with gratitude, happiness, anxiety & fear of the unknown, and lots of excitement. For the past couple of weeks, the fear has definitely been a major player in my mind, but thankfully, yesterday brought a strong sense of calm and peace within me. I am confident in my mind, body, heart, and spirit that this is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing in my life right now...and for that, I'm grateful.

So, I'll leave you with some words from a very beautiful, loving, and wise friend of mine that she wrote to me in a card: "This little gift (a key chain) symbolizes home--know that you carry it with you, its not a location or place, it's your heart...put it on your backpack so you never feel like your home is anywhere but inside of you."

I guess my Mom's country-bumpkin sign that reads: "Home is Where the Heart is" is pretty accurate after all.

....and I'm off...to shower!