The present is stationary, but the future is in motion!

Hello internets.

First, something very important.  It's May 1.  This means it's the official two-year anniversary of my new life. Two years ago today, I landed in Tbilisi airport in the dead of night and had absolutely not the foggiest inkling of how wonderful, crazy, frustrating, scary, and all around in-fucking-credible my life was about to become.

But snapping back to the present, it's been pretty quiet on this old page recently.  This time, my reasons for silence are pretty simple.  I have not been doing anything, not one single thing, that is worth blogging about.

This is tragic, for so many reasons.  For one thing, it's completely unlike me.  The last time I was this lethargic, I had a mystery illness that was sapping both my energy and my appetite, and made it hurt to breathe.  I have no such excuses this time.  To make matters worse, I recently had a five-day weekend, and what did I do with it?  Nothing.   Not one single, solitary thing.  I don't think I even finished a novel.  Five whole, free days, and not only did I not travel, I barely even left the house.

I had wanted to go to Cappadocia, but I put off booking or even researching until the very last minute, and then got myself totally overwhelmed by both the cost and the planning required.  Yeah, Cappadocia is a whole region.  It's large, it's incredibly remote, and guess what? -- people there know they're sitting on a tourism goldmine, and they charge you for it.  I did not end up going to Cappadocia.

However, the small bit of good that has come out of this weird ennui is that I promised myself it was going to be the very last time five free days wasted away like that.  So this time I started my planning properly, weeks ahead.  I have a 4-day weekend coming up May 10.  And guess what?  As of this afternoon, I have both a plane ticket AND a reserved dorm bed at Shoestring Cave House.  W00t Woot.

I'm pretty excited, and I really hope that both the anticipation and the energy shot of actually seeing something amazing will kick the last of this lethargy away from me.

But, believe it or not, Cappadocia is NOT the most exciting thing on my horizon!  While researching flights, I also decided to look into my ticket home.  I had a vague idea of stopping off somewhere in Western Europe for a few days before humping it all the way across the Atlantic.  I considered places all over.  Prague, Budapest, Bucharest, Dublin, Vienna, Berlin, Munich... the only real requirements were that it be a new passport stamp and not too terrifically budget-busting, which is why I did not consider Switzerland.

Then I had a little lightning-strike epiphany, and decided to see how much it would cost to fly to Cairo.

So, um... yeah.  Guess where I'm going in June???

This time, excited does not even cover it.

I've visited a lot of places these past two years and there have been a fair few I've introduced with some version of "I've wanted to go here my whole life."  Of course, that was almost never literally true.  I didn't know about these places for my whole life.  It's impossible to want to a go to a place if you have no idea it exists.  But when it comes to Egypt, "I've wanted to go there for my whole entire life" is about the most truth that statement is ever going to see.

Again, not my whole life.  Not the diaper era, natch.  But pretty much right around the time I started realizing that my desires to visit Thundera and Eternia were very likely never going to happen, we studied Ancient Egypt for the first time in school.  I was instantly, completely, hooked.

And yes, I realize that this might not be the very best moment in all-time everness to visit Egypt.  I'm fairly positive my Mom wants to smack me about the head until I fall unconscious and she can tie me up until I miss my flight.  But I cleverly avoid her machinations by being in another country!

All I can say is that I'll be careful.  I'll do my research.  I'll plan.  I'll know where the American Embassy is.  I'll keep my head down and dress modestly.  I'll go on guided tours.  I won't crash any Egyptian frat parties and challenge them to Beer Pong with Death Cup.

This is without doubt one of the crazier things I've decided to do.  And I can't wait.

Then, after one amazing week of staring, totally star-struck, at the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx, I will fly home to Virginia.  And I will be there for a glorious day and a half before getting on another plane (one-way ticket again!) to Pensacola, Florida.  I will have a brand-new baby nephew to start spoiling.

Oh yeah, and then at some point after that, I'm getting myself up to Maine somehow, because my parents just closed on a cabin by a lake.

My life does not suck.

Somewhere in the midst of all that, I have to figure out where I am going next.