The Countdown Begins

The big day approaches--the day on which my intrepid travel pal, Yvette, and I will board an east-bound plane, rocket over the whole of the United States, cross the wide Atlantic Ocean, and land smack-dab in one of my all-time favorite cities, Paris!

The ubiquitous green bag on what may
have been its last big trip, to Stone Mountain,
Georgia, in 2013 

The weeks leading up to an actual planned trip provide some fun on their own.  I've downloaded a spiffy travel app on my iPad, making lists of places to see, a budget, a packing list, and so on and so forth.  I've been listening to an audiobook on the Middle Ages, gearing up to see sights from that era, especially some cool Gothic cathedrals.  I've bought travel clothes, my parents bought me a new travel shoulder bag (goodbye to the familiar green bag that I've taken on every trip since Reiner and I first went to Europe in 1990), and, of course, I have a copy of Rick Steves' Paris at hand at all times.  As he was when Yvette and I first ventured to "the continent" back in 1999, Rick will be my constant companion and guide.

This trip is coming at a crossroads in my life.  I'm about to make yet another significant change in the making of a livelihood.  After my lay-off from the Sacramento Superior Court, I've worked as a consultant for the Pacific McGeorge Housing Mediation Center.  Unfortunately, funding for this work has dried up, and I will be seeking other employment.  In addition, the time has come for me to look at applying to doctoral programs, an undertaking that seems so cumbersome, complicated, and daunting that I often doubt my ability to see it through.  But see it through I must.  Applications are due around the first of December, although I hope to get all my done and submitted by Thanksgiving (this may be fantastically wishful thinking).

Don't leave Elk Grove
without it

Once before, a trip to Europe served as a catalyst for great change for me.  When Yvette and I returned from Europe in 1999, we both reflected back on the trip as an eye-opening experience that forever changed the way we understood our lives and our futures.  From that trip, I received a greater insight into myself, what I needed and wanted to make me happy.  That discovery led directly to American River College and the classroom of Dr. Christopher Padgett in the summer of 2000.  From then until this past May, I have pursued my education with enthusiasm and verve,understanding only too well that the challenge of learning fulfilled the very needs I had identified when I returned from Europe in 1999.

And now I'm ready to venture still further in my education pursuits.  What better time to again wander the streets of Paris, to look at art and absorb history, to people-watch, to learn new things and to remember things I've forgotten.  While my chances of actually being accepted into a doctoral program are slim, I will use this trip to Paris to begin the transition into a new phase of life--a new job, new educational opportunities, new me.

So, I'm counting down the days.

Oh, and I'm going to try frogs' legs and escargot while I'm gone.  Just FYI....