It's All Relative

I guess this is kind of related to my favorite mantra of "it's all a matter of perspective".

For several months, I was noting that my future was so up in the air that I literally had no idea where I'd be after the beginning of June. Then, as time drew near, things started to kind of take shape. I thought I'd spend a few weeks in June with my mother and sister, then head down to my hometown to clear the crap out of the old family home.

It's not that I wanted to do this. One, I hate that kind of chore, and I hate it even more because it's not my freaking crap. Plus, the place is six or seven thousand square feet, so this is not a simple job. Two, I hate going down there in general, so I wasn't looking forward to this. At all.

However, it needs to be done. There are some income producing opportunities in the air and the place will have to be made ready for them at some point. I'm the only one who has the time right now and I don't want this chore messing up any plans I make for later.

There was one point, a few weeks ago, when my brother and his son were going to take over the chore. I was, naturally, delighted. But they got caught up in something else and, at this point, that chore has one thing going for it that I am in desperate need of...solitude.

I have been pretty much in charge of my 87 year old stroke victimised mother *and* super active 7 year old for most of the last several weeks here in Carson City, and it has definitely taken its toll on me. Time for the kid to go back to her mom, which they are both very much looking forward to, and for me to turn my mom back over to my sister and the part time sitter.

My sister definitely deserves a break, as well, and she'll be getting it over the two long weekends she's got coming up. I'll be taking care of our mom for the first one, and the sitter will take her for the second one. During which time, I will have about 5 days of hard manual labor.

As I said, it's all relative. I am willingly trading the time and work for some peace and quiet and time to myself. Bonus points for accomplishing something necessary in the process.

Then I come back. BUT...

My sister and I plan on applying for new passports next week. They take about 6 weeks to process, so that would have them arriving sometime around the middle of August, which is...perfect.

Around the beginning of the year, I thought that I might be making it over to Europe in September/Octoberish. Then, more recently, I thought it might be July/Augustish. Well, it's obviously not gonna be July. But August/September is still possible. If I get there, though, I'm going to try and stay through a good part of October, as well.

I'm looking forward to leaving out of Las Vegas because it's a nice long flight. I can take my time eating and settling down, reading a little, and still have time to sleep long enough to get me through a full day on the other end.

You know, I've done a good bit of traveling over the last 12 months. And I love to travel. However, all of the traveling I've been doing has been dictated by circumstances and the places I've been going have not been of my choosing. With the exception of San Antonio, and I'm glad I got see it.

Now here I am again, going somewhere I really hoped never to have to go back to. Even more weird, my first time back to Europe in decades, and I have to spend what will probably be several days somewhere I have never been tempted to go: Sicily.

While I was reflecting on that, I finally got around to looking it up online, and now I'm convinced that the universe did me a favor by making it necessary to go there. That place is seriously beautiful and interesting. I didn't know that it has almost as much Arab influences as Italian ones. Not to mention that it's got gorgeous beaches, and I will be there during warm weather.

I hear that the people are very nice and friendly, and the food is supposed to be good, as well. I didn't find any of that to be true about Sardinia, which is another beautiful Italian island. So now I'm much more stoked about that, and it will be nice to see somewhere new.

And, actually, I knew I was going to have to go back home again anyway. I mentioned in a previous blog that we are eligible for Italian citizenship, which is why I need to go to Sicily, to dig up records of my great-grandfather. But we also need birth and marriage records of his descendants and all of that is in Louisiana. Some of it is so old, there may not be any official government records, which means I'll have to see what I can dig up from the local churches. I'm going to need to squeeze that in between massive purging. Sigh.

I have no idea what's going to happen after October. Where I'll be, what I'll be doing. I'm pretty sure I'll have the most responsibility for my mother during Nov/Dec, and we'll probably spend at least a little time in both New Orleans and Vegas. I guess the rest of the time will be back here, unless I get my own place in Las Vegas.

I'm not sure I want to do that quite yet, though. Because I'm hoping January and February will find me lazing under the sun on some deserted Panamanian beaches. In fact, there is a better than even chance that, except for the few months a year that I take responsibility for my mother, I will be roaming the globe with no fixed address for maybe 12 to 18 months.

Yes, I know I'm a little old to be backpacking around the world, but I've decided it's something I'd like to do for a year or so. And, if things line up the way it's looking like they might, I'm going to give it a shot.

We're going to have to figure something out about my mom, though. My sister and I want to travel together and we won't be able to very much if we're all taking turns having responsibility for her. She's not going to want to do the whole assisted living thing, so it'll probably come down to getting her a place with a live-in.

There are just so many things to take care of. Sigh.

Again, though, it's all relative. I will do almost anything that needs to be done right now, because I've got my eye on the rewards that are looking possible in the not too distant future, and they are more than worth it.