The Itinerary

Today I'm headed to Seattle for a weekend of Army training. I've been looking forward to the trip for a couple weeks now, but the preparation has been one lay-over after another. I spent a good 6 hours on the phone in the last two days trying to finalize flight plans, make hotel reservations, arrange a shuttle from the airport, etc. From the beginning it's been a mess, all culminating with my current status of sitting in the Denver airport waiting to board a late flight. Hurry up and wait; it's the Army way! I have another trip in a couple weeks. Now that I know the ropes, I'm hoping for a smoother experience. It's all worked out okay though. I am pretty disappointed that I won't have the afternoon to explore Seattle on foot (running of course). Instead I get to hang out in Concourse B for 3 hours. I'm hoping to catch a couple free hours on Sunday, and I'm still planning on hitting up a local bar or two in search of the live music for which Seattle is famous.

I've been looking forward to this little vacation/trip for other reasons than just going some place new. I really wanted to take a couple days away, by myself, to clear my head and get a better perspective on my broader itinerary. I'm a planner in many ways; not in the scheduled, calendared, time conscientious way that most people equate with the term 'planner.' I just like to develop a picture in my head of where I'm going, what I'm doing, and planning other things around that. I'm mostly concerned with missed opportunities. I've learned that if I don't put the important things down on paper and keep my goals in mind, I end up not getting to do all the things I really want to do. So when my picture changes, I can be very flexible, but I really need the time to re-envision my future; reevaluate my plans and priorities. I enjoy being spontaneous but some things require a little more forethought.

A weekend in a new city seemed just the right chance to take a step back, and get a more objective view on the most recent developments in my life. Of course, if you've been reading this year, you must have realized to what I am referring.

My relationship status and thus personal life has drastically changed, for the better, in the first three weeks of 2009. It's getting pretty serious pretty quickly. I don't think either of us have any intention of getting out of this anytime soon. That's the thing, relationships can be really easy when the involved parties are on the same page. It just feels good, right, the way a relationship should feel. I don't expect it to be all rainbows and butterflies either. I'm realistic enough to know that relationships always hit speed bumps, but I'm also enough of a romantic to know that sometimes these things just work.

In addition to getting some Hooah training this weekend, I plan on using my time away to look at my plan again; see how this all fits into what I really want out of my life. And spend some time talking with the Big Guy to try and determine how this fits into His plan for my life. I don't sense the red light on this as I have with previous relationships. I'm not forcing it. I don't feel any desperation as though I know I'm wanting something I can't have or that's not intended for me. I think THAT is the real difference in this case. At the risk of taking this over the top way too soon, I feel like this is right. I'm trying to be really careful not to assume too much right off the bat here. But just because it may be all too fast by some standards, this works for me. I've always known that when the right person came along it would be fast and furious. Again, I don't want to imply that there's more going on than there is, but I think there is great potential.

Just like my flight plans today, sometimes the itinerary changes. I've always been one to adjust my course of action when required. I'll turn this fork in the road into a new adventure, see where it goes and enjoy the journey.