Iceland - It's A Go

We all go about looking at life through different prisms at different times.  One of the prisms that I like to look at life through the most is the prism of what I would call "big events".  When there is nothing exciting to look forward to but the day-to-day life of work, sleep and the ordinary activities I can frequently slip into a state of depression.  When that happens I try to find something big and exciting for which to look forward.  Most frequently I find myself in the state of needing those "big activities" during the middle of winter when things are dark, gloomy and cold.  I don't find myself going there as much during the spring, summer and fall - when we have lots of light and the weather is such that it is conducive to doing a lot of things outdoors.

Regardless of the weather I now officially have one of those "big activities" to which to look forward.  All the plans are now in place, the reservations made and everything paid for our summer vacation to Iceland.  I had held off finalizing all of the reservations until I had a pretty good idea that my back would allow me to go and enjoy the trip.  Given what I am viewing as a successful surgery I feel confident that the trip is going to be wonderful!

Zack and I will leave Denver on June 25 at 5:15PM on Icelandic Air Flight FI670.  The flight is direct from Denver to Keflavík International Airport in the capital of Iceland - Reykjavík.  There are no stops or airplane changes - it doesn't get much better than that!  We'll be in Iceland until July 5.  We aren't taking any organized tours as we are renting a car and seeing the country on our own.  The funny thing is the car rental for those 10 days in country is only $400 less than the airfare for both of us!  Isn't that absolutely crazy!!!

There are so many wonderful places that I want us to see.  Given the extremely small size of the country - only 300,000 people most of the things that we will be seeing are of nature beauty as opposed to things of a cosmopolitan nature.  I just cannot tell you all how much I am looking forward to this trip.  We are going to pack light in terms of the amount of stuff that we take with us.  In particular, we will go only with a small amount of clothing.  Given that we are going to be spending so much time in the wilderness, I am not worried about what I look like.  However, I am very much concerned about being able to take really good pictures.  So I will be taking my best digital SLR and just about every lens and accessory that I have.  I'd much rather carry the weight in photographic gear than clothes. 

Iceland comes in at either number 2 or 3 on the countries in this world I want to see.  It is 2 or 3 because the number 1 country that I have dreamed about visiting since I was a kid really isn't a place you want to go unless you have a death wish.  The number one country I want to see is Afghanistan as I have read about it's natural beauty since I was a kid.  But realistically I am never going to go there as it is just too violent and has been for so long.  Given that I really don't count Afghanistan on my list.  The other country that is ahead of Iceland is Mongolia.  I feel relatively certain that I will eventually get there, but given the distances involved that trip is going to take me having a lot more vacation time!

On to another subject...  I really wanted to make sure that I close a bad chapter in my life and if you read my blog post from yesterday you know I am referring to the horrible relationship with Shelly.  What I wrote yesterday is really what I felt.  It was truly a pretty horrible picture of her and what happened between us.  I felt that I portrayed it accurately.  The reason for me even writing about it was to get all aspects of it out of my system - just like getting my tattoo and then not just moving on from it - but forgetting about it.  But then the little voice in my head - actually a friend pointed out to me how horrible it all was.  When I wrote it I did realize how nasty it was.  Long story short, my friend was of course right.  So I deleted it all.  It is better to take the high road and then go down into the dirt.  It still galls me though all the crap I got put through.  Nonetheless I have no one to blame but myself.  You can only be put in those positions if you let yourself be put in those positions.  So to the little bird who whispered in my ear - you're 100% right and I will thank you some day.  Now all of that is done and I won't ever spend any more brain cycles thinking about it.

Tomorrow morning the kitchen work is going to start.  Originally the work was scheduled to begin last Thursday but I pushed it out by several days because of my surgery.  I am glad I did as I just won't have been able to get things ready to go by Thursday morning.  It will cost me a little extra in terms of having to pay the general contractor to re-scheduled the workmen, but it was definitely worth it.  The experience of not having a kitchen or a family room for the next 2 months is going to be very weird, but it is going to be so, so wonderful to have a brand new, beautiful kitchen!  I'll post some pictures tomorrow of what it all looked like before the work started.  If I can, I'll do one of those time lapse slide shows so that you can see all the changes happen.

On a final note - my back feels so much better!  There is still a little bit of pain from the incision but even that is mostly gone.  The worst pain I am still feeling from this round of surgery is that the inside of my mouth is still all scraped up from the incubation tube.  It feels like I am swallowing a bowling ball every time I swallow.  All of that pain is because my uvula is swollen from the beating it took.  But even that is getting better each day.  My incision is a little bit open yet so that if I move too much it starts to ooze some blood and clear fluid.  Despite that I am supposed to keep it bandage free so that it is exposed to the air and will heal.  I think within the next 2 days the incision will be totally closed up and my uvula will stop hurting.  It is so good to be pain free!!!

That's it for this Sunday night.  I am going to grab a snack and then spend an hour or two reading before I am off to bed for the night.

Thanks for reading all that I put out there and to those who care enough to tell me I sound like an ass - thank you!

Thanks and peace to all! ~J.