A Woman Obsessed

I admit that I have an obsessive personality. It's really a wonder that I haven't ever become a victim of addiction. Thank goodness my parents were very good at parenting by telling me when I was eleven that if I did any drug just once I "could be allergic to it and die." Guess that's a good way to play it; I'll have to try it. Anyway, I am that college roommate that drives you crazy by playing the same CD repeatedly. I'm that lady who got tennis elbow from playing her new guitar for three hours a day. And I ran 26.2 miles because I loved running so much. The good news is, once I get sick of the music, get hurt from strumming, or am exhausted from running, I refocus my efforts on something new. I find something else to obsess over.

Right now, I'm focusing on family vacations in the Airstream. Although all my research is done online, I recently picked up this book at the library.

The first page I turned to was about Joshua Tree National Park. I was validated. My work leading up to our trip allowed us to see all the highlights the park had to offer for the season in which we visited. We didn't miss anything. We accomplished it all!

So I'm continuing my work for our Grand Canyon trip in June. Brian has a mountain bike race in Flagstaff on the first Saturday of that month, so I suggested we leave a few days early and spend them at the Grand Canyon. It's only about and hour and a half north of Flagstaff, so this would be the perfect opportunity for the kids to finally see the canyon and add another patch to our collection. Not to mention, it would be a nice two days in another one of our nation's greatest parks. So I have it all planned out, and we're looking forward to that getaway.

The only thing is that isn't until June. June! It's a bit depressing to think we might not get out there before then, but these next two months are pretty loaded. Which leads to an unexpected result of Airstream ownership--the At-Home Blues. It's not like I feel trapped, but I'm loving our house a little less. I mean, I can clean the Airstream from top to bottom in about an hour. I even washed the outside of it in under two hours last week. Cleaning my house takes significantly longer, and it's deflating when the kids undo my efforts in five minutes after returning home from school. I really do want to chuck everything and live in the Airstream. But homeschooling is enough of a deterrent right now, and Brian doesn't really have the kind of career that can be done on the road. So those two things are keeping us grounded, and sometimes we kind of do feel like we're grounded.

It's just that it's so nice to be "out there." So I'll continue my work to figure out how best to maximize our time at the five parks we plan to visit the rest of the year with my usual gusto and zeal. It's my latest obsession.