Maybe it’s the season, the time when I usually take off somewhere, maybe it’s the four failed attempts at uploading a wedding gallery and shaking my fist at technology, maybe it’s the decompression after the stress of the tax deadline, the client website that keeps getting changed, maybe it’s just way too much work and not enough play these days, but I could really use the retail therapy of booking a plane ticket right now. My birthday trip is next month and in typical Gail-at-Large fashion I’m searching for a deal rather than a destination, although I have said for a while now that I’m going to Israel. Although it’s only been there (in its current political form) since 1948, last time I checked Israel’s not going anywhere. I’ll get there.
The truth is, my birthday trips are less about being in a specific place when the date comes around than being AWAY. I choose a new country because it means everything is new. I run to the unfamiliar the way most people run away from it, and that’s the way I like life to be — broaching as much new territory as possible. There are plenty of countries I haven’t visited yet, so who knows where I’ll end up? The birthday countries of the past five years (Iceland, Norway, Slovakia, Barbados, Portugal) were all pretty short notice decisions, and no doubt this one will be, too.
(The cars spotted here on my walk home were showcased in front of the Thompson Hotel on Wellington Street, by the way. No idea why they were there besides being eye candy.)
