Time Travel or as Dr. Who said "first things first but not necessarily in that order."

It's 4:30 in the morning and my stomach hurts from the midnight sundae I ate. The dairy is charging through my stomach cavity like my cat who has been routinely ripping apart anything within ear's reach at this hour in the morning. Rather than resist her energy this morning and tossing her into the basement behind closed doors I'm putting some of my marathon thoughts to use and taking a couple of tums.

There are two weeks and four days before my sister Eliza and I leave for Colombia. We will travel for three months (from September 15th to December 15th) from Bogota to Santiago, Chile and maybe a little further south than that. In other news I have been unemployed since November 2008 and am pretty sure this sudden onset of activity is going to leave me with a permanent white streak in my hair. That would be pretty bossy. It will give me a fresh new look for when I try to re-enter the workforce in 2010. Now it may seem a little irresponsible to go adventuring when I have my career on hold but that type of nay saying is what kept me on the couch in Minnesota in December last year and I am not letting it into my head again. I will neglect my want for a job, take my extra cash and spend three months doing things that are miles away from the craigslist retail want ads. In three months at a new job I would just be getting to know people and be stressed out about the Holiday season. With this alternative it's insanity to stay at home.

My sister Eliza and I have had this plan since a run in with our friend Julia on an adventure that we took 3 years ago. In 2006 Eliza and I joined forces and drove from Baton Rouge, LA to Albuquerque NM to Sundance WY and back to Cambridge, MA and then rode trains between Belgium, France, Italy and Spain, all this proving that you can do a lot in two months. Along the way we also cooked up a trip idea to spend a year, along with Julia who we visited, in Buenos Aires teaching english through the TEFL program. This trip was defining in several ways. It reminded me how much I not only loved my sister but also that spending time together was incredibly important to me as she knows me in a way that no one else can ever come close to. It made me sure that I was a life long traveler and loved adventures. And it concentrated time into one extremely rich and interesting thing; the trip took place in such a short period but included so many, many things that it will always stand out in my life.

In the context of my current life in three months I can buy a pack of mascara and it will expire, running amuck with demodex mites, I can volunteer for 60 hours, I can gain 10 lbs. OR I can have the trip of a lifetime?