Patience versus Complacency

I can't help having this feeling of wanderlust. You would think, or at least I would, that this job would help curb the bite of the travel bug, yet it doesn't. If anything it makes the itch worse. I think I know the reason for it though. I have this map of the US that I keep in my cubicle in Boston. Every time I go on a trip somewhere I put a thumbtack on the city that I have visited. So far with work that equates to the following: Redmond, OR; Denver, CO; Chicago, IL; Norwalk, CT; Louisville, KT; and now Atlanta, GA. The problem is that while I'm working I don't get to actually travel. Yes I get to fly on a plane and rent a car, but I'm working. I really don't get to experience the places that I'm going without feeling like I'm working. There is no exploration or adventure.


The past two weeks were spent in Atlanta working with CSX and T-Mobile. The projects went really well and I learned how to tile a floor starting with ripping up carpet. While I really enjoyed it, I am feeling as though I am shorting myself in the travel experience. I looked through Dave's photos online today (I do that kinda often - I need to get a digital camera) and I got really sad. I miss the backpacking sensation. The meeting of people with a common interest and mindset. I was thinking about how in Milan, Italy we met a complete stranger who shared a cab with us and ended up travelling for three weeks. We could have been total creeps, but we went from complete strangers to travelling companions and really close friends in less than a month's time. Why does it feel as though you are more open to change and chance when you have a backpack strapped to your back then when you are "living the American Dream". For fun I tried to get someone at the airport this afternoon to split a cab with me into the city. No go. Everyone that I approached looked at me as though I was a leper who had escaped from his colony. It made me quite sad.