cliche sunrise photo

This December is shaping up to be much like last year's-springlike. Last Monday I was in Chicago, where I saw many people walking around in short sleeves. The 70 degree temperature made drinking gluhwein while Christmas carols played in the background at Chistkindlmarket feel somewhat wrong. While I do love and hope for a white Christmas, I wasn't about to complain. I like wine. I like Christmas. I like warm weather. It was an A+ Monday trifecta.

Though there have been exceptions like last Monday, for the most part the weather has been pretty depressing. It's rainy, gray, and damp. Snow would be nice. Sun would be nice. I'd settle for anything else.

So a few mornings ago, this is what I saw outside.

I still plan on moving to Florida once I get over my fear of alligators, hurricanes, and this. But it was mood brightening to see something besides gray.

My Korea plans are mostly in order. My passport will hopefully arrive this week. The closer the departure date gets, the less excited I feel about it, and I have a theory. One of my college profs used to joke with us that the reason she hated going to the library was the commute (walk across the quad). Once she there, things were fine. She worked great. It was quiet and distraction free. And she always knew that. But the thing that caused her to drag her feet was the anticipation and the commute. I am feeling the same way. The journey to Korea is the opposite of fun. This time around I have a middle seat on a United flight (which means no personal TV, only the awkward ones hanging from the ceiling that you can't really see that well, usually showing movies I don't want to watch anyway, and surly flight attendants) from Chicago to Tokyo. Then I have a 2 hour layover there, before a few hour flight on to Seoul. I'll be the first to point out that I felt a bit silly saying I'm upset because the plane I'm flying on doesn't have personal TVs. White person problem. But, I have motion sickness which sometimes makes it impossible for me to read on a plane without getting a migraine. I also can't sleep on planes. AND, I'm an extremely nervous flyer. If I sit with nothing to distract me, I often think too hard about the fact I'm 35,000 feet above the ground which leads to mini panic attacks, especially if there's even the slightest bit of turbulence. It's not like watching old episodes of network sitcoms on a TV implanted in the backside of the seat in front of me is my favorite thing to do, but it's at least a slight distraction.  So back to my original point, while I am excited to spend some time in Korea, eat some delicious food, get my stuff back, etc, I'm really nervous for this "commute" which is giving me a general feeling of not excited for this whole thing.