Sometimes I Get Consumed By Excitement

Today I was thinking about how I've wanted to take a road trip for a long time. Apart from a couple of family trips, I've never been on a road trip outside of California. If you read my blog containing my Bucket List, you know I want to go to all 50 states. I want this to largely happen through road trips. I've been talking about making this happen for years (and the summer of 2010 when I read all John Green's books really left me hungry for a road trip). I posted a status on Facebook tagging a few friends to see if anyone would go with me since friends are what make road trips fun (and let's face it, gas is crazy expensive) and to my surprise, I now have 4 friends lined up to go on a trip with me! I have a friend who goes to college in Olympia, Washington and she's been wanting me to come see her for a long time. Well, she's coming back and forth between home and there this summer, so we're going to drive from California to Washington. I have never been to Washington, so I am REALLY excited about this. We are also planning to go to Canada. Canada! I've never been there either and have wanted to for a long time. I have a book called 1000 Places to See Before You Die in the US and Canada and I plan to do some of the things in that book. Some of my friends who are going and I have had this thing about bowling in Canada for years. Sadly, not everyone we would have liked to bowl with in Canada can come, but we will have to go for it as it may not happen again. I have to get a passport as I have only ever been to Mexico which was before they changed the law on needing passports to go to Mexico and Canada. 

Whenever I get really excited about a trip I make a playlist for the road. It is just a thing that I do. Immediately after deciding upon this trip, I went to iTunes and got to work on a playlist. I tend to make really long playlists. I once made a 10-hour playlist for a 4-hour round trip. I just couldn't narrow it down any more from the 10,474 songs I have. Well, the friend I made that for is the one who lives in Washington. It just so happens that I share a lot of music with all 4 of the friends who are going. It's a very nostalgic playlist, but then I'm a very nostalgic person. I think that's why I like making playlists for trips with people I love: I get to re-live past trips and fun times with them through the songs we listened to, and I get to anticipate the upcoming trip. John Green says that imagining the future is a form of nostalgia. I do believe he hit the nail on the head there. 

Listening to: the 780 song playlist I just made.