Feeling blue and flying planes

Do you ever feel like you are in a funk but can't quite put your finger on it? Family is good. Career going well. Kids succeeding at being kids. And even your dog is content. But you have that weird uncomfortable feeling that things are not all completely right. When I get that feeling I usually chalk it up to needing a different hobby which is why it can sometimes feel like mayhem around here at PickleChatter. One day I'm cooking, another day I'm refinishing furniture and then you pop on here to find I've cheated on you and created another blog.

Okay I digress. 

No, this is not about all that. 

This is about what just hit me as I was driving to pick-up SweetPea from school. As I pulled into the carpool lane I began to notice how lovely the bright leaves looked against our very grey, pre-rain, sky. And as I was looking up at the storm clouds I noticed a big jet flying across dark sky. Its colors too were vibrantly visible against the stormy grey and I am pretty sure it looked like a Korean Air jet. When I see planes I stare at them. I always have. Even as a kid I was mesmerized by the way they gracefully slid across the open sky. On the kinds of days when jet planes would leave contrails behind them, I would try to watch the white lines dissipate into the blue sky for as long as I could see them. And I would always try to guess how many people were on the plane and where they were coming from or going to. I know I am not alone in saying that my days of getting completely lost in watching an airplane in the sky were forever changed on 9/11/2001. But today I noticed that I have been watching and wondering again with less fear about fire in the sky. Today I longingly wondered where they were coming from. Our town is often in a circling pattern for Logan Airport so just checking directionality doesn't really tell you much. In the summer I like to sit on the beach and watch the planes take off from Logan, fly north and then start to bend East. I know those people will be enjoying scones, croissants, vino or some other European treat in less than 12 hours. And without a doubt, I am always jealous. There is nothing more I love to do in this world than travel. The anticipation of travel gets me through my non-traveling periods and the act itself feeds my soul like nothing else.

Yesterday, I read a great line on a blog I frequent,
WhiteOnRiceCouple. It is authored by a couple who describe their blog as stories of food and travel through photography. So yeah, that's pretty much what defines me. Food. Travel. Photography. If I could be a traveling food photographer I think I might die from an overdose of smiling and giddiness. The line I read and loved was this:

"Re-Awakened. That’s how I would describe the aftermath of traveling."

-Todd Porter & Diane Cu

Todd and Diane are professional photographers who regularly speak at food and photography conferences and workshops. And they do travel the world eating and making pictures. Okay. Now I hate them. But in all seriousness, when I read that line on Sunday's WhiteOnRice post, I realized what my funk is about. After two recent long stints in Paris and one big adventure in China, I think I was becoming accustomed to having kick-ass foreign travel plans in my calendar. The pen that hangs from the calendar has been alarmingly under utilized as of late with the exception of jotting down pediatrician and PTO appointments. I am usually on a high as I prepare for a trip and then afterwards I greet life with a new-found focus. So where does that leave me now?

There is so much in this world I want to see and experience and taste. I think I am going to go close my eyes and click my heals because the universe should know by now, I am never more at home then when I am off experiencing something new.