Three Different Stories Every Day

Dearest Rachel –

Unlike some of our travels in the past – Israel comes to mind in particular, with our guides often making it explicitly clear that “this is a tour, not a vacation,” as it’s a spiritual learning experience as opposed to one for relaxation – this trip is supposed to be a vacation, and a long one at that, a chance for rest and relaxation. Especially considering the fact that, as we travel continent-vast distances from Hawaii to Polynesia to New Zealand, we’re spending several days at a time at sea with little to do in terms of running around. We can take it easy, in theory.

In practice, I’m discovering that’s harder for me to do than I thought it might be.

Part of it has to do with the fact that I’m having to deal with one thing or another at home. Not that Daniel’s having any trouble back home – far from it; he’s keeping up with the mail most every day, and has been able to send tax documents to me as they arrive, among other things. But in order for them to be taken care of, he does have to send them to me to forward on to our tax preparers. It’s not that I wouldn’t trust him to take care of it himself, but just the scanning and forwarding are enough new processes for him to get used to; there’s no need to burden him with complete responsibility for his finances all at once like that. Likewise, as each month passes, I have to prepare monthly reports both for church and camp, as well as keep up with certain transactions as they come in and need processing. These are things that I’m no longer physically present at home to take care of. Thank heavens for the modern, internet era, where I don’t have to be, but it’s still a thing or two I need to keep on top of, just in case.

But then there are the self-imposed requirements that I’m trying to keep up with. Obviously, I’m still trying to keep writing you; honestly, at each day goes by, it gets harder and harder to justify taking a day off from writing you, as I’ve gone this long without breaking the skein. Even on sea days, life aboard ship is so much different from home that there’s no likelihood that I’ll run out of material at any point in the foreseeable future (I mean, even if sea life does devolve into a sort of routine, it’s not as if that stopped me at home – why should it preclude me from writing you now?)

Really, the only thing keeping me from writing you more often is the fact that I’m also juggling several other daily habits at the same time. You’ve already seen a few of my videos here regarding the trip; I’m making an effort to assemble at least one every day (which, given my propensity to retire to my cabin pretty much after dinner every night, is easier than you might think, especially on port days – I usually have enough footage for multiple short vignettes). The do take longer to assemble than I’d like, though, and I’ve yet to figure out how to keep them from being so choppy. It would probably be more professional-looking if I started with a script, but that would require knowing what exactly it is I was going to face in any given situation. Real life doesn’t work like that.

And then there’s my attempts at keeping in shape, which I’d like to claim are going well thus far. The only days I haven’t reported to the gym are the ones in which we’ve been in port, in which case I’ve generally been chasing all about the various sites my excursions have taken me to, or walking about the town. In either case, I’ve been recording my various exertions in the exercise app that Erin recommended I use for that purpose, along with the occasional bit of commentary (especially when it’s a walkabout in port).

In essence, I’ve been telling stories about my experiences in three different ways, on three different platforms, to three different audiences. And while, since it’s all pretty much the truth (apart from the distance I covered while walking the track aboard ship – the app follows me via geolocation, and since the ship is moving while I’m doing my laps, it shows me as running at an impossible 25 miles an hour), I haven’t any concerns about keeping my story straight on the various venues, it’s still somewhat exhausting to assemble, especially after a workout like last night after dinner.

It’s also left me slightly motion-sick, particularly when I’m focusing too hard on what I’m doing, and not quite hard enough on maintaining my sense of upright balance – and yes, that’s a fairly constant thing one has to do, but most of the time I can manage, which is why the ship’s movement doesn’t feel like it’s enough to really have thrilled you. In any event, the sensation takes me back to the days when, as a kid, I would read in the car on a long road trip (because road trips are pretty boring when you’re not the one driving – and even if you are, depending on where and when you’re doing so), and find myself queasy for having done so. As an attempt to remedy this, my parents would insist that I not read until we were off the surface streets and onto the highways, which was a pretty tough deal for me to make. I think it’s why I’m almost always the one driving these days; that, and the fact that almost no one else in the gang prefers driving to not driving (which I find unfathomable, but whatever).

Between these external and self-imposed tasks, I’m finding myself surprisingly busy on this trip so far, and while you might think I’m making it so that I’m unable to properly relax, I’m not so sure. I think I’m getting in just what I need, while making sure that I have a record of what’s going on as it goes on that someday, I can look back on. Of course, that begs the question as to whether I will (I’ve brought a journal of my college trip to Asia to compare against, but have yet to crack it open), but we can deal with that in the future.

Until then, honey, keep an eye on me, and wish me luck. I’m going to need it.