Repositioning myself

Us on July 27 at Silver Falls State Park, Oregon

OMG - how am I still here? My original plan was to retire in early July and be off adventuring by August. That may have been a tad ambitious... plus I was introduced to the concept of "repositioning" cruises by a friend. These are one-way cruises offered when cruise lines need to move a ship to another part of the world during a shoulder season. So much better than stuffing ourselves into a metal tube and appearing bleary-eyed 20 hours later on the other side of the world.

I really dig the idea of repositioning cruises because they are reasonably cheap (we paid about the same ticket price as flying business class one-way to SE Asia), and en route we get to stop at amazing places we'd likely never visit otherwise. Not to mention space to roam about, and free meals and entertainment for nearly a month. The 27-day time commitment isn't an issue for us since neither of us is working right now, so why not?! The only drawback was postponing our departure to mid-October.

Time dragged on at first, but now it's just 22 days away, and time is flying by. I'm picking Matt up from Portland in a few days (after he's sold his place and car). That's when our life together will really begin. Our relationship has been long-distance since we first met online in 2023. I can hardly wait to have him as a daily fixture to have and hold in my life. The cruise, to me, is a bit like a honeymoon trip - a celebration of our new life together. Once together, we'll fly to visit my daughter in Buffalo for a few days, and my dear friend E is letting us stay at her beautiful home in Seattle for the few remaining days until our ship leaves.

It is really hard not to look around and see how blessed I am to have such amazing and generous friends, family, and "found family" in my life. I want to stay in touch with them all! Up to now, I've been terrible about taking and sending photos, posting updates on social media, and sending thank you or birthday cards. I'm committing to having the discipline to do these important things going forward (except for maybe the social media part). I don't want to lose a single one of these precious people from my life!