Jumping the gun. Just a little.

     This is a bit on the early side, I suppose, given that the reason I'm making this blog (really making a blog this time, not coming up with some grandnewneverbeforeseen idea for a blog and then writing one post and then abandoning it to the blogosphere void) is to keep track of all the exciting goings-on in my first trip abroad TO ESPANA in the spring. But the urge to blog, which is admittedly a fleeting and seldom-felt urge for me, has taken hold, and you can't just ignore the spirit of the blog. You gotta let it take hold. You gotta let it move you. All this bullshit blog-osophy is just an excuse for me to say the word blog in my head, which I find strangely pleasing (I think it has something to do with the way the liquid sound of the "lo" get stopped up short in your throat with that gulping, glottal "g"...). Anyway. ANYWAY. It also wouldn't kill me to start writing posts now so I can get a handle on this stream-of-consciousness business. So I can learn to weed out all these extraneous thoughts...well, not all of them. But just to get down some clearly communicated ideas. To be a little more pure, a little more succinct.
     I'm also writing now because it's just starting to hit how big of a thing this is going to be -- "this thing" being going to another country for five months. I don't think I realized until really recently (as in some truly absurd time, like three days ago) how long I've been waiting for this to happen. We're going on almost 10 years of anticipation here, people. That's a lot of pressure. And I also realized I don't speak nearly enough Spanish to get by. Can I tell a nino to "dibuja el numero cinco" ? Por supuesto. Can I tell a taxista in Valencia to take me home, please? Meh. A little less sure about that.
     I think some people are in the habit of putting down purposes or outlines of what their blogs are going to try to accomplish, or contain, or share with the world etc. etc. I'm way too scatterbrained for that kind of focus. So, let's say this blog will be vaguely travel-y with a lot of other random bits mixed in (think rhapsodic tangents about food and books and...well, probably just food and books). It'll be like any classic Thanksgiving dressing (still digesting yesterday's dinner so bear with me): mostly bread, but with unexpected, tasty little nuggets of other stuff you found in your pantry mixed in. Mmmm. Stale pecans and crasins.