T-minus 3 weeks and counting down...

Its three weeks until I leave Vancouver, pack what I can into a rolling suitcase & daypack, and hit the road towards Calgary to begin my travel adventure. My half-sister (who lives in Calgary) asked me yesterday if I was excited yet. To be honest, I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to get excited. Here's what I've been getting up to.

I just got back from 4 amazing, beautiful, and transformative days at Burn in the Forest in Squamish (local Burning Man event). My friends & I created a hexayurt (that's a six-sided yurt yo!) by sewing tarps together. We added zippers so that we could have a cross-breeze and many points of egress as the weather was hovering at 30 Celcius all weekend. We baked about 1,500 goodies (some of which were gluten-free, and we even had paleo cookies - which were devoured first). I myself clocked about 8 hours of baking time + about 6+ hours of sewing assistance time (I held the tarp while my friend sewed it). We offered boardgames, goodies, and iced/hot tea for anyone who wandered into our site. It was an awesome experience, and our group was much appreciated by folks who were starving come 1am from dancing and running around in the sun all day long. We even were awarded badges of honour from another camp for our great work. They couldn't believe we were first timers. Such a great time.

Here I am at the Burn, having no fun whatsoever ;)

Now that the Burn is behind me, I can get back to the mountain of things that I need to do to keep moving forward on the planning of my trip. So far I have myself booked up until I land in Portugal, but nothing afterwards. Time to get cracking! I'm trying to hold myself to this mantra:

Things I need to do (in no particular order/stream of consciousness yo):

• Finalize my sublet (including having the agreement signed & notarized)
• Buy suitable luggage (I'm itching to put in a pun here, but I'm not bringing any suits to Europe)
• Fill out any last minute paperwork for my leave at my job
• Contact my insurance company re: sublet coverage
• Make a list of what to pack
• Pack up all my clothing and some personal effects and store them with someone, somewhere
• Figure out how long I want to spend in Galicia, Spain and book some accommodation
• Make a bit of a "plan of attack" for how I want to see Portugal - maybe I'll make a map with numbered points?
• Look up train travel times for Spain and decide how many days I'll need a rail pass for (and then buy the pass)
• Get vaccinated to avoid nasty bugs while away

This list could go on for a while. Just writing it out made it clearer what the next week holds in store for me. I'm still working 34 hours a week and trying to do all the things during this very busy summer. I. Can. Do. It. I just need to remind myself of that and not lose myself in the details. Send motivational mojo!