It's All His Fault

31 years ago this week I met this man. 26 years ago this week I married him. 20 and 15 years ago I gave birth to his children.
In 25 days, I will take his hand and board an airplane destined for a whole new life in a country I had never heard of until the Gulf War and really didn't know its location until recently.

David has taken great pains to make me into an international woman. He took on my first airplane ride-to England 27 years ago this week. We went to see the wedding of Chuck and Di (no joke) and other stuff in England. I was "bit" hard by the travel bug. I found jobs that would take me to exotic, fun and interesting places (Yes West Virginia does count!). I have lived with used furniture my entire married life because traveling was more important. I had
a goal to see all 50 states before turning 50. I've made it to 49. Kuwait got in the way of planned trip to New Mexico this fall.

Ben and Anna seem have been bitten by the same bug. They were fabulous troupers on our 2003 trip to Germany. Ben toured Europe for a month after his 2006 graduation. Anna is saving her pennies for a 2009 trip to the World Cup in Africa.

Of course, David has been done more traveling than all of us. Yesterday I was watching a slide show of all the places his family traveled while he was growing up. Uncle Doug, 9 years older and many years wiser, was providing the narration. It was like a National Geographic travelog..Moscow, Turkey, Panama, Spain, Haiti, Greece, Austria. .etc, etc. It was amazing.

When I first entered the Brown family, I was intimidated by the dinner time conversations of world politics, destinations and political smart talk. While I am still easily intimidated by the political smart talk, I can pretty much hold my own in the travel arena.

Lately David has preferred to let me do the traveling. Although I know he is thrilled to be undertaking this new adventure and he talks often of all the places we can and will visit.

So it is his fault I'm leaving. It's his fault I've become the travel bug. It's his fault I've become much more than the Small Town Girl who grew up in a gravel pit. Damn him.