Chewy in the river

Let me just say that I am not complaining.  I know how lucky we are.  We get to see amazing places , try incredible foods , and, when we come home, be with our wonderful pups , family, and friends.  And, yet, the word unsettled has popped up in my mind for the last week or two.

The unsettled feeling comes from a lack of routine, I think.  When we travel, we wake up every morning at 8:30, have breakfast, do errands or talk to family and friends on Skype, sightsee until 3:00, and then return back to the hotel/hostel/apartment to work on the internet for a couple of hours before going to dinner and an evening out.  We wake up and rinse and repeat.

Morning fog, view from our cabin

Now, we are in the North Georgia mountains, chilling in an absolutely ah-ma-zing cabin for the next month (but more on the cabin later), until we head off to Japan and either China or Malaysia.  This place is unbelievably, jaw-droppingly beautiful.  In the early morning, the navy blue sky turns to a creamy gray blue that lights up the millions of trees and we sit outside during the day, brave the pollen, and work on our computers.

Day view of Appalachian mountains

Actually, if you look at our lives objectively, this is the most settled we have been in eight months.  We have a temporary home and aren't moving anywhere for four weeks.  That's 28 days of staying in one place, not getting in a bus, car, train, or plane, and just being here.  We have unpacked our bags and stuck them in an out-of-the-way closet.  We even bought hangers. Hangers , people.  That means we took our clothes out of our bags and hung them up .

It feels weird to me.  I keep waking up in the middle of the night wondering exactly where I am and then I remind myself that I am sleeping in the same place I was yesterday.  Being with our dogs 24 hours a day is such a luxury that we keep touching and kissing them as if we are afraid that they will disappear.  I feel like a man drinking water after the drought.

Abby lounging on the deck (those eyes just kill me)

And, I am trying to create some structure in a life that is intrinsically unstructured.  That means I have to stop going to bed at 1:00 in the morning after reading or watching junk television (oh, America, why is your television so bad and yet so addictive).  I need to wake up at a reasonable hour and not laze about until noon.  I need to get back into the habit of constantly exercising my body and my mind.

I have set a goal: I am going to write (at least) 1000 words per day for the next month beginning yesterday.  That means that I will hopefully definitely be writing more blog posts, guest posts, articles, and maybe even working on that Great American Novel lying dormant in the back of my mind.  And, because the Internet is awesome, it turns out that there is a website to spur on people with similar goals --- it is called the 1000 Words a Day Challenge .

Sunset

I have never done a public writing challenge like this --- or even a public dieting challenge or exercise challenge or whatever.  When I make goals, I normally bottle them within me and, if I achieve them, then I get excited and tell people.  If I don't make my goal, I keep quiet and pretend that I never challenged myself.  Cheaters way out, huh?

But, this is different.  I need to do this to keep myself from going insane, to make myself feel like I am doing something constructive, and to prove to myself that I can write on a regular basis.  And, this is in part why I am telling you.  Y'all are so gosh darn supportive and nice to me that if I cheat, I will feel like I am lying to you, too.  By May 21st, I will have hopefully definitely written 30,000 words.  I'll let you know how it goes.