Rambling...this, that & other things....

Calgary weather: today we walked Nixon outside with just hoodies! Yip-yippee.. but not quite good enough. It was only +6 (yet sunny and amazingly no chinook wind). The snow is melting, just in time to get more, as always. : )

Over the last few days I've felt over anxious and bored at the same time, like there's something I'm supposed to be doing. I have difficulty concentrating and find myself craving things that I don't really need, like the usual, shopping and eating chocolate, but whenever I really think about doing those things I realize they aren't what I want.
Instead, I think its because we've finally realized that what we want is to get out of here, and quite frankly I think I'm quite impatient about things that I've decided upon. So is Josh. In fact, he'll sit & read other blogs for hours, whereas I'm impatient, read one or two, and then I'm back to (sigh) boredom. I'm likely not bored either, reading, dog walking, gym going, groceries, and laundry, there's plenty going on, its just not what i REALLY want to be doing....
Lately, I've been doing a really poor job at living my life in the present. I wonder how I'm possibly going to get through the next 3 weeks until we leave for PV, and after that, whether I'll be a kind, patient, knowledge-sharing clinical instructor for my (last?) group of nursing students. I enjoy my job in emerg, and so to fill this void of premature "want", I may find myself there more often than in recent weeks, in order to keep my sanity.
I recently posted a note on facebook, as all my (work) friends have, on 25 random thoughts about me, in which I've made the realization that emerg people are quite similar. We crave new things, need new challenges, and thrive on change and unpredictability (although, with the latter, I am actually quite a planner, but as in our travel blog above, its slowly leaking from me). I've learned some things about others that remind me of myself, and I've also noted that there are a lot of people I know who wish they were doing something different, living their lives some other way. Why don't they? What are the barriers that most people face? Is it their jobs, financial instability, family pressure, or fear of the unknown? Maybe its all of the above. The reality is that we'll never do anything we want in life if there are obstacles in the way, we might have to be creative and take risks once in a while to acheive the greater things.
My thoughts on our obstacles, well, maybe mine, it's being away from my family. We're pretty close, especially my mom, sister, and I, but also our extended family that meets for dinners quite regularly (once a month-ish). I usually talk to my mom almost everynight on the phone, and now that she's down in California for 6 weeks with my sister, I find that i'm missing our chats. This shouldn't be too much of an issue with a winter getaway, but if we moved permanently, it may be. Josh is very close to his family as well, especially his brother. Although, both of our parents enjoy travelling and have the means to do so, and I don't expect them to wait too long to come visit us.
I'm just hoping that our upcoming trip is successful and we find the things that we value in a living place. Some of these things we know exist, including warm weather, ocean, proximity to basic needs, surfing, relaxed atmosphere, and the ability to escape from the rat race and material world that so completely consumes American/Canadian society.
So far, its a good start, so we'll see how things go. Nixon (our water-obsessed lab) is pretty excited that he might have his own pool one day, but is slightly concerned about his possible food change (he's not, he's a walking garbage can). We prefer hammocks to couches for reading, and Josh admits he may take up beach running (with Nixon and I). Whoop!