Get Me Out of Here!

Cabin fever has officially gotten to me you guys.  Maybe you're feeling the same way.  It's pretty common to get stir crazy toward the end of winter, and I think most of us experience some sort of desire to escape after several months of dreary weather.  I get this way every year, and I always have.  But since I moved my studio to a home office a few years ago, it's progressively gotten worse.  The combination of spending way too much time in my house, the grey skies and cold weather, and lots of alone time (my husband is on the road almost nonstop in January, February, and March) tends to push me over the edge by mid-March.  I really make an effort to get out as much as possible during the winter and to spend lots of time with other human beings, but eventually, the wanderlust takes over and I need a trip.  I don't care if it's an overnight trip to somewhere two hours a way.  I get claustrophobic and desperate for a change of atmosphere, and I have to find a way to get out.

In an effort to remind myself that (despite how it might feel right now) I am not actually in jail, I decided to look through some pictures I've taken of places I've visited over the last few years. It made me feel better (There is a world outside!  Hallelujah!), and I thought I'd share some of them with you.  Those of you who are regular readers know that travel has always been an important part of my life.  In my early 20s, I spent several summers traveling the country in a 1978 Southwind RV to vend my clothing line at music festivals, and continued to travel constantly for work.  Since then, I've been lucky to visit places all over the world, usually by tagging along with Robbie and the band (a trade-off that I try to remember when I'm feeling lonely or sad about how much he is away).  And even though I've become much more content with spending time close to home as I've gotten older, I think I'll always feel the need to escape a few times a year (especially at winter's end!).

Thankfully, bright and early next Monday morning, I'll be hopping a plane to Arizona.  I'd already had plans to meet Robbie there for the band's last show of this run, followed by a quick day or two at his parents' house before heading home.  But after a conversation last week with my amazing mother-in-law, who had just spent a few weeks under the midwest's depressing blanket of clouds and cold air herself, I was convinced to come out a week early.  It's not going to be a vacation per se, but rather a new environment in which I can work and live for a week and a half, which is 100% alright by me.  Especially when said environment has things I've been desperately missing, like blue skies and sunshine. 

Who else has end-of-winter cabin fever?  Do any of you have trips coming up?