Travel-Guide Trauma

by zora on May 22, 2008

I’d call it PTSD, but I’m not out of the woods yet. Two books yet to finish before the end of July.

Meantime, I’m having the following nightmares:

*I get a call from my editor at Rough Guides, asking if I can make another trip to Mexico soon. I say yes, because I know I have a week free coming up. As soon as I hang up, I realize I’m a sucker–there’s no reason I need to go back down there now. Then I realize I actually already have a trip booked for June 2 through June 9–a trip I’d completely forgotten about. The rest of the dream is me involved in various other activities, but knowing I need to get to a phone to tell my RG people I can’t possibly do the MX thing, and where do they get off asking, anyway? I wake up shaken, and run immediately to my calendar. Phew–June 2 through June 9 is still free.

*I’m in Cairo, and a friend convinces me to go to Iran with her. Awesome–always wanted to go. The tickets to Tehran are bought, it’s a couple hours before the flight, and it dawns on me that I must need a visa. The dream devolves into my more general travel-anxiety dream: packing in slow-motion, with endless distractions, plus here the bonus of not knowing how to sort out my visa issue.

Nothing a long vacation can’t fix. Preferably a vacation to a visa-less country…