everything

First, I must say thank you to everyone who donated to Wounded Warrior Project. The race is on Sunday and I gotta tell ya... we're a little nervous. The Tough Mudder website says to work your way up to six miles runs, which we've done, and to be able to bang out 15 pushups in a row, which we can also do. However, something tells me that running 2,300 feet up a mountain covered in mud over the course of 11 miles might be a little bit harder than running a straight line up and down the San Francisco Bay...I dunno...just a gut feeling. Never the less, we're really really excited. Not only for the race but to go on a little 3 day vacation with our pal Becca. Also, once the race is over... the planning can begin. Oh yes...oh yes, we're getting close to the countdown ladies and gentlemen. The countdown...for the next page of our lives? No. The next chapter then? Oh yes, yes it must be a new chapter! But no. This is way bigger than that. Well....ok yes, I guess the road trip east can be a new chapter sure...BUT...once we hit the other coast of this big, beautiful (and I can tell you from personal experience, it is pretty beautiful) country, we're starting a BRAND NEW BOOK! A new volume to the Rachie and Joey Saga! I don't know about you but for us, "excited" doesn't nearly cover it. Want to know why ending adventure is so much more exciting than beginning adventure? Because once "travel" adventure number one is over...."life" adventure gets to start. Know whats gonna be in "life" adventure? Everything. In about three months, Rachel and I get to unpack our suitcases for the last time and start everything. It feels very similar to when you're about to graduate college and about to conquer the world, only instead, we're probably going back to college, and we've already conquered the world. Or at least the country. When I shut my eyes and fast forward 2 years, I see me and Rachel living in a very small apartment in Brooklyn, sitting on a love seat, with medical and anatomy books sprawled across the coffee table and plates containing discarded bites of a poorly cooked, but healthy, meal at our sides. We're trying to study but can't stop talking about what our future house is going to look like. We're laughing about how much easier it is to carry three plates to a table than carry five textbooks on the subway. If that Joanna shuts her eyes and fast forwards another two years, we're in the same living room, packing our old textbooks into boxes. We're carefully wrapping our wedding albums in tissue paper and putting those in boxes as well. There's another box in the corner labeled "scrubs" and I silently congratulate myself on my new job. We're moving into our new house tomorrow, our first house. It's small, but everything we've been dreaming of. Most importantly it has a lawn. Which brings me to my next fast forward. It's five years later this time and I'm inside our house. It's Sunday and its the first Bills game of the season. The game starts in a half hour. I'm excited for the game and I'm throwing a tiny Bills Jersey over the head of my favorite person in the whole world. I hand my favorite person a small, soft football and explain how important the game of catch is and hand in hand we're headed outside to the lawn for the very first lesson. So, why are we so excited for adventure number two? Because it's gonna be everything. -lj