Today was an exciting day.
Today was a day where we made a stand. A commitment. A bold declaration that we were indeed going on this trip!
Today we went shopping at MEC.
Today was the day where we picked the bags that will hold our belongings for a year and sit, hopefully comfortably, on our backs as we wander about. And not just the bags. The stuff that will go in the bags, and clothe our bodies as well. The pants. The shirts. The socks. The water bottles; though we won't we wearing those. The water purifying wand thingy that is just way too cool not to have and wave around hoping to make feathers fly or large rooms suddenly redecorate themselves.
Then there were the other little day bags, security bits, universal (or at least planetary) plugs so that laptops will have the juice they need when they need it no matter where we find ourselves. The list is not endless, but it does go on. I however will not meander further along it's path.
Except to mention the shoes. Picking a single pair of shoes to cover the year is no small feet. (I do hope that earned at least one groan from someone.) When I was reading about Paul Salopek's seven year walk in National Geographic last month I combed the few pictures of him in the article in hopes of figuring out what kind of shoes he has. I mean, if you're gonna walk for seven years then you're gonna get good shoes, so heck, better check and see. Alas, I did not find out. Despite that, we were all successful in finding shoes we feel will keep our feet, if not tap-dancing, at least quite happy. I am also pleased to say that it didn't take too long, all things considered. Nowhere near my best showing for in and out of IKEA, that other bastion of cool stuff one had not known existed when the day started but now must have, but still, given that we were shopping for a year of stuff, and that there were three of us, I'm happy coming in under three hours. That's more than an hour under the US average time for running a marathon, and doesn't require nearly the amount of training, nor chocolate milk.
Post victory street meat? Absolutely.
And the best part of it all? We're not going to look like triplets. We've got different bags, different shoes, different, well, different stuff. This is something I am very, very grateful for. It takes a lot of effort to not just get three of the same. When you're all looking for essentially the same things, picking different versions end up being harder then you think - even at MEC. But like Brian says: We're all individuals.
Turns out he's right.
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