long list of places I've flown

When I was in college, I used to sit in class counting up the number of airplane flights I had taken. I counted one flight as one take-off and one landing, so that one time in 1985 when we left Liberia in the wake of an attempted coup when things were pretty unsafe and our plane made an emergency landing in Dakar and everyone but our family got off the plane and my brother and I crawled around under the seats finding random bits of detritus discarded by other passengers before they finally fixed the problem and we took off for Switzerland, well, that flight to Switzerland counts as two flights, even though we never got off the plane.

I could count over 100 flights, back in college, but now I can't remember the last time I was bored enough to start counting airplane flights. There is the internet, first of all. During law school, I was that girl who was taking notes on real paper while surfing the internet at the same time. It had to have been utterly obvious to my professors. I mean, I was writing things in a notebook while looking at them and clearly registering what they were saying, and then zoning out completely obliviously on my computer while ignoring my notebook. More than just the internet, though, there just seems to be so much more to think about these days. Life is so full of things and people and ideas.

I thought about it today and realized that I'm no longer sure I actually could count the flights I've taken. There have been too many of them.

Illustration (post-college, only):

Chicago to Amsterdam to Chicago
Chicago to Honduras (Tegus-La Cieba-Roatan-La Cieba-Tegus) to Chicago
Michigan to Montreal to Michigan
Michigan to Rwanda
Rwanda to Italy to Rwanda
Rwanda to Uganda
Rwanda to Uganda to Rwanda
Rwanda to Kenya to Rwanda
Rwanda to Kenya (Nairobi-Malindi-Nairobi) to Michigan to New Jersey to Michigan to Rwanda
Rwanda to New York to Alabama to New York to Rwanda
Rwanda to Michigan
Michigan to New York to Michigan to New York (times a number I cannot even count)
New York to Rwanda to Tanzania
Tanzania to Rwanda to Tanzania
Arusha, TZ to Zanzibar to Arusha
Tanzania to Rwanda to Nairobi to New York
New York to Liberia to New York
Michigan to Nairobi to Southern Sudan
Juba to Rumbek to Tiny Little Town
TLT to Rumbek to Elsewhere to Juba to Rumbek to TLT
TLT to Rumbek to Juba to Nairobi to Michigan
Michigan to Gone West to Michigan to Gone West (times four? five?)
Michigan to Ethiopia (Addis-Gonder-Lalibela-Addis) to Michigan

Lists are boring. Except to me. I actually like cataloging my life that way sometimes, although I'm sorry for putting you through it. Right now, when I've been here in one place for a while, it reminds me of how very many places I have been in this life of mine.

Assuming an average of four flights per line (plus the lines that are repeated), that is well over another 100 flights.

This is all a really long lead-up to the fact that I have some plane tickets purchased. I am going to South America in 4 1/2 weeks. I'm going to Southeast Asia six weeks after that.

Continents I have never visited: Asia. South America (unless Central America counts. does it?). Australia. Antarctica.

I am going to cut that list in half within three months. Whoo hoo.