When Life Denies You Lemons...Make Lemonade

Life is unfair.  She doesn't like to play ball all the time, and when she does it's by her rules.  Her capricious nature can make the stars align for you one day and derail your success the next.  Life is a fickle lady.

Life played a cruel prank on me; she made me believe I was physically in shape to travel in two months time.   Just as I was selling my stuff and finalizing my plans my old shoulder injury came back and jacked up my body.  After several sleepless nights of excruciating pain in my sternum, right chest, upper right back and neck, I saw my osteopath.  After some prying around of my shoulders and chest, he informed me my manubrium (upper part of the sternum) had been dislodged slightly to the right.  The dislocation was the cause for what apparently can cause pain similar to a heart-attack.  That explained a lot.  So I'm going back next week to get the rest of my upper right side of the body manually realigned after which I will undergo several sessions of prolotherapy on my right shoulder, sterno-clavicular joint and upper back.  The financial burden of these sessions, as well as the recuperation period of 8 to 12 weeks (and a re-evaluation a few weeks thereafter) will probably make me postpone my trip.  Those words feel like boulders slamming into my back and making my sterno-clavicular pain feel like nothing.

Making lemonade without lemons

The news crushed me.  I thought my shoulder was fine and I had no idea my SC joint was that bad.  I guess I was used to the pain and discomfort.  Nevertheless, I could not become depressed if addressing the problem took longer than 7 weeks.  I proceeded to write up plans B and C but not before binging on The New Girl, Workaholics and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia episodes for four days.

If resigning from work in May could not happen, I was gonna have adventures nonetheless.

Ground rules to plans B and C

If I don't start travelling and seeing new places soon I'll go mad.  I need an escape from my daily life.  This does not give me permission to spend my entire pay check on traveling and doing fun things.  Saving is important to my future globe-trotting goals and to paying my physical therapy bills.  A balance is therefore necessary between fun and savings.

1) Travel expenses cannot replace saving money

2) Keep travels to weekend-long trips.  Not that I get many days to take off anyways.

3) Monthly savings should add up to recoup my physical therapy costs and weekend trips by latest September.

Ground rules set, I can proceed to creating plans B and C.

Plan A

But I thought you were writing plans B and C?  Although it is very likely my trip will be postponed, I need to create my expanded Plan A in case Life sides with me for once.

Plan A had three steps to it.  

Step 1: The first 5 weeks would happen as described in my adventure map.  It would be a glorious, fast-paced trip across Eastern Europe a la Amazing Race.

Step 2: From Barcelona WWOOF in Italy for a few weeks.  Then I would work at hostels and maybe do some bartending in north-western Europe (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, London, Edinburgh, Stockholm).

Step 3:  Fly to northern Finland to work at a Husky farm.  No, they do not raise huskies for sale in Chinese food markets.  They breed and train huskies for sledding!

....and that is as far as I had planned for Plan A.

Plan B

Plan B is a truncated version of Plan A consisting of 3 steps.

Step 1: Keep my job but travel to Barcelona on June 12th and enjoy the Barcelona night-life for 10 days.  What better way to avoid jet-lag by partying it up by night and sleeping by day?

Step 2: Every other weekend travel to a new city.  I will start at those cities where I have friends who can guide me around.

Step 3: Sometime around September/October WWOOF and do fun jobs found at http://www.workaway.info/ until summer time 2014 when I can happily (and warmly) travel the European continent and stay at busy hostels.

Plan C

Plan C departs from the Euro-centricity of Plans A and B.  Here is how it would happen:

My "Motorcycle Diaries" fantasy

Step 1: Resign in October and move to the golden coast!  Work a few odd jobs and spend time exploring the region.  During my spare time I would work on my online businesses.

Step 2: Come end of May, fly to Central America with a friend or two.  There rent/buy motorcycles or a van and criss-cross South America to Brazil.  Time frame: 3 weeks.

Step 3: Partake in the crazy World Cup festivities throughout June.

Step 4: Leave Brazil in July.

Win-Win?

I'm worried it won't be a win-win.  I'm scared I'll get depressed these next few months, especially when my injury keeps me from going outside and having fun without re-injuring my arm.  But I think making the best out of bad situations keeps people sane.  It's that or be sad and disappointed.