Warren (pilot/friend) had to leave yesterday… he was planning to stay until the weekend, but some tropical storm (whose name I don’t know because we still don’t have Internet) is scheduled to descend on us today. The forecast is for rain through Tuesday or Wednesday, and he won’t fly the plane plane in inclement weather. So off he went.

So now I’m sitting here at the dining room table amidst a sea of brochures. No joke, there are at least 250 of them. I’ve organized them into “Things to Do” and “Things to Buy” in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Watauga Lake is in NE Tennessee but the Virginia and North Carolina borders are about 45 minutes away. The Kentucky border, apparently, isn’t too much farther. In fact, Tennessee is bordered by eight (8) states: Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, and Alabama.

Ever since high school, I’ve always enjoyed the research aspect of a project. Beginning to fill my brain up with new information is exciting. I get to spurt out all sorts of interesting factoids (like the 8 border states to Tennessee). I like learning about the history of an area, the culture, the people, the language, and all that jazz. But the very beginning stages of research — when you’ve amassed a mountain of information but don’t know what to do with it yet — have always overwhelmed me.

I feel like a deer in the headlights: eyes as big as saucers, unmoving because I haven’t thought of a more appropriate action. I know that I need to just start, but I have yet to get over my emotional speed bump. I know that I need to pick a focus area and just get focused, but I’m not quite there yet. So I’ll just continue to read a lot about a lot. I’m filling up my brain until the information starts to flow out my ears, at which point I will reroute the overflow to my fingertips. Then I’ll get the party started. A quiet and information-heavy party, but a party nonetheless. Because in the grand scheme of things, this is pretty awesome. It’s best to love what you do, and I certainly am enjoying this.