How to torture a travel addict

It's like a special kind of torture, when you're a travel addict forced to listen to everyone else's travel stories, everyone else's plans.

I was obliged, the other day, to politely listen to another parent as she gushed about their family travel plans for the next year. They had recently returned from a trip to China and were already planning a second trip there, about the same time next year. In the meantime, they were planning a Caribbean Cruise and maybe a quick trip to Europe. She went on and one, rightfully excited about the prospects.

I can't blame her really, or the many others who tell me about their travel plans, because they don't know the real me. For all they know I don't even like to travel. For all they know, I choose not to travel. How would they know that I crave travel, that sometimes I think I'm going to burst out of my skin if I can't manage to go somewhere soon, somewhere far away? How would they know that I'm so desperately poor I can't afford a trip to the beach for the day, never mind anywhere else?

A couple of days after I listened to this family's envy-inducing travel plans, one of my own family members called to tell me all about their plans for a family trip to Disney World. Though Disney is one of the last places on earth I care to go, it's still travel. And then my parents told me about all the places they are planning to go over the next year, including Hawaii and several locations in Europe. My family knows my passion for travel, or should, and should be aware that my failure to travel at this time is financially induced and not actually by choice. But they can't help telling me about all their own plans.

Chalk it up to a side effect of being invisible I suppose... Warning: Invisibility may cause extreme discomfort when faced with people who are able to live out your dreams and passions.