Travel Nerves

Getting ready for a major trip is not work for the delicate.  Things need to be wrapped up at work, loose ends tied up and suddenly you're indispensable for ten days because for the entire next month you are going to be missing in action.  Every last detail of the trip needs to be looked at and attended to.  Flight times need to be confirmed, the hotels need to know that you are coming and at what time, transportation or transportation information from the airport needs to be arranged or confirmed and everything that will be needed for the trip needs to be remembered, accounted for and packed.  On top of that, apartment managers need to know you'll be gone, mail pick up needs to be arranged, pets if you have them need to be cared for, plants if you have them watered.  On top of that the apartment needs to be cleaned if you want to feel good about coming home and the fridge emptied of all perishable food.
     It is almost like getting ready to die.  Besides everything I find myself often micromanaging the state of my health because the stress of getting ready often appears in physical symptoms and I don't want to get sick on this trip.  I have reason to feel this way.  I have been sick on three trips, all in Mexico.  Once with severe Montezuma's Revenge, once I passed out after knocking out my electrolytes thanks to over hydration, and most recently I simply felt weird and crappy from not eating enough and over activity while breathing thin (seven thousand feet and counting above sea level) and polluted air and a skin tag on my butt rupturing and bleeding profusely. That was scary. 
     Nervous?  Yes.  And it isn't just about physical health.  There is often for me this weird sense of displacement finding myself suddenly lifted out of my comfort zone and into a completely foreign culture.  So, why do I go?  Perversely, because it is good for me.  It is true what is said of travel.  It broadens you.  Speaking Spanish for me is also a boon because this helps me connect with the people and the culture in Mexico and it also allows me to gain better fluency and confidence speaking Spanish.  This also gives me a month, or more exactly twenty-seven unscheduled and unprogrammed days.  I am excluding here the four days where I will have to arrive at the airport at time leaving and returning, and also at the bus stations between Mexico City and Puebla.
     I have become so used to programming and scheduling my daily life that I do feel a little bit nervous about not having this prop to support me once I'm in Mexico.  I can go wherever I want, whenever I want having only to watch the clock if I am meeting a friend for coffee or a meal together.  I will be outside a lot, walking, exploring, or I will be sitting in cafes with my sketch book, or exploring neighbourhoods and parks.
     It sounds enjoyable, and I expect it will be.  Meanwhile, this process of getting ready is for the birds.