A book I love: The Art of Travel by Alain de Botton. It's been a while since I've read it, because it's been a while since I've traveled (terrible excuse, as traveling is a mindset more than an action), but I just planned a short trip to Florida for a wedding and am reminded of this passage from the first chapter, "Anticipation":
"It is unfortunately hard to recall our quasi-permanent concern with the future, for on our return from a place, perhaps the first thing to disappear from memory is just how much of the past we spent dwelling on what was to come-- how much of it, that is, we spent somewhere other than where we were. There is a purity both in the remembered and the anticipated visions of a place: in each instance it is the place itself that is allowed to stand out."
Right now, my long weekend in Florida in November is a perfect, glittering reprieve from my busy fall. I will crack the spine of a fresh book. I will swim. I will sleep late. I will spend time with old friends. Never mind that I will probably overpack and overspend, that I will feel guilty about not keeping in better touch, that I will consider what I am missing at home, that it might rain. Those are worries for when I get there.
For now, Florida is a perfect Florida. I have five months to polish that pearl of anticipation.
In the meantime, I recommend you read that book.