Ready, Set...

My living room has exploded into neat piles of clothing categories and my suitcase is waiting to digest my rolled fabric. I keep running through the to-pack-list and I keep looking at my explosion of a living room and what the list has produced in real life still doesn't look like enough. That just can't be enough there for four months! I add another casual t-shirt. The ubiquitous "they" say that it's better to have more than less, better to have it and not need it, but traveling this sort of way, it's better to have less in your bags. You have to be able to carry your bags all by yourself. More souvenir space anyway.

Nowadays you can buy just about everything at your destination. The only things most places don't have are things like cheese and stuff, but airport security would bum-rush you before they let you smuggle that in your bags. I list cheese as a craving because it seems like no other continent eats cheese like Europe and the half continent, US, so even if I haven't eaten a cheeseburger in 2 years, they and macaroni//cheese sound super good when I don't see some for so long.

After all this time, and hoping, my miracle has come in the form of every friend, family, and friend of the family in my network. If you haven't received your thank-you card from me yet, it's coming! I'm so slow at writing them out because I want to write what I really feel and show how honored I feel about everything. Forgive me. I received above my impossible goal and am flying out on China Air late tomorrow night/Thursday morning.

I hate flying. Int'l Studies major with aerophobia. Funny. I add my sound-proof headphones.

Preparations for this trip has gone very well. I have just about everything I need. My clothes seem cottony enough and they seem nice enough to fit into the Thai culture of being neat, presentable, and well-put together. The guy at REI immediately asked me if I was heading to Chiang Mai when I mentioned sorry, man I can't buy the membership, I'm traveling to Thailand tomorrow. It makes me laugh because I keep hearing that Chiang Mai is the hot-spot destination for every Development, Missionary, Trail Guide, Hippie Westerner in Asia. I will be so sad if I see Thais in torn American Eagle Jeans. Switchfoot's Best Yet album plays through my laptop speakers. I mouth the lyrics to love is a movement.

My travel nurse says I'm probably going to succumb to a fatal bout of Japanese encephalitis but it doesn't matter because she can't give me the shot anyway (for lack of time) so I should just proceed to fear for my well-being and pray my Hail Marys. My feeling is that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. I brought Promethrin to coat all of my clothing and 100% deet to repel every spear toting mosquito after that. Take that insects.

But other than that I'm excited because new things are exciting and I'm scared because all new things are slightly terrifying. I'm concerned about my uncle's state of emergency health, about leaving him right now, about how his healing will go after knee & aneurysm surgery but only his body can help him out at this point. My mom is doing the best she can with it all. I'll go see him one more time in ICU before I leave.

tomorrow. So soon. I take out a skirt and two t-shirts. More space.

The P.S.

Oh yeah. Thanks to the overwhelming generosity of Darlana and Tom, I have an i-pod now. I know, LATE, but I don't mind it. I'm currently trying to beat the tech revolution, remember? It's the nano ("a few generations ago"-cat), really shmancy and nice and black and plays videos and movies and things. Its face is clean and glossy; mine is not. I'm pretty much thumbs with it.

I've named it Cronie. That way it'll always know its place.