I Love to Travel

It's almost here and I'm almost ready.

You faithful readers out there know how uncertain this trip has been. But in a little more than a day I'm actually going to Thailand.

I'm a precarious balance of nerves and excitement right now. Thanks to my parents, I'm well supplied. I actually have a surplus of white clothes to wear in the wat!

Everything's laid out on my bed right now so I have to cope with it before I get to sleep tonight.

The last episode of Spaced is being transferred to my hard drive as I type. I think I'll set up Lord of the Rings to be ripped overnight. Add that to Little Women, Mansfield Park, Asterix et Obelix, and a smattering of QI episodes, and I'll have a good stock of video entertainment, providing I can find a power source for my laptop.

I've transferred songs onto iPods #1 and 2 so far. Yes, I am taking more than one iPod. Yes, they are of various types. Yes, they are sorted into genres. Yes, I am my father's daughter.

I am awaiting two packages tomorrow. One contains a new pair of shoes. Very dangerous, I know, getting new shoes right before a trip. I figure either 1) I'll try them, hate them, and return them tomorrow evening, or 2) I'll take them with me and wear them for little bits of time until I break them in over there. Mostly I want a backup to my good ol' reliable sandals from last year.

One travel sign that I look forward to is when the date of my trip shows up on the weather forecast:



Ew. Ew, ew, ew!

Here's the thing. I'm not brave about traveling. I'm not really scared of what people usually assume are the fears of travel: airplanes, foreign languages, navigating new cities, meeting new people... eh. Doesn't phase me.

What I am afraid of, essentially, is being really uncomfortable. I mean discomforts like lows of 82-degrees, high humidity, mosquitoes galore, new food causing Buddha's revenge for days on end, 20+ hours in airplanes including an 11.5-hour leg with limited foot room, what-if-the-beds-are-just-mats-on-the-floor-and-I-don't-have-a-fan-at-night-to-at-least-move-the-air-around?

That's what's freaking me out right now.

I'll survive, I know. I've got light clothing, a waterbottle with a purifier so I can drink from the tap, a variety of insect repellents, two kinds of prescription meds to ward off GI problems, and a bunch of new games on my iPhone and for my DS for the plane ride. I'm going to take some Benadryl for the plane to try to force myself to sleep more than I usually do on a flight. 'Sgood, right?

I also have 20 new books on my Kindle. That's 4 books a week. It may seem like overkill to some of you, but I'll remind you that I read the last two Harry Potter books cover-to-cover on the flight to Moscow a few years ago. 4 books a week is quite probable for me, especially if I end up with "down time".

And Spaced is now fully transferred. So, I'll stop detailing my panicking for you here and get to work clearing off my bed.

Au revoir, my friends!

P.S. I was just dragging a long pieced of string through my house as I untangled it to use as a clothesline and no kitty came barreling out of hiding to pounce on it. That made me sad.

P.P.S. I just realized that last post-script sounds like Nash has died. No worries - she's just enjoying her annual trip to her summer home in Junction.