The Final Countdown

(I hope everyone is hearing the music in their heads and imagining Gob Bluth dancing with a sword...)

This is the final week, but I'm still having a hard time processing the fact that at this time next Sunday I will be on the first of three flights that will eventually land me on the Kenyan coast. My past big trips have never allowed me a serene time of preparation, though, so I guess I shouldn't have expected anything different for this one. When I was going to Mexico it happened just after Christmas and a Florida vacation (leaving me very few days to wash and re-pack). When I was going to Seattle I left the day after the big weekend-long family celebration of my Grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. Now, when I'm going to Kenya, I have an aunt, a cousin, and a long-lost third? cousin all visiting on their spring breaks (not to mention either of the holidays that were celebrated today...).

This series of occurrences is probably some sort of sign that I should renounce my procrastinator ways and not put off crucial trip planning details until the last week...but something tells me that will never happen. My trips may always be immediately preceded by an exercise in stress management, but somehow everything always comes together and the trip goes off without a hitch.

Right now the hammock in my room is filled with various items I have gathered that have yet to be sorted, cataloged, and packed, an empty suitcase that will (hopefully) fit everything, and a packing list that my dad drew up while suffering through a meeting. (Trip planning is a group effort, after all). There are many things to do, of which one is to make a to-do list. But I have faith that everything will be done and am shooting for next Saturday, the day before I leave, to be one of peaceful mental preparation, with all of the physical preparations checked off of the upcoming to-do list. Lets see how it goes...