Packing Away...
This is a big trip for me in a variety of ways. My first trip home in a long time, my first time away from Ana for any length of time, etc. etc. Both are weighing heavily on my mind.
I just pulled out my stash of dollars - only about $90 or so in various bills. It tells you how long away from home I've been that DOLLARS SEEM WEIRD. Now, how can that be? I used dollars for all my life and have only been here for a few years. But still, they seem big and the same color. And my mind is like "how much are these worth? A dollar is, uh, a dollar!" Very strange.
I have a Palm modem. I also have a Palm keyboard. I'm bringing both, I think, but even though the keyboard will be good for typing up thoughts on the airplane or in the hotel, I can't imagine for a moment the usefulness of my modem. I don't have an ISP in the U.S. and even if I did, spending a zillion dollars on the phone in the hotel connecting or in the Airport is pretty dumb. I just can't imagine any moment where a Palm modem will come in handy. Maybe in some McGyver like situation where I'm trapped by a snow-storm and I need to rewire the modem to save our lives or something...
Here's the eternal question: How many clothes do I bring for a week away? Should I bring enough underwear for just 7 days, or extras "just in case"? I mean, my boxers take up a suprisingly large amount of room... I mean, 7 boxers, 7 teeshirts, 7 pairs of socks, 4 pairs of pants, 5 shirts (one for each day in the office) and my small roll-away is packed.
Itinerary: Leave Madrid 6:20 a.m. tomorrow (KLM). Arrive in Amsterdam at 9:10 a.m., Leave Amsterdam at 10:55 a.m. (NorthWest), arrive in Seattle at 12:15 p.m., leave Seattle at 2:30 p.m. (Horizon) arrive in Redmond, Oregon at 3:40 p.m. If you add 9 hours in time difference that means I arrive at almost 1:00 a.m. Madrid time, 19 hours later. JOY.
My carry on is ridiculously chock-full of electronics and accessories. MP3-CDROM, Gameboy, Palm, Palm-keyboard, CDs, Games, and a paperback. My eye-shades and neck-rest (super-important).
I don't normally drink, but getting blasted on a plane is a great way to make the hours fly by. 2 or 3 little bottles of wine and time just zips. But 19 HOURS is a hell of a long time to maintain a drunk...
I'm SUCH a Ritalin child, as I explained, I'm preparing a zillion things to do to keep myself busy. Being cooped up (I'm 6'2") in small airplane seats for such a long time is torture to me. To everyone, I know, but to me especially. I tried to download a book to listen to via Audible.com but I'm having trouble getting my CD-ROM burner to work! That sucks! I was hoping to listen to Grisham's new Christmas book while blasting away on my gameboy. I was also thinking about downloading John Adam's bio also because even though I've bought the book, I'm not lugging that bad boy across the ocean with me AND the audio is like 7 hours which'll take up quite a bit of the flight...
Okay, back to packing.
-Russ
Later... Cool. I'm all done packing and now I'm burning a few CDs for my trip. I got the Audible thing working and I want to burn a few more of my CDs as I'm sick of the ones I've got burnt now. ;-)