4 hours and counting till I leave

Emily, as the comments box required me to sign in to respond to your question, I thought it would be good to make a post dedicated to letting you know... as that was taken care of in the subject line I can move on with my life.

For the past few days I've been madly rushing around trying to get everything done and see people before my journey takes me to the other end of the world. I feel like I'm dying or have some terminal disease. It doesn't help that my brain keeps giving me lovely nightmares that have made sleep sporadic at best and nonexistent at worst.

My days have been full and I think I'm making the attempt to exhaust myself so I'll sleep through the night. Yesterday I mowed my neighbour's lawn for the last time, went for supper with some people I became friends with in Italy, went to another friend's birthday and then went to watch the stars with another friend on the hood of his car with a blanket. I fell asleep a few times watching the twinkling lights. I'm really interested to see the extreme differences between the constellations I'll be able to see. I'll see the Southern Cross for the first time.

With all this capering about I've also had to give up my car, and I'm back to driving the old Astro van that I had back in high school. I hadn't realized how much I had missed it. I know exactly what to do with the massive weight and how to make tight turns even if it's thought to have no turning radius at all. I can drive a brick and I love it. It basically has been summing up my thoughts these past few days before I go. I've just been enjoying my time, driving around town and going through the routines of day to day life with a comfortable nostalgia. Every place and action has at least 5 memories to go with it. Even going to get a sandwich late at night and just knowing where and when I'm going to have a place to sleep... Soon I'm going to be lost and in entirely unfamiliar places... I'm terrified and equally jubilant!

As a side note, I spent tonight with my good friend Christine and thanks to her question I now know that it would in fact be a shorter trip from the earth to the Space Station than it would be from Canada to New Zealand... Not that that says much as they are only ever really ~350 km from the earth at any given time. I don't know why I expected it to be further than that, and even that is pretty impressive seeing as they're straight up. So now I know, and you know and I can get to sleep. Packing done, batteries charged, tickets... tickets... I should go find those tickets. Night!

Anxiety/Bipolar Packing... screw it... no wait...

I've been packing and repacking everything. This feels like too much and that feels like too little. Where will I store anything I pick up along the way? Do I take along books to read? I've packed 4 books, is that too many?

I still need to make a bed slip so I can sleep well away from bed bugs. Getting attacked by those little guys once in my travels was enough for me.

Thanks to some youtube videos I've been getting good tips and thinking about my pack in a different way.

I've just finished reading Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne and have been thinking how fantastic it would be to pack like Phileas Fogg and only take 2 shirts and some socks in a bag. Then again he wasn't actually experiencing any of the places he was going to. He was just staying on the boats and trains. He wasn't even looking at the places for the most part... I must remember to pace my shutterbug tendencies when I get over there.

I just can't go unprepared...
Still need to read through more of my guide books...

Too many things in various directions.

Packing and preparing mentally

I'm going away soon and I feel both overly prepared and under prepared... I think it has something to do with getting things done but not being able to just go do the things I need to do. Parents. Mentally you think I'll get done this that and the other things... in reality you get pulled off to do three other jobs and then a reprimand for not taking your trip seriously... But who cares right? Oh how I wish I could stop caring.

I feel the urge to simply list off all the items I've set aside for packing to see if I've missed anything. But no, I'm going to take everyone's advice and just do what I need to do and if I forget something then just pick it up there.

Still to do:
Finish packing, read guide books, read emails of advice so I can act on them before leaving, check on restrictions and vaccines that might be needed, mow lawns... I thought I was done with that job???, send a thank you note, buy extra batteries and tech stuff, find my compass, return a whack load (technical term) of books I've borrowed over the year(s).

Best get back to it!