Gearing up, almost ready to go.

So in the original plan for the day I was going to blog a bit here and there, keep a tally on the myriad of feelings, thoughts and emotions I've been feeling throughout packing and preparing for the big trip. A sort of live-blog account of my various ramblings and scramblings around my apartment. Instead it's almost 11:00 and I'm in my mom's basement tapping away on my brother's computer, wiped out and a little tipsy on a a glass and a half of wine.

Oops. Oh well...my day was most likely not interesting enough to justify minute-by-minute updates but I must say that it has been quite a unique and exciting day--really, how often does one get to pack for a 3-month stint in another country? And not just sight-seeing and staying in hotels doing the tourist thing but getting hot, sweaty and dusty poking around a rocky, bug and thorny plant-infested hill? Not enough, imho.

It all really started last night when I was vacuuming the front rooms in preparation for the party tomorrow (Friday) when mom came in and informed my that brother was at that very moment sitting in the garage in the car I was counting on using tomorrow to schlep myself up to the far north side and schlep all my bags and gear back down. Suffice to say that this was a bit of a S.N.A.F.U. in the full military sense--mom and I spent the next few hours figuring out what to do. After setting up plans A and B, and settling on E, an angel came in on a cloud of champagne and clove cigarettes smoke and offered the use of her car. Thank you Jill! And mom as well, for pulling all the strings. --blows kisses-- And Al as well, for offering me the 7:30 slot when I needed it!

Anyways, after getting little sleep I woke up early this morning, made coffe, got myself and other paraphernalia together and headed over to Jill's. Her roommate Gavin gave me the keys off I went in what was affectionately referred to as "Blue Cloud"--a big ol' hunk of Grand Marquee love that apparently doesn't work in "inclement weather" i.e. a quarter of an inch of snow. Of course, it was my luck that it was supposed to snow today--and it did. Thanks Chicago!

Once at my apartment I set about locating my archaeology tools bestowed by my grandfather, himself an archaeologist. His gift included a Marshalltown trowel--the Cadillac of trowels--two measuring sticks, some bamboo pick tools which work great in sandy/soft soil and around delicate artifacts such as human remains, and a kick-ass 70s engineer compass. Unfortunately we had packed the box with all the supplies in a box unknown somewhere in the basement. Thankfully, Verguei remembered that we had packed it in a small box. Combining his powers of memory and my powers of deduction I was able to locate it on the first try, in a small box labled "stuff".

Once the precious archaeology gear had been located it was time to pack up everything else. Initially, I had envisioned taking my camping backpack, my bookbag and my yellow purse only. But once the camping backpack became stuffed with clothes and I still had a myriad of things scattered about my feet it quickly dawned on me that my original packing strategy had woefully underestimated the shear amount of stuff I had accumulated in preparation for a 3-month trip. On top of that, somethings had been left back at my mom's house. Darn. I made do by getting most everything together then threw everything that didn't quite have a place yet into a duffel bag. There. Problem solved--when I got back to my mom's of course.

In between packing I played my all-time favorite computer game Civilization 4 and watched awful TV, ate and napped and played with the cats. All the while looking out the window and fretting that the snow would stick to the ground and we'd have five inches and I wouldn't be able to get Jill's car out and then I'd have to take our car and then Verguei wouldn't have a way...blah blah blah. But, some god out there must be feeling charitable to me because though it snowed quite fiercely throughout the day the snow never stuck to the ground but melted instantly. Hurrah! I was a bit worried as the day worn on and cooled, but thankfully the concrete was so heated from continuous traffic--I suppose--that it was simply too warm.

Now my Thursday is over, and Friday is fast approaching. I have about 35 hours left till I fly to Mexico. It's hitting my slowly...I think when I pack my toothbrush away on Saturday morning it will all finally sink in--ya know, cause that's always the last thing one packs before a trip.