Ready! (Almost...)

Apart from bras and a watch, I am packed.

The lawn is mowed and laundry is finishing as I write.

Dad arrives today - we'll need to grocery shop and print out a couple of pages I need for the trip. Oh, and get cash. He should then be all set for 10 days of housesitting.

My out of office reply is drafted, complicated by the fact that most of my group is also traveling right now so it's hard to direct urgent requests anywhere. Yet, "We're all away - hang in there and wait." doesn't seem professional.

I have a small notebook containing every detail of travel and business meetings. It took me nearly an hour but I know exactly how I'm getting places and what to do once I arrive. I'm much more relaxed now.

I planned my trip to Europe earlier this year and it was grueling. Beyond wonderful, of course, but I was on a plane and in a different hotel daily and working 10 hour days in addition to keeping up with email from home. Having the Asia team organize this trip means that I have a couple of meetings each day, all transportation arranged and luxurious hotels booked. (Some of them even have forks! I'm not so good with chopsticks.) The point is that I'm pretty relaxed about the schedule - there's time to rest and look around!

My Tokyo guidebook is in my suitcase. And both camera batteries are fully charged.

After telling Adam I was fine on my own and he should do whatever he wanted, we're on the same flight to Korea and staying at the same hotels in Japan. I enjoy my boss very much and look forward to exploring Tokyo with him and admit I'm relieved he'll be with me in Seoul. Still, contrary individual that he is, I know had I begged him to arrange his trip around me, he'd have done something else. (Because when I was terrified of Asia last year, he did just that. He's a silly goose.)

While I've been resting and practicing being as absolutely comfortable as possible in preparation for the 4+12+3 hours I'll be on planes, I've been reading new blogs. This made me laugh until I could barely breathe. I highly recommend Hyperbole and a Half.

So tomorrow I leave - very early Sunday morning. And I arrive late Monday evening. While traveling halfway around the world still strikes me as strange and somewhat terrifying, I'm proud to announce that I'm mostly excited. Yay for growing up!