T Minus 4 days

Yeah, that gets the official holy shit. I feel like I have a million things to do, a million special family moments to cram in, and what am I doing? Sitting at a coffee shop, trying to fix my ipod (which very inconveniently lost all of my music last night) and writing on my blog. Who needs the DMV and REI anyway right?

I think one of the things that made this physical move the easiest is that my brother is taking over the rest of my lease. That means I get to leave my bed and bookcase for him and all sorts of things. That's made things soooo much easier. Oh yeah, and I don't have to dish out 3 1/2 months of rent.

My bedroom is kind of ridiculous right now. There's my big ole backpack in the middle, surrounded by everything I'm bringing, surrounded again by massive amounts of clutter. It's like a mine field. I almost slipped on a roll of packing tape yesterday. That would have been the end of me (not over-dramatizing or anything).

I went bike-camping Tuesday night. It slightly freaked me out that for one night I pretty much brought as much stuff as I'm going to be bringing for 27 months. I guess I don't have to bring a sleeping bag and sleeping pad to Suriname, but still. By the way, for any camping types in Wisconsin, the Kickapoo Valley Nature Reserve is pretty awesome.

I recently found out that we'll most likely find out our actual sites after the first week in country. That's pretty crazy (in a good way). Ok, I should really get started on my day. I have for too much to do right now. This may just be the last entry until I'm in country. So, hasta Suriname (my Dutch/Sranan Tongo aren't that good yet, so Spanish will have to do for now).

lots of paperwork

I feel a bit bogged-down by paperwork. I'm usually the type that procrastinates any kind of paperwork until the last possible minute. Unfortunately, with Visa and Passport forms, there's kind of a deadline. I'm pretty sure I was about 2 weeks late for everything I was supposed to send. Ooops, sorry Peace Corps!

My last day of work was on Thursday. It definitely feels pretty great to be done. 3 1/2 years at shopbop was just about enough for me. It was a cushy job, but I was getting pretty sick of it. And now I can get everything done that I need to before leaving and see family and friends.

I'm flip-flopping between being super freaked out about going and being super excited. I guess that's somewhat natural, or at least I hope it is. I was feeling pretty guilty about not just feeling 100% pure excitement. But then some people I love very much reminded me that it's very natural to be freaking out a bit. When I was moving to Spain my sophomore year of college, my Dad gave me a nice little nugget of wisdom. He said that if I wasn't sad about leaving people I love, it says bad things about the people I'm leaving. Or something like. Ha, he said it way better. I'm an expert at retelling things very badly.

Anyway, time to start my taxes. Back to the procrastination thing.