Living for the Other...

I think I've done it, I think.

I am a good packer, I might even be tempted to call myself an olympic packer if that was an olympic category. However, this has been a packing marathon and I feel like I've only ever trained for a 5K. I mean the experience is so challenging that I'm reverting to using running metaphors even though I've never run anywhere in my whole life. I've been places, but never for so long, and never with so vague a knowledge of my destination. So is packing an experiement in futility? mmm probably.

With that in mind, here is an unexhaustive list of what I've attempted to pack: clothes (many), nine pairs of socks, toothbrush, family size bottles of shampoo and body wash, the DVD "My Cousin Vinny", two light jackets and one winter coat, a large bottle of pepto bismol, three pairs of shoes, underwears (in both standard and long varieties), a measuring cup, three scarves, a clock, various books including "when you give a mouse a cookie" and "the night before China", vaseline, one Apache blanket, a can opener, a chinese phrasebook, two bottles of sunscreen, a picture that my grandma used to keep on the back of her toliet of a ridiculously sad looking dog, three pairs of pjs, lots of photos (one in particular of a woman named Natasha which never fails to drive me into fits of giggles), a hairbrush, an eight month supply of deoderant (when I run out I'll just have to use what the natives do, whatever that is), cow salt and pepper shakers, and did I mention more clothes?

If only I could find a way to get that ceramic squirrel named sparky who sits on his large ceramic nut to fit...

Yet, somewhere in the midst of the futility and the chaos, the lists, the things that simply will not be coming, and all of the forgotten things that I will need desperately and remember acutely the moment my feet hit the ground in China, nothing is more exciting to me than zipping up those bags. And yes, they do zip up with minimal effort.

It's for real now. And in about three days whatever gets left out of those bags will have one year in North Carolina without me. Don't worry North Carolina, the year will go by quickly...

On a side note, I do think there's a little room for a few faithful and adventuresome friends to tuck themselves in... oh wait there's a weight limit on the bags... speaking of which, probably ought to check that...

In a gesture of politeness, first welcome to my blog.

Second, be fully aware reader that I have no idea what this is going to be like.