Getting ready to go

People keep asking me if I’ve packed yet.  No.  I don’t pack in stages.  I need my stuff, thanks.  Tonight I am packing… or I will pack soon since I’ve finished my laundry and I’m done shopping for things like new sneakers and granola bars.  My Nano is charging, songs are loaded and my trip books are still in the bag from when I bought them.

I admit I’m an overpacker, though.  I’m one of those people that thinks if I leave something behind I’m going to need it desperately while I’m away.  I never do, I just like to be safe.  :)

Up until yesterday, I had NO prep done for my trip, other than buying the Nano a couple of months ago (rationale: longer battery life than my shuffle) and some books last week.  Not proper trip books, though.  About half of them are keepers which means I’m going to have to haul them home once I’ve read them.  Diana Wynne Jones has a new book out!  How could I abandon it in a foreign country?  Yesterday I finally bought some yen.  I now have 80,000 yen which sounds like sooo much money until you do the math (it’s about $830 Canadian).  I went shopping for crap last night after work.  Today I did laundry.

I think I just haven’t had the time to really build up excitement for going to Japan.  I only asked Amy if I could go visit at Christmas, then after I found out a good time for her and asked for the time off I realized that I was going away during our fiscal year end at the hospital.  Oops.  Yes, the accounts keeper, bill payer and book buyer for the library is skipping off from work during the only time of the year that I HAVE to do my job within a certain time frame.  Fortunately my boss was still cool with me going, and I’ve been working like a dog the past few weeks to make sure that not only are the invoices all completed, but all books have been bought and received.  For everyone.  I also buy books for several departments in the hospital so I sent around a heads up that if they wanted me to buy them stuff before year end they had to do it NOW!!!  (Of course one person decided to just give me the subjects of books that she wanted instead of actual titles so I had to fit in attempting collection development for a library I don’t work in.  Fun.  I think I did a good job, but it would have been nice to have the time to do it properly.)

So now I’m getting ready to pack (and dig out my passport) and hopefully somewhere in there it starts to sink in that I’m going Back To Japan!!  Where apparently I’ll be fingerprinted for the first time in my life.  Huh. 

I will most likely post when I arrive (I’m flying to Tokyo then switching planes to get to Komatsu) since I am under orders from my boss to email as soon as I arrive safely.  She had her “mom” voice on so I don’t think I have a choice there.  I’m going to try to blog a little more while I’m there since last time I think I mostly stuck to emailing people.  Pictures will come after.

Okay, I think I’m starting to get excited now….

I’m also wondering if I’ll get to fly on the Pokemon plane this time too.  That was completely awesome.

(Today’s theme: brackets)