ten

In 10 days, I will be heading down to Harrisonburg, Virginia. Granted, I'm not exactly getting on a plane and leaving for South Africa in only ten days... but still! Ten days. This is it. I have 10 days to pack, 10 days to work, 10 days to tie things up here in Cooperstown. In 10 days it begins.

Is my stomach twisting into knots? Uhhh... YES.

I really need to crack down and focus on packing now. The only problem with that is that I need to squeeze it in between working a full-time job and finishing up my Covenant assignment. By the way, I decided to read "the brick" again. Am I crazy? Probably. I wanted to refresh my mind and gain a better understanding of the material.
Oh, and take notes, which I neglected to do the first time around. Silly me. In any case, I'm already about 530 pages into it and am hoping to have the other 700ish finished in another 4 days or so. Then I have to actually write my paper. Sometimes I find myself wondering if reading the book through again is a method of procrastination I came up with so that I don't need to write my paper right now. But... the little voice inside my head is telling me I'm doing it so that I'll have an easier time writing my paper when it comes time to do that. We'll see.

Back to packing though. The good news is I actually whipped up a packing list at the beginning of the summer. This has turned out to be one of the smarter decisions I've made in life, seeing how I would not want to be stuck doing such a thing this coming week (since I'll be so busy working). The issue right now is fine-tuning it and actually attempting to start packing. I need to figure out just how and where I want to pack things. I have a general idea, but thinking and doing are two different things right?

Can you tell my head is spinning right now? It is.

Ok, wait. Do you want to know what's really bothering me right now? Laundry. Laundry and cleaning. I really need to wash my clothes and clean my room before I start to think about packing. Don't ask me why... it's just a tick I have. A weird, annoying, bothersome tick. Before I pack, I clean. So now on top of worrying about working, reading, writing, and packing, I must also think about cleaning my room and doing laundry. Help.

I am starting to feel not ready for this at all. Please excuse me while I go have a little freak out moment.
WHERE DID THE SUMMER GO? How did I get here? Wait - who am I? ... Is this real life? Augh!
Ok, I'm back.

In case you would like to know, the reason I'm going down to Harrisonburg a little early is because I want to reconnect down there before I actually leave. I want to spend more time with my friends, get involved with Aletheia Church again, and (quite possibly the most exciting part) help out my brother and sister-in-law with my new nephew! Wheee! I'm really, really hoping to have my paper at least MOSTLY finished by the time I go down there so that I can use as much time as possible to just chill out. I am getting so nervous, it's driving me crazy. I need to stop and take a few deep breaths... buuuut there's a lot I need to do before I can treat myself to that!!

I would really love if any of you have packing tips or suggestions for me. Ideas for what to add to my packing list? Fire away, if you feel so led. I am open to any input. Seriously. Also, if you could be praying for me that would be awesome. I would love to feel better prepared for this trip. I think a big part of the reason I'm feeling so nervous right now is because of things I failed to do this summer (i.e. devotions, getting in shape, finishing my book/paper NOT last minute, etc... you know, basically all my summer goals), but that doesn't mean I can't handle things better now that they are the way they are.

Countdown to take-off: 23 days. must. not. panic.