Luggage storm!

The day before a trip, as you probably know, should not to be confused with the eye of a vacation storm, or even the calm before the storm. It is, in fact, a messy part of the swirling hurricane-y vortex of the whole vacation experience. The planning, packing, weighing of suitcases, and general running around that goes into leaving the country for a month pours out before the actual eye of the storm. Which is, if you think about it, probably that time when you're just sitting in the airport with nothing to do but wait.

I'm anxious. My brother called tonight, and said, So are you nervous? And I said, Well, yeah, I'm sort of a mess. He said, I knew it, I know you too well. So I'm what my family and friends consider "high-anxiety," however, I'm also an intense procrastinator, which only adds to my stress.

All in all, though, pretty much everything is done. I just need to double-check absolutely everything, finish some last minute laundry, do some last minute shopping, and oh yeah, a few more pages to read for class... but I have this vague buzzing filling my head, making it impossible for me to concentrate. I'm filled up with a prickly sense that I'm missing, forgetting something or not doing something extremely critical to my survival in France.

It doesn't help that I'm also at work right now, trying to be careful about my job, but also imagining that my suitcase will have to be re-packed or something once I get home. At this point, I can pretty much imagine all of my favorite things suddenly becoming filthy or unwearable while my French phrase book inches underneath the couch... my brain has become a hive of bees. I need something to calm me down, but what?

The next two days will be difficult: I fly all night to get to Paris around noon, and am the very last student to arrive (it was a cheap flight and had the fewest layovers, so I had to go with it); then, there's customs and baggage claim followed by a 4-hour bus ride to Dijon. All in all, it's a solid 24 hours of travel ... in the same clothes. But by the end of my world-traveling weekend, I will be in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. I can't imagine it now, as I sit in a flourescent, yellowy newsroom with green, faded, stained carpet, typing away on a sticky keyboard and waiting for funeral homes to send me gritty faxes ...

Le sigh. One more day, one more long night, and I'll be on my way. Gotta get these last death notices done before I go.

One last notice:
Dateline: Tulsa
Boredom, Ennui Frustration, 27, liaison to Jennie Lloyd and general contractor for her days and nights, died Thursday. Service 5:01 p.m. Tulsa International Airport Terminal, and graveside service 11:20 a.m. Friday, Charles De Gaulle Airport, Paris, France. Adventure Funeral Home, Dijon.