Indonesia Trip - Day 0
The anticipation is starting to build, has been for several hours now. Ever since getting off work at 2:00 this afternoon, we've spent just about every minute preparing for the trip. Cats taken to their temporary foster home, rent paid in advance for next month, temporary hold on the mail, gas and electric bills that had been neglected for a few days taken down to the 7-11 and paid. All that taken care of, it was back home to start packing. Naomi had spent the morning organizing what needed to be brought, but there were plenty of last-minute decisions, finding all the odd bits and pieces of electronics, debating over which accessories we actually needed... packing is more difficult when you're both something of a techno-geek. Then there's the forecasting of what the weather will be like (hot), how often we'll be swimming and hiking (lots), what sort of places we'll eat out at (all of them), and the clothing decisions that go along with all that. For me it was easy. One pair of shorts, one pair of jeans, a bathing suit, and a few shirts and other necessities. For my better half, not quite so easy. But I've gotten pretty good over the years at helping her through this arduous and agonizing process of selecting clothes for a whole two weeks away from home, and it went fairly smoothly. (Yes, dear, I think you would look amazing in that. You should definitely bring it.)
Gifts for people we'll be visiting with, passports (somehow we need 3 of them for 2 people... yay, Navy), leave papers, orders for getting back into Japan, enough cash to exchange into rupiah, toiletries, all the right books on the Nook, movies on the Nexus, TV shows on the iPad, and audiobooks on the iPhone (yeah, there's definitely a iOS/Android split in this family). Somewhere in the middle of all that I remembered that I'd forgotten a few things back on the ship (I live in this weird limbo between the house and the ship... half of my stuff still hasn't made it home), so that was a cold hour walking down and back.
I think we're just about settled now, though. Naomi is just putting the final touches on her iPod, and I'm, well, I'm writing this. Last decision for the night is whether to stay up late watching a show or gaming, and thereby be exhausted for the 18-ish hours of travel and sleep on the plane, or to get a good night sleep and be well rested for the morning's beginnings. Looking like we're going to go with the "travel is better when you're passed out" mode. I think I hear Skyrim calling.