how the hell did we do this before the internet?!

Wow. I'm so glad I've spent my last few days in Prague in front of a computer. I spent two FULL days researching and booking hotels/hostels for our 24-day extravaganza (which could actually be considered a 26-dayer, since we'll be shacking up in hotels on the nights before and after our friends' wedding). Two full days.

All said and done, we decided to spend an extra ~$10/per person per night to have a double room. $250 total to not wake up to drunkies, loud snoring or nekkid dorm dwellers? Count me in.

Now that I've wrapped up the bookings, I'll be blitzing Prague to do all the last-minute touristy things that I've put off for so long: paddle-boating on the Vltava, feeding ducks/geese, a beer garden, and a museum or two. Oh yeah, and one last trip to Pizzeria Kmotra. Because that's Czech cuisine.

Next project = packing. Ugh. Although it'll be much easier here, since all of my worldly possessions won't be at my fingertips, I do have a LOT to part with. Luckily, my Mom and the Stepdad will coincidentally be in Munich at the same time we are, and they're graciously taking a suitcase containing stuff labled I-can't-live-without-this-but-don't-want-to-schlep-it-through-nine-countries. Still, how does one accumulate so much crap!?!?!

planning…it’s what I do…

At a prompting from my (fellow over-planning) stepfather, I think I’ll give you just a taste of the various lists, spreadsheets and notes I’ve kept over the past few months, in preparation for the impending trip:

Excel…
I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I have at least 12 worksheets within my ‘2009 Abroad’ spreadsheet. What the hell do I have twelve sheets of, you ask?! From my packing list (act surprised…) to budget to a list of ‘don’t forgets’, I have carefully documented just about every penny I’ve spent pre-trip, so that I can easily have Excel calculate just how much of my budget is left. I’ve created an emergency contact sheet for my and Rob’s parents, complete with Summer’s info, just in case. I have weather comparisons (including the temps of Saratoga, for judgment purposes), I have check boxes, I have color-coding, the only thing I don’t seem to have is a diagram of exactly how I’ll lay out my things in the ONE suitcase I’ll get to take. I’m kind of a geek.

One of my various excused for (over-)using Excel is that I can easily play with the worksheets in my cubicle without actually appearing to be slacking off at work. To people walking by, it’s fairly obvious that I’m doing something in Excel, but folks just assume that its work related. It’s not.

Post-It’s…
I may single-handedly be keeping 3M afloat, since I’ve gone through pads and pads of Post-Its. I think of something, and compulsively write it down. Then I think of something else, so I add that. With all of the teeny tiny things I’ve thought of (or, as Rob might call it, created) for myself to do, I end up with like 12 sheets going at once. So then…I type stuff into one of my various Excel worksheets. It all comes full circle, my friends…

The binder…
Summer’s favorite part: not only do I keep crap electronically, I also have a full-on BINDER dedicated to this trip. Colorful labeled tabs, sheet protectors, even one of those 3-ring pencil pouches right out of 6th grade. I happily schlep the binder with my laptop to coffee shops, to work, and drag it into the house every night. It holds flight info, budget notes, lists of things to consider (ex: contacts in various countries; get Kal to the vet; take one laptop or two on the trip?) It even has two different maps of Europe, since I couldn’t tell you where the hell Austria or Budapest are...

The moral of the story is: I over-plan. However, in my own defense, I’d like to point out my attention to detail, and that DO people benefit from how anal I can be...just don’t ask me to plan anything for a LOOOOONG time after this.

preparation...or not...

Rather than worrying out about all the random little crap that I have to get done in the next week, I went to an SJSU gymnastics meet with Sum tonight. Something about watching little (or not so little, thanks to several months of beer intake...but hell, it is college!) ladies swing and bend and flip around is rad, especially when capped off with a carne asada burrito and orange sauce.

Totally avoiding the fact that I have to pack? Probably. Currently sitting at Frozo's? Why, yes. Yes, I am. Got nothing productive to say but love my new blog, so I want to play with it all the time? Uh-huh. I PROMISE, the posts will get better when I have more to do than just work and plan and clean and pack. Once I'm there, you're in for it...in the meantime, you're stuck with this crap. You're welcome.

the countdown continues

So, as of today, I’ll have one whopping week left as an employed individual. Feels weird, I won’t lie. I’ve been given my list of ‘last projects’ to wrap up in the next week, and it’s quite extensive. So why do I have time to blog, then? Um, because EVERYTHING at here is done as a committee. As usual, I’m currently waiting on someone else (let’s call him/her ‘person A’) to make a decision, so we can talk to someone else about the decision that person A made, so we can talk to person C about the decisions that persons A and B made, and we can go around and around and around for the next week before freaking out and making a last-second decision that will inevitably cost us more because of our procrastination. The best part: the decision is, 95% of the time, the ORIGINAL freaking decision. Ugh.

As those of you lucky enough to deal with me on a daily basis know, I’m nearing the ‘freaked out’ phase. It seems like no matter how much I get done in preparing for this trip, something else always pops up or goes wrong. I’m about ready to throw up my hands and say "eff it, I’m not planning anything else or being a responsible adult". We’ll see how things go this weekend with partially packing up Casa Saratoga.

Other that that, I think I’m getting excited to go. It’s like planning a big party though…you hope that after all the preparations, it doesn’t suck. I seriously, seriously doubt that it could even remotely suck.

Maybe I’m not nearing ‘freaked out’ phase…maybe I’m already there. Hope that it’s a VERY, VERY short phase…

oh, skype...

So my stepdad's been harassing me/us to get Skype loaded onto our computers so we can talk for cheap while abroad, cuz its super cheap and stuff...well, we finally gave in. Since Rob's in China right now (where it's "just like San Jose, except no one speaks English"), we had a chance to check out Skype's abilities today. ITS EFFING RAD. I got a tour of the hotel room, got to see the view of the lovely city of Beijing, and got to help the boys figure out what time it was there.

(ps: so I'm not the best blog-writer, although I certainly read enough of them. I certainly don't have the typical sassy style that Sum and I share down...yet. I'll get there....just you wait.)