one week out

We fly out in a week! We have most of the big items taken care of -- plane tickets, passport, vaccinations, visas -- but this of course leaves a thousand smaller things to do. I have to stop by the job I just quit (amicably) to pick up my final paycheck this morning. Then Ann and I are having a farewell lunch with her coworkers and students. Then a meeting with someone from Kiva.org, a microloan organization based here in San Francisco. That should be interesting. Kiva lets people make direct microloans to individuals overseas, so maybe we can connect them with the organization we'll be working with (RELUFA) in some useful way. Or maybe I can just grab a cup of coffee with someone who had the nerve to start a charitable organization, which wouldn't be all bad either.

No picture for this entry. We haven't left yet. Plus, if you're reading this, you probably have a good idea of what San Francisco looks like already.

Then there's the job of picking out a few books to bring, ripping more CDs to bring along to listen to (it is a whole year, after all), figuring out car and renter's insurance while we're gone, some last-minute acting work I couldn't resist, and lots of last-minute goodbye dinners and drinks. Ann's wondering what shoes to bring. I wonder about finding a hat that doesn't make me look like a frat boy, Southern Baptist or Travel Channel host. We continue to pack up things in the house to get them out of the way for our friend who will stay here while we're gone. I need to pick up some 240v adapter plugs for our laptops. It's all frantic but lots of fun.

Yesterday was my last day at work. Was that ever exhilarating. Nothing feels quite like quitting a job. It's that scary, walking-along-the-edge-of-a-cliff feeling, like getting away with something you're not supposed to do. I hope to go back there once the trip is finished, if they can use me, so it was friendly, but it's still an illicit thrill. I hope to do some coding on open-source projects while we're over there, though. I'd miss programming too much to give it up for a year.