And I'm out!

Everything is packed and loaded, and I'm off to the NOLS branch in Conway, WA. We'll spend all day Friday packing gear and rations, then fly out on Saturday.

Wish me luck!

But before I go, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has supported me both emotionally and fiscally. I'll miss you all, but I know that the time will just fly by and before I know it I'll be home just in time for Christmas.

...entering radio silence: one month...

A little preview

This is what the next three and a half months of my life looks like, all piled into an incredibly large hockey bag. That's right. A hockey bag. Turns out that instead of paying $300 for department store luggage you can buy an 8,000+ cubic centimeter goalie bag for $40. Eat that, Macy's. And it even passed the official test: I can zip my entire self up in this bag (it was also a test of how much I trusted my roommate to unzip the bag and let me back out).

It's getting so very down to the wire and it's funny because I find myself deliberating over the silliest of decisions as if I were really deciding between cutting the blue or the red wire. I'm sure that in the scheme of things it really doesn't matter whether I buy the lavender or the apricot scented all-natural hippy deodorant (I'm going to end up smelling awful either way), or if I should choose the Ziploc or the Rubbermaid brand of plastic bowl. But something about my high expectations and apprehensions that makes even the most basic choices seem life-altering, as if my choice in sunblock brands will make or break this trip.

Whatever. I'm going. So I'll just figure it out along the way.