Mid-Trip Assessment

Note: I have uploaded two posts today, this one and “I’m Getting Too Old for This.” Don’t forget to scroll down and read both of them!

For those who wonder about how I’m handling a trip like this, I figured a general assessment of how I’m doing in various respects would help to put things into perspective. It’s really NOT impossible and sometimes it seems even more doable in many ways than a 9-5 workday, regular lifestyle!

Physically

Physically I’m doing well. I’ve been fairly sick just once, although I’ve suffered some reactions to foods along the way. The one time I was sick, it was pretty severe for about twelve hours, but full recovery took almost a week and a half, possibly longer. I’ve been fairly consistently plagued by bug bites of varying natures, but nothing serious or infected. Occasionally I get a headache or feel out of it, but am generally recovered by the next day. Twice I’ve felt cold/flu symptoms coming on, but have been able to avoid full-fledged sickness. I twisted my ankle once fairly hard in Thailand, but it was find the next day. I’ve suffered only one mild sunburn.

Mentally/Emotionally

Mentally I’m also doing well, at least, in my opinion! There are days I feel lonely or homesick, but in general that doesn’t last too long. Oddly enough, I find this hits the most when I’m amongst a large volume of other travelers, due in part because many people travel with friends or partners and therefore don’t always reach out to the singles. One hurdle I passed recently was the “I’m not on vacation” realization. For about two months, I enjoyed my travels as I would any vacation. Then, I started to feel antsy, as if I should be getting back to work. The only thing is… I don’t have a job to get back to! It was a strange feeling, almost like I was doing something wrong. It takes regular reminding that it’s all right to be traveling, and to be doing nothing on some days, even! I have not felt depressed or driven to go home immediately. And thus far, I haven’t begun to worry about my future.

Financially

I’m doing all right on my budget. As most of you know, I budgeted fairly high for this trip. I had the great intention of tracking everything I spent and reporting on daily food, lodging and transportation costs. Unfortunately, my dedication flagged after just two weeks of trying this, so now I track my expenditures the easy way: every time I withdraw money from the ATM, I put it into my spreadsheet. This eliminates the hassle of converting the currencies daily as well as remembering every Baht, Reil or Dong that I spend. My mindset is generally that I be frugal but not extra-frugal; that I do the things I really want to do, weighing them against other opportunities that I’ll have in the region; and that the money I put aside for travel is for my trip and if I run out early, then so be it. But, I really hope I don’t run out early!

For those that are curious, here is a general summary of my costs so far.Each country’s costs is an average of the number of days in the country and the total amount spent in that country, to include the transportation for getting there (flight, train, boat, etc), food, accommodations, fun extras, gifts, mail (packages and postcards), toiletries and unexpected costs, like new cameras. Oh, and ATM fees, which have ranged from $0 to $10 per transaction.

• South Korea: 15 days: $71 average per day; overall, well under budget.
  • It’s odd that I spent so much, since I didn’t pay for accommodation for most of the trip. Unexpected costs included a new camera when my old one broke. Big extras were a flight to Jeju Island.
• Hong Kong: 6 days: $89 average per day; overall, slightly under budget.
  • Again, no lodging costs, but Hong Kong is expensive. Big extras included a trip to Macau and a night-time cruise in Victoria Harbor.
• Thailand: 16 days: $92 average per day; overall, slightly under budget.
  • Some lodging costs; traveled with short-term travel friends for half the time; bought lots of souvenirs and some tailor-made clothes; two day trips with a guide.
• Vietnam: 20 days: $58 average per day; overall, well under budget.
  • Paid for all but three nights lodging; shared several nights lodging with another traveler; big extras were a trip to Halong Bay, a new camera when I lost my other new one, and a motorbike trip in the countryside for three days; ate primarily street food.
• Cambodia: 19 days: $30 average per day; overall, WAY under budget.
  • Paid for all lodging; shared several nights of lodging; ate street food and restaurant food; big extras included three-day pass to Angkor, boat trip to Battambang and a boat day-trip in Sihanoukeville.
• Thailand: 2 days: $72 average per day; overall, slightly under budget.

So, as you can see, I’m under budget! So far I think that I’ll be able to keep slightly under budget in Australia and New Zealand, but I’ll really have to be careful on the big extras. There are just so many to choose from: sailboat trips, sky diving, guided day trips, etc. It helps that I’ll be staying with friends for about two weeks in NZ, but after that, we’ll have to see.

Packing

Thus far, I haven’t found anything that I missed packing. There are a few things I haven’t used yet, but nothing that I will send home. I may have to buy some warmer everyday clothes for Australia and New Zealand, because it’s cooler than I expected. My hiking boots are a bit heavy to lug around, but I’m glad that I have them. My electronics have all worked out quite well, although the used cell phone I bought doesn’t hold a charge worth a damn. My hats are the one thing I haven’t used as much as expected. My packs are holding up fine. While fairly unused, my medical kit keeps me feeling safe and comfortable.

Summary

All in all, so far so good! I’ll try to remember to do these mid-trip assessments every three months or so, to see what may have changed!

--Z

Ready to Go!

After a good eight and a half hours of sleep, I'm up and about in the Neiman apartment. My throat hurt slightly, so I drank two steaming cups of tea with lemon and honey in them, first thing. My brain's a little cloudy, but otherwise, I'm excited and ready to start the day. Mara thinks I'm going to crash pretty early, but I'm hoping I can just stay up all day and go to bed at a normal time tonight.

Thanks to my dad, I have my "ready to get backpacking" picture to show you all, with me and my packs just before heading to the airport. Here ya go:

Plan for the day: around noon or a little earlier, we're going to walk to base, which is about a mile and a half away, taking our time and taking in the sights. Well, I'll be taking them in, anyway. Mara and Justin have been here for three weeks already and so are familiar with the area already.

At base I'll get registered and use the community center to print, sign, scan and e-mail back a stupid form which I forgot to sign for a travel voucher (from Air Force days). Also, the base organizes DMZ tours and I want to sign up for one of those, as well as see what else they offer. Then we'll meet Carolyn (Mara's mom) at a noodle shop. The day's pretty open after that. I'm looking forward to taking it all in!

--Z

T Minus 9 hours, 50 minutes

And it's here: my last night in the US! It was a great weekend, with lots of time with the family and all my final "chores" getting done. We had a fabulous meal tonight of goat cheese manicotti with homemade tomato and roasted red pepper sauce, green beans, salad and orange collards. Yum! The whole family was here: mom, dad, Remi and Liz. It was perfect!

As promised, here are my packing pictures. I have the terrible feeling I've way overpacked, but for the life of me I couldn't cut anything out. I'm sure I'll shed on the way, but to start out, I'll be fully prepared!

First up: Clothing.

Top row, left to right: shoe bag (tennis shoes, flip flops, sandals), 2 pr pants, 1 pr shorts, fleece, hats.
Middle row: Skirt, nice shirt, dress, pareo, scarf, nice scarf, silk long underwear, warm undershirt, windbreaker.
Bottom row: 4 t-shirts, 4 tank tops, pajamas (shirt/shorts), light long-sleeve cotton shirt, vacuum bag of underwear/socks/bras/bathing suit

Next up: Stuff.

Top: Day pack (green) and regular pack (blue) with neck pillow attached
Left half of bed, from top: first aid kit (tupperware), toiletries, books, pencil bag (holds journals and important papers), netbook and neoprene sleeve, power adaptor, camera batter charger, cell phone, external hard drive, iPod touch, passport bag, electronics bag (black, white and red bag), eye shade, squishy cups, tissues, travel purse, munchies (dried fruit, Cliff bars, snickers bar), travel towel, soft socks (for airplane, to be discarded), belt.
Right half of bed is all the clothes, rolled

 And finally: Packs, packed.

The only thing not shown is the neck pillow, which will be strapped to the outside of my blue pack. 

The bags are fairly heavy. My estimate is that the gear pack (blue) is about 30-35 pounds and the day pack (green) is about 10-15 pounds.

I plan to shed the airplane socks, two books and of course the munchies, fairly quickly (within a few days/one week of arrival). As for everything else... we'll see!

Tomorrow dad will take a picture of me with my pack(s) on and I'll post that later.

For now, time to get some sleep, if I can, and enjoy my last night in a familiar bed.

Whew!

--Z

Things I Meant to Do

So I had some great ideas of what September would be like, back in August. I would come stay with my parents, relax, take care of last minute travel details, and then lazily enjoy North Carolina. Some of that has come true. Here are some plans of mine that did NOT happen as planned, or at all:

1. Walk two or three miles several times a week. I did this for the first week I was at my parent's house and then not one single time since.

2. Complete all trip planning by the week before departure, so that my last week would be chill. Hah! Today I bought a few things I need and tomorrow I'm meeting a guy selling a cell phone that should work overseas with sim cards. Sunday will probably see me buying last minute items too!

3. Pack at least twice before the final packing, to ensure everything fits. Well, I tossed everything in my pack and freaked out last week, when it didn't all seem to fit. I'm hoping to "practice pack" tomorrow (technically today, but it's still Friday in my head), which will most likely result in unpacking, discarding many things, then repacking.

4. Lose weight and be in shape for the trip. While I may not have gained much weight, I certainly haven't lost any.


Ah, well. It was a relatively good day today. I spent it driving around with my mom, checking out a few last (I hope!) items for the trip: bug spray (at least 20% DEET and preferably time release, according to the travel doc), Permethrin spray (to treat clothes for tick/bug repelling), travel dressy pants, etc. I bought the first two, decided against the third, and bought some Cliff bars to stuff in my pack as "just in case" food.

Two more days here in the US of A, and then it's time to explore the world.

Look out! I'm coming!

--Z

On the Up and Up?

This morning I got up at 8:30am and started making phone calls. I managed to get through four calls (bank, insurance, airline and my old cable company [to check status on my refund check]). It was a good, motivational start to the day. After getting out of my pajamas and into my everyday clothes, I headed over to the local pharmacy, where I paid $172 for:
  *acetozolamide (altitude sickness pills for trekking in Nepal)
  *azithromycin (super-strength stuff for serious traveler's diarrhea that occurs with additional bad symptoms)
  *refaxamine (super-strength stuff for regular, E-Coli related traveler's diarrhea).

Tomorrow I go back to the pharmacy for my Doxycycline (Malaria pills), which will be another $50.

Holy expensive, batman!

Next up was calling the doctor's office to see if they could get me in for two shots: TDAP (apparently Pertussis is making a comeback) and flu shot. They said I could come in anytime and that insurance would cover the TDAP but not the flu shot. Once I got to the doctor's office, and called my insurance, I found out that I'm not covered AT ALL for immunizations. I guess my insurance company would prefer to pay for treatment of actual diseases instead of preventing them. Gr. Since the cost of the TDAP shot was $160 and the flu shot was $125, I decided not to get either.

Maybe that's silly, but here's my reasoning: the travel doctor told me that Pertussis has made a comeback and that TDAP has been a highly recommended immunization for all adults since 2006. But the military docs never said I needed it, to include when I went to the public health office on base and informed them of my travel plans. Then, the Public Health office in Durham, NC, didn't even ask about it a few weeks ago when I got my last Hep B shot. And it's not on the CDC website. So I'm not sure where she's getting her information.

As for the flu shot, I usually get kinda sick after each shot, and since I'll be flying in a few days, sick is the last thing I want. So... no shots.

I pitched a fit after the doctor visit, but it was nothing a bit of used book store shopping couldn't cure! I also went to Radio Shack to ask about power converters (and was given a key piece of info which later helped me determine I didn't need one) and Payless (to check on flip flops, which I've decided not to get until Korea). I asked about unlocked phones at Verizon Wireless and Radio Shack, but was just told to find one locally.

Once home from the mall, I started relaxing - or trying, anyway. One very, very nice thing that happened was a surprise FedEx delivery - for me! My aunt and uncle in Duluth, MN, sent me a wonderful card wishing me well on my adventures, along with a lovely necklace and pendant of Lake Superior. It totally made my day!

This delivery made me think and I realize that I've only been posting my frustrations and none of the nice things. For example, on Sunday night, in Miami, I met and had dinner with long time family friends Eileen and Richard. We originally met when I was ten and got interested in astronomy. I convinced my dad to take me to a nearby public observing event, where the Southern Cross Astronomical Society (SCAS) had members with telescopes. It was the beginning of several good friendships and wonderful years of star-gazing. On behalf of Richard, who is very interested in politics, don't forget to vote (and vote Democrat!) in November's elections! It was a great visit with them, as always!

Me, Richard and Eileen!

On Tuesday, my parents and I ran some errands and then went to Duke Gardens. We walked slowly, stopped to smell the roses and relaxed under a vine-laden gazebo, reading books.

Dad and Mom

Last night, after the travel doctor debacle, the family went out to Crook's Corner, a restaurant my dad and brother had been to before, and enjoyed. Although the table next to us had obnoxiously loud people, the food was awesome and we had a nice time together, chatting and laughing and eating!

Me, mom, dad and my brother, Remi

So although my last few days have been stressful, it's been awesome to have great family and friends to enhance the good things, the things I'm sure to miss when I leave.

And miss them I will!

--Z

Tick, Tock...

The time is going by far too fast. It's already, technically, Thursday, although I'm only about 19 minutes into the day (ie it's Wednesday night still for me).

The week has been good, although my internal stress-meter has been in the red. There's nothing in particular that's stressing me out, just MY ENTIRE FUTURE in general. Ha. Monday and Tuesday were lovely days and even though I was starting to feel my innards scrunch up with worries and fear and doubt, I was doing all right with managing it.

Today, I went to a travel doctor. My expectations were destroyed as I spent two hours with a nurse discussing prescriptions, malaria and other diseases, maps, safety, insect repellant, sunblock and any manner of important travel things. It was actually a pretty good visit, but at $268 (which doesn't include paying for the four prescriptions she wrote me), I'm in a bit of shock. I'll be that way over-prepared backpacker you see, struggling along the road.

That's the other main stressor: packing. I can do it, I'm sure of it, but getting everything I want to take with me for the next year into a 45L pack and a small day pack is going to be tough. The next day or two will have me rolling clothes, deleting things from my packing list, and deciding whether or not that neck pillow is really needed, among other things. Oh, and I realized that I need a power converter (the adaptor I have is awesome - thanks Bev! - but since my few electronics are not dual-voltage, I need the converter too). Things like this keep creeping up on me and I have to figure out what I'm NOT going to take in order to take the new thing.

Oy!

Time to try to sleep. Tomorrow's a busy, busy day of worrying, planning, prepping, running errands and trying to enjoy my family while I'm here!

T minus four days and counting....

--Z

A Nice Day

Quick note: I've edited the packing list spreadsheet to remove the prices.

Today was a nice day! It was a slow start, but eventually dad and I headed to Eno River State Park. We'd heard from one of the vendors at CenterFest, a local art festival, that there was a sort of "water hole" further back than the usual swimming places, so we went on the hunt for it! Turns out it wasn't too hard to find, with a bit of research done beforehand on the internet. We took the "long" way on the way out to the spot, which was maybe three quarters of a mile, probably a bit less. There were three fishermen... and us! We sat and admired the view for awhile before politely telling the closest fishermen that we were going to swim. He told us not to worry about him; honestly, it didn't look like he was having much luck anyway.

Dad being silly by the watering hole.

The water was wonderful! It was a warm day and it felt like high humidity, so even that short hike had us sweating a little bit. The ground was rocky but we managed to to make our way out pretty easily. We swam for about half an hour, checking depths and figuring that the deepest place was only about twelve feet deep. The fishermen kept asking us where the deepest parts were, which was funny. One of them caught a catfish, but it was small and he let it go.

All in all, it was a gorgeous day. I tested out my new travel towel and it worked well enough. We hiked back on a more direct path and headed home. After a good shower and some downtime on the computer (which is when I first saw the "Where the Hell is Matt" blog and video, linked earlier today), we all headed over to my brother's house to watch "Up," which I'd never seen before. He'd hooked up his new 47" LCD TV with an HDMI cable and good DVD player, plus he'd calibrated it all, so the image was awesome. What a sniffly movie!

Then it was home for a nice dinner: roasted chicken, orange-glazed carrots and corn on the cob. Mmmmm!

Yesterday, I submitted my last Air Force compensation paperwork (for moving some of my stuff to NC from DC) online, and I also sent in the correct form to obtain an absentee ballot for Minnesota, where I'm a resident.

Today, I printed out my Prescription Home Delivery forms and I'll put everything together today to send it out by mail.

Things are looking good! I head to Miami on Friday for a quick visit to my grandmother and other family and friends there, and I'll return next Monday. At that point, there'll be just ONE WEEK LEFT! I'm feeling ready, though... mostly.

Yahoo! The excitement is mounting!

--Z

Packing List

So I've been promising to show a packing list and so, here you go. Check out my Offical Packing List, which I'm sure will change a lot during my first month of travel. I don't have pictures yet, but once I get a few last items, I will take some and post them.

Enjoy and please, leave me any comments/thoughts you may have! My goal is to be 30 pounds or under... we'll see!

--Z

Planning Woes

Man, what a rough twenty-four hours!

Things have been going pretty well this week, really. I've figured out cash and medications, for the most part, and made a couple of decisive moves to prepare for those two issues. Somehow, though, I've really had a streak of bad luck since about six o'clock last night!

I'll start with yesterday's accomplishments. Firstly, I woke up feeling better. On Tuesday, I had woken feeling like there was lead in my head, and so I went back to sleep. After puttering around for half the day, I went back to sleep for several hours, puttered around some more, and then went back to bed for the night. As I said, on Wednesday I woke up feeling quite a bit better, if still a little stuffy.

So, I dropped off my car at a nearby Mitsubishi dealership to get an 88-point check and to have the windshield replaced. Then mom and I went out to a few places just to do a little shopping and to get out of the house. We went to Marshall's, Bed Bath and Beyond, and finally to the Dollar Store. I spent $3.23 at the Dollar Store to get a good shower cap (can't hurt), sweater bags (with zippers, to compartmentalize my clothes a bit) and some moist toilettes (for cleaning up abroad when water's not available).

While we were out, the Mitsubishi garage called and recommended that I replace my driver belts and timing belt, because they were showing wear and had a few cracks. Although it was almost a $200 increase, I agreed to it. Side note: while my parents are going to take ownership of my car, and thus pay insurance and regular maintenance costs (gas, oil, etc), our agreement is that I'll pay any major costs that come up. Thus, I figured replacing the belts now, rather than it coming up as an issue during my trip, would be the best option. Note: I only replaced the belts because the mechanics recommended it. This will become important later in the story.

We headed home and then I went to the farmer's market with dad, and "sampled" lots of local breads and cheeses. Yum!

Sometime on Wednesday, I perused the Aetna website. I have an individual plan with them now and wanted to make an appointment to see a doctor to get my prescriptions started. I take two main prescriptions, one for my hypothyroidism and the other is BCP. Aetna absolutely will not cover more than 30 days of a refill per month, so I've had to kinda game the system a bit to figure out how to keep myself supplied while I'm away. Luckily, before I separated from the military, I was able to get 180 days of a refill on the thyroid meds. Unfortunately, they would only give me 90 days of BCP, and since I go through those faster (one pack only lasts me three weeks since I take them continuously) than most, those 12 weeks only last me 9 weeks. You can see why I've started worrying about this ahead of time.

ANYway, on Wednesday I was able to go on Aetna's website, find a nearby doctor, figure out insurance costs of refilling my medications (vs just paying cash) and a few other tidbits of information. I called one of the doctors on their list, set up an appointment, and wrote down the doctor's name address from Aetna's website (this becomes important later in the story too).

Dad drove me to pick up my car from the garage around 5:30pm. The guys there seemed pretty nice and we all chatted and joked for a bit. I have to bring the car back next week, since in order to pass an NC inspection (which my folks will need it to do), I have to replace a little red lens on my back bumper that's been missing for the last seven years. Ah, well. We drove back home, and then dad and I headed out, in my car, to have dinner at the Fish Shack, a place dad likes.

Ten minutes later, I was on the side of the road, trying to figure out what was making that awful racket from under my hood. At first, I thought a branch had gotten caught in the passenger wheel well; that's how loud it was! We soon figured out, however, that one of the newly replaced driver belts hadn't been installed correctly, and part of it had snapped, frayed, and whipped around a bit.

Long story short, I called Morgan Mitsubishi on Hillsborough Road, where I'd had the work done, and luckily reached someone (it was after closing hours) who gave me the number to their tow company. An hour later, dad and I were in the tow truck's cab, headed back to the dealership, where mom picked us up.

Boo, Morgan Mitsubishi. Boo.

We ended up eating dinner at a nearby bar instead of going to the Fish Shack, since we were starving. The burgers and tater tots were pretty good!

That wraps up Wednesday, and the beginning of my bad streak.

Thursday morning, mom and I headed out to the doctor's appointment (my car was still in the shop). We got to the address I had carefully written down from Aetna's website, and lo and behold, there was no such address. After driving around for a bit, trying 411 to get the address for the doctor, reaching his office and finding out that I wasn't in their system at all, we headed home. It turns out Aetna's listing shows the phone number I'd called for several doctors, none of whom are actually at that number!

I called the doctor I'd made the appointment with, rescheduled, and we headed out. When we got there, I realized I didn't have my insurance cards on me. Start another round of telephone tag with Aetna. Finally, getting the Aetna rep to talk to the receptionist seemed to do the trick.

Really, that's the end of the bad streak, but MAN it took all the umph out of me. Too must frustration!

On the plus side, the doctor seemed nice enough and I got the prescriptions I needed. Also, she'll write me a letter of need, showing why I have those meds on me (in case of border patrol checks, emergencies, etc, abroad).

Then we headed to AAA, and I ordered cash from them for South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, just to get me started in each country (especially South Korea, since I arrive pretty late). I also bought traveler's checks as my backup method of getting cash.

We also got my prescriptions started at a nearby (to home) pharmacy, although I bought two refills and an extra prescription with cash instead of through insurance. I also got my other prescriptions on file. Whew! I finally figured out that I have enough on me, now, to last me until early February. My mom will pick up my other prescriptions monthly (or I'll figure out how to get them delivered to her monthly), and she'll send me a big package in January, when I'll be in New Zealand. Thus, I'll be refilled midway through my trip.

Whew!

Last chore was to pick up my car, where the folks were not too apologetic, although they at least acknowledged that they'd made a mistake. Barely, though, and I'll not be returning to their shop (nor will my folks when they have the car).

So, hopefully this starts up my positive streak again, because it's time for some relaxing and all that good jazz!

By the way, I've really wanted to post my packing list, but the best one I have is on my home computer, which I rescued out of storage but has no mouse or keyboard (they were in a separate box). My folks only have wireless, so I need to figure something out. I promise to have that out soon, and hopefully with a picture of everything before I leave!

--Z

A Few Steps Closer

Today I got up early, picked up my brother, and went to my storage location to wait for the movers, who I thought were coming between 8am and 10am. We hung out, chatted, avoided an odd woman who apparently worked there and decided to pull up in the one spot where we were sitting on the curb (there were two other empty parking spots). At 9:30am, I got a call from the moving company saying that the movers wouldn't be there for several hours. When I mentioned that I'd been waiting since 8am, the lady on the phone indicated that oh, no, they would call me when they were close, hadn't they told me that before? Oy.

So, Remi (my brother) and I went to a local place for breakfast called Mad Hatter. I had a simple breakfast of potatoes and eggs, while Remi had a fabulously pretty looking breakfast burrito. We headed back to my parent's house to relax until the movers called. We geeked out a bit, watching (more than once, and in slow motion) the trailer for HBO's "A Game of Thrones," a new tv series coming out in 2011 that is based on George R. R. Martin's "Song of Ice and Fire" series. It looks pretty cool, and if you're into adult fantasy with a bit of magic, kings, queens, eunuchs and knights... take a look and read the series (which is, in fair warning, not yet complete and may never be).

The movers did call and let me know that they'd be there between 11:30am and 12pm. We headed back to the storage area at quarter til noon and soaked up the rays - it was a beautiful, clear, sunny blue day - until noon exactly, when the movers arrived. One hour later, they were done and driving away!

It's official, folks: almost all of my belongings are in a 10'x10' storage place. I really felt, as I rolled the door shut and locked my shiny new lock on it, that this was a major step towards leaving on my trip. A very satisfying step!

The day continued to be a productive one: I got my International Driver's License at AAA, which cost $15. There, I also learned that through AAA (of which my mother is a member), I can get foreign currencies! This solves a recent worry on how to handle getting foreign cash. There are many options, but all have their downsides. Luckily, at least to get me started, I can get this cash from AAA for free (well, there may be a $12 shipping fee, but that's not confirmed yet). In any case, I can get out some Korean won to start me off, since I'll be arriving at the Incheon Airport fairly late.

Anyway, after AAA, my mom and I went to the Social Security office, where I applied for a new social security card. Not strictly necessary for travel, but still something pretty good to have when I get back. Then we went to the grocery store to refill one of her prescriptions, and I asked the pharmacist a couple questions about my meds, refill procedures, prices, etc. She was incredibly helpful!

When we got home, we got to relax for a bit, and then it was time to search for my car title. I wasn't sure of it's exact location, but was fairly sure it was in one of the boxes of files I keep. When the movers delivered my stuff, I (luckily) found the box the files had been put it and brought it home. My mom and I went through all of my files, including an entire box of military stuff that I keep separate. Eventually, I found the title, but in the process we collected several interesting pieces of paper that will be kept out of storage, in case it's ever needed.

Once I take my car in somewhere to get a once-over checkout, I'll transfer the title to my parents. We've worked out a deal that they'll use the car, and pay for basic upkeep, insurance, etc, while I'm gone, and when I get back I can have it back. Nice, huh! It works out well because my dad's Mitsubishi Mirage is ... well, I'll just say, having a car that locks, and windows that work, and air conditioning that cools, will be a nice change of pace.

When the mail came today, I got my insurance approval notification, so I'm now covered for health insurance (although with a 25% increase in premium price from the original quote, which I need to appeal).

Then I cooked dinner for us, which was a basic dinner of garlicky leek and artichoke soup, crackers and cheese, and reheated crowder beans with mushrooms. Healthy and surprisingly filling!

Is it any wonder I feel like this was a productive day? I'm a step closer on several issues - health care and prescription concerns; sale of car; foreign finance plans; and a completed move!

--Z