I'm Leavin' on a Jet Plane

Tomorrow morning, at 5:45 a.m., I will be boarding my first plane of many on my way to Mongolia. First, I will fly to San Francisco, where I will meet my fellow M-22's in person for the first time, and presumably fill out lots of paperwork. Then we will all leave together the next day for Mongolia (with a layover in Korea!).

This past weekend was awesome; the Farrell Family Reunion was moved up from labor day so that everyone could say "Bon voyage!" I am so, so fortunate to have such a wonderful family. The whole family was welcoming to my friends, my friends all had a great time, and everyone seemed to have fun.

I was especially thankful for all the great advice and well wishes around the bonfire - in addition to Uncle Mike's now-traditional improv blues number!  Furthermore, congratulations to my father on his second consecutive iPod Contest win. While I am a bit disappointed in the Farrell Ball score, I expect you all to manage to make it to 150 next year.

Today was an adventure in packing. Here is what the beginning stages looked like:

And here is the result:

A vast improvement, if I do say so myself! (Mostly due to my mother's packing-goddess skills. I have no idea how I'm going to ever re-pack without her expert direction!)

There were a few trips back and forth, balancing the suitcase on the tiny bathroom scale, to make sure I fit the weight requirements - but we managed to just make it under the limit! (I only have a couple of small piles left for my parents to ship.)

Those of you who know me won't be surprised that my main concern was fitting as many books as possible into my luggage.

So, after a great day of last minute preparations peppered with spending time with family and friends (lunch at Chat-a-While with Mom, ice cream at Jerry Tull's with both Mom and Dad, bubble tea with Brendan and Phil, and a couple of last minute phone calls), I am all ready to go.

San Francisco, here I come!

(I hope to get a chance to update this before I fly out to Mongolia on Friday, and as for internet access after that, your guess is as good as mine! If you don't want to worry about checking here for potentially sporadic updates, there's a box in the upper right of this blog where you can enter your email address and receive anything I post here in your inbox when I post it.)