Less than 1 week left in the land of the free, home of the brave

Liftoff is 6 days away and I am starting to get really excited/nervous for Spain! Ok, there is definitely more excitement than nervousness, but I have to stay a little grounded and admit there are nerves. Its been so fun getting ready with packing and buying new travel things, but I know it will be a lot more fun when I'm IN Spain.

Packing's rough, shopping's not! New travel things include a cute pair of comfy sandals for walking around those beautiful Sevilla streets, a new pair of obnoxiously large sunglasses for warding off the hot Sevilla sun, and a new "snakeskin" crossbody bag so I dont get labelled as a tourist and mugged easily in the foreign city of Sevilla.

Besides all that, I've got the bare necessities (the simple bare necessities) like passport, cash, emergency credit card. The only thing I am having trouble with is packing for Milwaukee and Spain at the same time. Scheduling European travel two days after my sister's destination Milwaukee wedding was probably not the smartest decision on my part, but such is life. Go with the flow (I think I will try out Daoism for a bit). Anyway, there are so many things that I want to wear that I am bringing to Spain, but I dont want to unpack them or forget them after Milwaukee, so I am stuck with the random stuff I have tucked away in the back of drawers and such. This is probably not the best idea considering I may potentially look like a slob in front of my sister's new in-laws, but...there's really nothing I can or want to do about that.

Physically, I am on my way to being prepared for this whole thing, almost. Whitney and I discussed train tickets yesterday for travel around Spain. Thats the only thing left to be delivered before our flights. The Eurorail passes are a lot cheaper than buying individual tickets for each destination, but that doesn't mean they are particularly cheap. It is a bit frustrating that most of my spending money will go towards travel in and around Sevilla. Still, we decided that we want to make a weekend trip outside of the south of Spain to Barcelona! I hear its beautiful and historic and I can not wait to see the place! Honestly, I can't remember what my 10th grade Spanish teacher taught me about Barcelona at this particular moment, but I do remember being in awe and jealous of those Barcelonians (?) who get to live there day after day (although they might be jealous of me for being able to live near New York City as well, and thats not all its cracked up to be).

Mentally, I am not focused on Spain yet. Talk to me Sunday night, and I will be. For now, I have to congratulate my sister for graduating medical school (her and my mother's dream come true) and congratulate her for getting married (her and sort of my mother's other dream come true). Until Sunday night, I still have to write a maids of honor speech with the little sister and decide whether the speech I wrote for my dad, I mean I helped him write, is appropriate enough and not too dumb to give in front of 350 people. Oh, and I have to go to my job interview at the highly esteemed Mount Kisco branch of Staples Office Supply Store...wish me luck!