Are we there yet?!

I'm sitting at 2 weeks to the day that I hop on a plane to head out to Philly for staging.  I'm pretty well finished putting things together that I think I might want for the next 27 months of my life.  Being this organized this ahead of time doesn't happen for me very often.  Thanks to my mother asking every day "so what's on your 'to do' list today?"  Yes, sometimes I want to just spend the day looking at the beautiful Colorado Rockies, but it sure is nice to feel like I have this much accomplished more than 2 days before my departure.  (Yes yes...thanks mom).

In the past week or so I've felt extremely confident and ready to dive in to Malawi.  I know it'll be quite a wake up call once I arrive there and more challenging than anything I'm anticipating.  I'll be honest to say I've gone through cycles of "woooohoooo!!" and "holy crap, am I crazy?!"  And quite glad to say I have embraced them all and moved through the emotions.  (Ha, how do you avoid them when you don't sleep through the nights and it shows when mom comes in in the morning and my blanket is half off the bed and I'm sleeping diagonal?!)  Now I'm ready!

I'm doing my best not to adopt the whole "can't wait to leave!" attitude.  From past experience I have found that doing so causes me to miss out on time spent with people as well as fun and new experiences.  February 25th will come eventually, regardless of how much or little I want it to.  In the mean time I will do my best to enjoy the following (and already do!): Watching my friends dance Blues and Lindy Hop while smiling inside to see the joy it brings them; unlimited sushi (when mom and dad pay, of course); warm running water; driving to places I want to go at my leisure; freezer for ice cream; grocery stores with lots of varieties; birthday cake; macaroni and cheese...  Ok, I'm going to stop now because I'm getting hungry.  But you get the point.  The 25th will come soon enough!