Aaaaand the freak out begins.

Even though I pride myself on my tremendous ability to do 400 things at once, I am sort of in huge denial terrified of sick to my stomach about overwhelmed by the number of things I have to get done before we leave Thursday morning. The kind of overwhelmed where you think you cannot possibly get everything done, so instead of trying to whittle down the pile the week before, you do things like go to housewarming parties and see movies and watch six episodes of House and bake cookies and attend the mini-pre-birthday get together your best friends have arranged in your honor. Because those things are FUN.

Yesterday we tried to balance out the work with the fun. We both worked late (Me! Work late!) and put a deposit on our future automobile (work) and took Katie out for dinner and a birthday movie (fun). Some of you possibly think that signing over your right arm in exchange for an automobile that will be delivered no earlier than October is fun, but no, car dealerships are never fun places. Especially when you can't even hope to dicker with the dealer because everyone in your hippie granola city wants one of these environmentalist-pleasing Dar Williams-approved cars and the dealer knows that if you don't want to give your right arm, it won't be too hard to find someone else who will. Anyway, I'll warn you right now that the tributes to the Beloved Automobile will be fast coming these next few months, before he is replaced by the New Car and unceremoniously handed over to Katie who is somewhat frightened of owning a vehicle that starts burping scary white smoke in the middle of a bridge.

But October? Gah. Please pray for the vehicle we need to trade in to make the New Car even remotely affordable. Because having to wait until October pretty much seals the deal on our chances of getting into a horrible accident, don't you think? And a totalled trade in means driving the gas guzzling behemoth Beloved Automobile until I'm 95.

Unfortunately, all that's left is the un-fun things. Boo. Like finishing the laundry that's been sitting on the upstairs landing for a week. Packing. (Packing! I haven't even THOUGHT about packing!) Agonizing over what to bring my friend's parents- Washington wine? Cleaning up the kitchen. Dusting the floors so we don't come back and think we are living with PigPen. Buying sunscreen. Taking all the stuff I'm giving to Goodwill down to the car. Printing out all the airplane and hotel stuff, asking the ATM for a truckload of cash, finding my Lonely Planet Oahu book. Writing out TiVo directions for my sister who will housesit and water the plants. Deciding whether or not to bring my hairdryer.

Most of all, I need to get the spare bedroom ready for this fat little thing:

Her parents decided to visit at the exact same time we will be in Hawaii. Coincidence? Or smart planning? They get in late Wednesday night so I have about six hours to hog the baby and smother her with sloppy aunt kisses before I give her up and tell her not to eat my stuffed animals and get on my plane to paradise.

Until then I have to somehow get myself back into Geek Mode because now that I'm about to leave on vacation, the BaneOfMyExistence Organization has suddenly discovered the existence of their database and they are SO excited about this and are now demanding three dozen reports by this afternoon. I hate them. And the programming synapses, they are not firing...

ETA: TypePad just got around to inviting shmucks like me to try Vox. You mean I can start ANOTHER personal website? Bye bye Tuesday.

Comments

[lee]

interesting car choice. i fully expect phillip to be modding it up, installing some custom firmware etc.

[maggie]

Like the iPod jack and Bluetooth capabilities? Then you would be correct.

[Antonia]

aww! What a cute baby!

Good luck maggie with all your stuff! But I'm positive it will be totally worth it once your out there; Hawaii will be all the sweeter!

By the way, how many hours is the flght?

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