The day has finally arrived

So...over the past few days, I’ve been counting down the days until our Italian adventure. I’ve finally finished my work obligations (indeed, my manager actually walked me to the door on Friday and had me watch it close behind me). I spent the weekend focused on what existed between me and the flight on Tuesday...everything was going relatively smoothly...instructions for house-sitter (check), pay bills, check, suspend wine clubs...check, and then I called our health club on Saturday which has been under new management for a little while.

What a surprise that was! I just discovered that in order to suspend my health club membership I would have needed to give them 30 days notice. This seems somewhat outrageous to me--Does this come to the top of your mind when you consider the sorts of things that you check off your list prior to travel? What’s more, sabbatical isn’t on the approved lists of reasons to suspend, so apparently they’ll review my request and get back to me. At any rate, after a minor confrontation and a threat to quit the club, I moved on to other things on my list. 

Top item was to identify clothing that goes with me (and that which does not). Not an easy job, but I’m fairly casual about it...people live, eat and indeed wear clothing everyday in Italy. I’m confident that if my packing is deficient, I can figure it out over there! I’m pretty sure that Gretchen is a bit more freaked out about it than I am, but she has coordinated everyone else’s packing in the family, so she certainly deserves a little personal leeway!

Let’s see...ah, yes, empty the images off of both phones and try to do something about unlocking one or more for the trip...it’s amazing how much is on there...2K or images! All are gone now...somewhat of a fresh start...and then I learned that I couldn’t do much more on my phone without completely resetting to “factory settings”...well, now it’s a completely new start--iPhone no longer has any of my old apps on it, some of them are on my iTunes, others are not. At this stage...I’m just rolling with it. I’m not that concerned that it even wiped out my corporate email access!

Tomorrow morning we leave! A car should be here to pick us up to head off to the airport to begin our 17-18 hour journey from PDX departure until TRN landing!

Of course, the last time I did this trip it was by myself last August...and I just looked up this entry from my Facebook for that time:

Italian transport is awesome. Arrive at airport, ask for best way into town. Answer: train. So I go to the train station and tell them where I need to go, they say "Oh, the train doesn't connect near any metro stations. You'll have to take the train to the bus to the metro." 

I walk to the bus station and ask--is this the best way to get to town? Answer: Most definitely, it will get you to right near your hotel. I say great, may I purchase a ticket. Answer: You may, but there is presently no driver, so it might not be good spending of money. Finally...I ask should I just take a cab? Answer: Cab is always the best! You can't write this sort of comedy! 

I'm guessing that unless bus and driver are both there and waiting...it's straight to the cab (if there's one big enough for all of us and our baggage!).