it is late afternoon in the one quiet corner of DC that i could find today.. i love dupont circle. it's busy and bright, and you couldn't throw a quarter without it landing on a little hole in the wall with a decent beer menu.

the indonesian embassy is only open until 1pm and, because of a very unfortunate morning, i arrived at precisely 1:15pm. which i was ok with, because there is still tomorrow. it could be worse, it could already be tomorrow and that plane could be one person less when it takes off on sunday. let's hope...

everyone is splintering. leah to peru, katie to baja, and kim is defending her thesis on friday. good luck, kim!

i'm feeling a bit frantic. i've got plane tickets and a passport and shots and antibiotics and even a few little bottles of tequila to stash in my bag. i am not an alcoholic. don't think it. but there's still such a lot to buy and to do and to think about before sunday morning. there is the small matter of paying the credit card bill and the larger matter of choosing books out of the giant stack that i poured into the car yesterday afternoon.

the most fabulous thing about traveling like this is that, upon boarding the plane, warm and luxurious relief flows over you because you know that you CANNOT DO ANYTHING ELSE TO GET READY. i want that feeling now.