Preparations...Part 1

Last month I began actual preparations for this trip. I went and got my annual physical and then got referred to a travel medicine clinic where they gave me loads of shots and prescriptions so that I don't get any foreign diseases. Four shots, one set of pills, and three prescriptions to fill later, I'm assured not to get: the flu (it would suck to get sick on the plane), polio, hepatitis A, tetanus, typhoid, and malaria. I've also got a couple prescriptions for broad-range antibiotics, "just in case". Luckily, South Africa is yellow-fever free, so I don't have to worry about that (unless my flight stops over in a yellow-fever country on the way there, in which case I'll need to go back, but I'll keep that in mind when I go book my flight, so as to avoid it).

I persuaded my little sister to take care of my turtles while I'm gone.

I also found my passport.

You wouldn't think that'd be too hard to do, but it was. Normally, I'm a pretty organized person (I'm going to be a librarian, for Christ's sake, you'd think I'd know how to put things where they can be easily found). In particular, you'd think I would know precisely where an important document such as a passport was kept. But apparently not.

At first I thought it was in my old purse at my parents' house. But it wasn't. Then I thought it would be in my top dresser drawer at my parents' house. But it wasn't. Then I thought it would be in my closet at my parents' house. But it wasn't (I did find a card that had my passport # and expiration date written on it, though, which was reassuring because it'd been a few years since I'd traveled outside the USA and I didn't know if it had expired yet...luckily it hadn't). Then I thought it would be in the drawer in the kitchen where all our birth certificates and important papers were. My sister's passport was there, but mine wasn't. Then I thought it would be in a junk dresser in the front closet at my parents' house. But it wasn't. Then I thought it would be in the back closet behind my closet at my parents' house. But it wasn't.

Next, I thought, "Well, maybe it's at my apartment." So, I checked the top drawer of my dresser at my apartment. It wasn't there. Then I looked in the box labeled "Important Papers" in my closet at my apartment. It wasn't there. Then I looked in five other boxes in my closet. It wasn't in any of those, either. Then I went through everything on my bookshelf and all the papers on my desk. It wasn't there either. I did finally find it, though. Where? Behind a bunch of medicine were two boxes in my closet that I hadn't checked yet. Was it in either of those boxes? No, of course not. It was slid between them. What the fuck? Why the Hell would I put it there? I don't even remember putting it there. Excuse my language. But really. So unnecessary. If you had any idea how much I was freaking out for like two months because I couldn't find my passport, you would understand.

At any rate, I inadvertently got a lot of cleaning done. Totally re-organized both closets, threw out a ton of old papers, organized the rest, and started setting things aside to go from my apartment into cold storage at my parents' place when I'm gone. I want to slowly move things out of the apartment so that when I actually "move out" at the end of December it won't be a huge deal. Just my turtles and a couple bags of clothes and whatever leftover food I have. But that's a little ways off to think about just yet.

However, a couple of things that need to happen soon, now that I've found my passport, are: obtaining a visa, & booking my flight.