THE EVE OF DEPARTURE, OR THE NIGHT BEFORE MY 40TH BIRTHDAY

Tomorrow morning (at 7:30a.m. Central Time, to be exact), I turn forty years old.  A few short hours after that, I board a Delta Airlines flight bound for London via Cincinnati.  I'm actually at a point right now, just before 5:00 in the afternoon, where I think I can finally relax.

I spent much of yesterday running errands — getting my hair cut short, standing in a long line at the post office, depositing some checks at the bank, doing some last-minute shopping at the department and grocery stores, and making a rush-hour "dash" in heavy traffic to Best Buy in order to purchase a spare Memory Stick Pro (a 2GB!).  Last night, I lounged on the sofa watching television when I really should have been cleaning (I HATE coming home to a dirty apartment).

I tried to go to sleep rather early (for me) last night but gave up after an hour or so of tossing and turning.  So it was that I found myself beginning to reorganize my office shelves and desktop at 3:00 in the morning!  My cleaning soon spread to the rest of the apartment before I repacked my camera equipment for the trip (I'd decided to leave a few items at home, most notably the MP3 player — I'll take it on the next trip but not on this one).

I became more tired as the morning wore on but I thankfully resisted laying down to take a nap.  If I'd done such a thing, I probably would still be frantically trying to tie up all the lose ends.  I got enough done at home by 1:00 in the afternoon where I could feel comfortable doing my last two errands:  getting my driver license renewed and mailing a concert ticket I'd sold on eBay.

I even managed to make phone calls to both Dad and Marilyn (and had to endure two renditions of "Happy Birthday" being sung at me).

The last load of laundry is in the dryer right now.  I'd originally planned to wear khaki slacks and a new twill shirt on the plane tomorrow but decided that I'll wear my blue jeans instead.  They're more comfortable for the long flight and I won't have to worry about spilling something on them (I always seem to spill something when crammed into one of those airplane seats).

I really hope that I haven't forgotten anything.  I did (finally) remember to submit my mail-hold request late last night and I called Cingular to activate my international roaming.  I asked the CSR several times if I'll be able to send and receive e-mail on my Blackberry from England; she assured me it will work but I'm still not convinced.  I'll probably post a test blog entry after passing through Customs at Gatwick just to make sure.  If it doesn't, then I'll either post entries from an Internet cafe or I'll wait until I get home.

I'm exhausted enough that I'm confident I'll have a good night's sleep tonight.  After I post a quick entry on my dedicated travel blog (which, if it works, subcribers will receive via e-mail), I plan play a soothing CD and drift into a deep sleep.  Such is life at 40!