prep part one

India and Italy prep.


When preparing for grandiose trips, and the addition of india to my life melee definitely qualifies, you have to wrap up as many loose ends as you think you would possibly have to wrap up in the duration of the trip (5 months.) i need to give my old car to charity, for instance. There are things i need to return that i keep forgetting--shitty target shirt, for instance. also, i desperately needed a haircut for which i went to supercuts and did not wear my glasses and was therefore not able to see that she cut my hair about 3 inches shorter than i had asked. and when that difference means your chin or THREE INCHES ABOVE YOUR CHIN, it is damn noticeable. and frankly, stupid looking. but whatever. i never like new haircuts as much as i may have despised the old one. also needed to use magic mountain tickets before tehy expire at the end of year.

tangent: magic mountain. i love rollercoasters. and what they have done with rollercoasters these days is amazing. rollercoasters where you stand up while you go on corkscrew turns, rollercoasters where they lift you on your belly and make it seem like you are flying as you are upside down and all around. big drops, little drops. ahhh.


the list of things i need to take with me. there are many things you can get abroad that are just fine and add unnecessary extra weight to your luggage if you bring them from home. tampons are not one of those things. they are to be lovingly packed and admired as something that the USA does really well.


i don't have a digital camera. i almost bought one at a too-good-to-be-true price when, feeling sort of scorched by my car purchasing experiences, i checked the site out and sure enough there were lots of complaints about it being a scam--reminds me of my first temp job after college... so now i am going to go buy a digital camera. things i don't need to do are spend a lot of time thinking about which one to buy. and yet, for at least a half hour yesterday...yeah.



i got together a few days ago with a former student from taiwan who lied to her mother about going to study in LA and instead shacked up with a childhood friend and got married. when she told me she was married i thought it was green card thing, but actually they totally work. they're sweet and yet edgy, you know, wong kar wai lovers. and despite the fact that she is by far one of the hottest chinese women ever (someone i would expect to see in mean girls, for instance) she's totally sweet and makes some rad chinese food. i momentarily missed taiwan, and then i thought "even better, taiwan in america".