Calm before the storm...

Well, that's not totally fair - I'm not expecting this to be a storm. However, it's a nice cliche, even if it's not entirely appropriate. After all, if the shoe mostly fits...

Last weekend (my last weekend before I start my travels), I made a trip home to see my Mom, Dad, sister and brother-in-law, brother and sister-in-law-to-be, and generally get a bit of face to face time before I go.
Flew out on Saturday, after much delay from the pesky wind-storm...Got in to MSP around 7:30, folks picked me up, went to a hotel, had some dinner, slept (poorly), got up, went to the Mall of America (wow!) did a little miscellaneous shopping, had some dinner, and left.
Whirlwind trip!
But, it was definitely nice, and really nice to see my family before I go (i'll see my other brother and sister-in-law in New York, outbound to A'dam). It was a bit strange, though, in part because of the duration (about 24 hours) and, in part, because of the circumstances.
After all, I'm only going to be gone for 9 months...That's not really too long in the grand scheme of things, and some years I'll go a full year or more between seeing the family. Sure, this time I'm going to Liberia in the meantime, but, all told, it's really not that much time.

Mall of America - for those unfamiliar, it's a big freakin' mall. Actually, that was kind of neat, I hadn't been there since I was 18...but they didn't really have anything I needed.

Back to the point - I did want to make sure I got home before I left. The biggest reason was to make sure all of my family got the face-time to ask me questions they might have about my trip...expectations, fears, plans, activities, that sort of thing. I guess I must be writing a lot on this blog as they didn't really have too many of these. But I think the principle was important - or at least it was important for me. Some good ones came up, but I realized that I have, perhaps, been trying not to know TOO much about what/where/how/when to avoid building up expectations.

So, that was that. Since then I've been flying around Seattle trying desparately to get everything ready before I go...there're more bits and pieces to square away than I thought possible. Gah. I've got a big list and at this point only about 36 more hours before I leave.

More later!