Three Days Left

Crunch Time. With everyone at work today was the last lazy day I had. In the afternoon before I went for a run I ironed all my shirts and watch FOX news coverage of New Orleans sinking. From now on my time is booked every waking hour. Everything is coming together. We received a note from our family friend Jeff Cowan in Shikoai today. He is my contact in Shikaoi, although he will be leaving the morning I get into Sapporo. He said that I will be moving into his house in Shikaoi. This is very different than what I had been expecting; that I would be moving into a small apartment. Now I will be moving into a small house (around 900 square feet). This residence has a couple of advantages that hosting visitors from overseas will be markedly easier. (Shout out to Pete, Claire and James!) And also, I can play music as loud as I want just about anytime of the day and no one will care. Sadly, the only part missing of this simple dream of mine is the lack of stereo, but whatever. The disadvantages are one only that I can see- yard work. All the same the option may be open to me in the future to move into a smaller home more suitable to my idiosyncratic lifestyle. Yes, I like smaller homes.

Tomorrow night I have a reservation with friends at Cafe Select. Its a dark, quiet lounge type place that I have been going to since I finished High School. Should be great.

Four Days Left

Because I will need to be at the airport at 8:00 AM it is 104 hours until I leave to be exact or 6240 minutes or 374400 seconds or 0.01187214611872 years.

One Week From Today

We've all had a quiet Sunday here at home and now we are busy getting ready to go out for dinner to celebrate my mother and father's 29th anniversary. We're going to a late dinner at Jack's Grill in south Edmonton. I'm excited and will likely over look the seafood to have some meat, especially considering I leave a week from today. Much organizing and planning has been done and crunch time will soon arrive, meaning it will be time to pack. I am in the fortunate position of having packed up my life to move overseas once already in 1999 for my exchange to Japan. Even though I am surrounded with unknowns about such things as where I will be living and what I will be doing. It is hard to know the detail from 9000km away. I am still the picture of serenity. It's curious being so unworried about what lies ahead because many would characterize me as up tight about such planning and just a plain stick-in-the-mud about rules. All things aside I feel very undercontrol. Maybe ask me the same question later in the week.

This picture haunts me; forgetting something. It could be something big; such as forgetting my passport or plane ticket, or something small, like my lucky socks. As long as we don't leave any detail to chance, I imagine the whole move will go smoothly. My parents, when they visited Shikaoi last month, brought with them a big MEC bag containing my winter stuff and some books, to be left at our friend's house there for me. Also, in a worst case scenario, over the next two months, there will be two groups from Shikaoi visiting Stony Plain, who my parents will be hosting. An unusual situation but very convenient as a backup. A week, a week I keep telling myself. It hardly seems reality yet. All the images of a large packing process in progress around the house are seen but it hasn't hit me yet. Maybe I'm thinking about something else or I'm still digesting it. Certainly, my body is telling me something is going on as my sleep has been fretful most nights lately. This is a very unusually situation for me. My whole family and I sleep like the dead. Seven more sleeps. Seven more sleeps.

Ah, here's a picture from the top of the hill at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, which ran from Aug. 4th to 7th. The Birdsell tarp, quite full, was of course much closer to the stage. I mention this, with some degree of pride, since we ran the tarp early each day- very early. We had to be very organized because we shared the tarp with many friends and family; imagine the Birdsells invading a small country (but only thing being conqured is a piece of land- 8'x11'- for our tarp). I would also like to say, with no pride but will happiness, that this was my 11th year attending the festival. Not a record, but man we know the ropes. Hopefully I will post one more picture if I can find the digital image in my parent's HD. Shout out to my good friend Pat who joined us.

Just to add to this; in some small way listening to music, outside, in the sun, is as close to paradise as I can ever imagine. Just watching the sun depart the Alberta blue sky and dip slowly behind Edmonton is awesome; add great tunes and its transendental.

By now I have fully recovered, brought back to reality by this computer Im typing on. A brand new 12inch silver powermac (aluminum actually). It doesn't make me look cooler, or sexier, or more stylish with the bling... but I will be able to do lots of writting in Japan on it. I named it wower. Hopefully I will also be posting a picture of it too. Also of note, I just ripped like 300 CDs on to its HD which is something I do not plan on ever doing again- ever.

...Busy packing...