“the last time you leave the USA for the first time”

I couldn’t sleep at all last night. I kept waking up every hour or so. It was cold and my pajamas were in the washing machine. Consequently, I had to sleep in my underwear. Which is fine on warm days, but it was much uncomfortable last night. Top coldness off with an overwhelming sense of nervousness and it’s a proven way to be sure you’re tired the entire next day. It might be a good thing considering that I’ve got an 11 hour flight ahead of me (that’s right, I said 11. It was 17, but I was able to change plans and now I’ve got a direct  flight to Dublin - then a half hour scoot on over to Cork.) I’ve also had some gnarly diarreah which seems to have followed me into the morning. Do you think nerves has anything to do with that? Or is that strictly the fact that I’ve been loading myself up on Mexican food this past week on account that I’ve been told there is none in Ireland.

I still haven’t finished packing. I need to be in San Francisco by 11:15, meaning that I’d need to leave Gilroy by 9:30…meaning that I’ve got about 45 minutes to pack and shower and get out of here.

I think that once I get there, I’ll be fine. The only Irish related worry that I have is meeting Fei Fei at the airport. She will be in a class when I’m scheduled to arrive at 11:30am. She gets out at noon and will be taking the bus to the airport. I guess I can just find a bench to sit on for the time being. I’m just worried we’re not going to be able to find each other once at the airport. Neither will have phones (how did they ever find people in the old days?) I guess I’m just gonna have to wait and hope. Maybe she’ll page me.

I don’t really feel like it’s going to happen. Right now I’m just kind of apathetic. I feel like for some reason, something is going to go wrong and I’m just going to end up back here on my grandparents computer talking about why I couldn’t go to Ireland. My passport wasn’t valid, my ticket didn’t work, the airport’s workers were on strike…something like that.

Thank you to everybody who helped me out here. Grandparents, Parents, Friends. It was a big collaborative effort  and I’m glad I’ve got you all in my life. (I’m just saying that in case that my plane crashes and those were my last words. I wanted you to know I was grateful.)

 Wish me luck!