Things happen in threes....

Tomorrow is the big day!  I leave in the early evening to start my journey to Jakarta.  I first have a short flight from Raleigh to JFK, then a 16 hour flight to Hong Kong, then a 5 hour flight to Jakarta.   I decided to fly in the day before a lot of my team mates because I am sure I will be a sleepy jetlagged mess when I arrive and not particularly ready to greet everyone with a cheery face.  I'm definitely going to try to get a good night's sleep tonight.

Today has started out on a rough note so I am hoping it gets better....

First, today marked the day I was supposed to start taking my anti-malaria prophylaxis - basically doxycycline antibiotic.  While there isn't supposed to be malaria in Jakarta or Yogyakarta, Indonesia does have it in some of the outlying areas and we might be doing some weekend trips out of the cities.  It is also present in Cambodia.  I took it this morning as directed (on an empty stomach) but let's just say that didn't go over too well.  Taking it with food decreases its effectiveness but I don't think I am going to have a choice.  Now the question is whether or not to try to take it with food tomorrow morning the day I have to leave.

Then, there is the packing situation.  As suspected, not everything fits into my bag.  I am good with my checked bag but my carry on is having a few issues.  Once I feel a little better this morning I am going to tackle that again and be ruthless with weeding stuff out.

Lastly, it's looking like Raleigh is going to get a big snowstorm starting tomorrow evening, which of course is when I am scheduled to leave.  Snow itself is not a big deal but down here the towns just aren't prepared for it - so a few inches of snow typically shut everything down.  I might try to see if I can get onto an earlier flight to JFK tomorrow just to make it out of town before it hits.  That is, if I am not sick from my medication and actually have my bags packed!

Here's to starting my adventure tomorrow.  Wish me luck!!

Afternoon update: 
Two out of my three problems have been "solved" - First, I went out and bought a bigger suitcase.  It was going to be 50% discount starting on Wednesday but I convinced the cashier to give me the discount now because I was having a packing disaster and am leaving tomorrow.  Miraculously she called a manager and they honored the discount - that saved me $150.   Now I'm repacking everything into my new suitcase and feel much better that I am actually going to have room for souvenirs to bring home.

Then, I dealt with my flight situation.  I drove to the airport so I could talk to a representative face to face.  She was nice and re-booked the first leg of my journey for no additional charge so I can leave earlier in the day tomorrow to miss the storm.

The other good news is that my new ATM card arrived in the mail today, just in the nick of time.  Two weeks ago I learned that the bank had canceled it because I rarely use it, and they never let me know that it was canceled.  Dealing with the runaround with the bank took 2 weeks - they supposedly expedited a new one that would take 2 days to get to me, and it took 5 days. 

I am (almost) ready to go!