now we wait

I've got YB-related things to do from my content-creation bosses (peace be upon them), but not much else in terms of gathering documents for my upcoming trip. I'm waiting for a package from my buddy Tom, and I'm now also waiting for two official copies of two different transcripts to float my way. Once I've got them both, I'll take them, along with a few other documents, to the US State Department to get everything apostilled—hopefully that very same day. If not, I may have to drive back into DC to pick the documents up.

For the moment, then, we wait. In the meantime, I need to shop for other items and cross off certain to-dos from the to-do list, such as:

•prepping a rental check to give to my office, which they can deposit on the first of the month in my absence
•creating a list of login names and passwords so that I can continue to check my account status for my bank, a credit card, etc., while I'm overseas
•beginning to pack for the trip (at a guess, 90% of the packing will occur the night before)
•calling Asiana Airlines and confirming my e-ticket reservation once I get Tom's package
•obtaining a ticket to get from Seattle, Washington, back to DC, which looks as if it's going to set me back around $300-$450
•figuring out how I'm going to park my car while I'm gone (cheap satellite parking, I assume)
•shopping for some new clothes and for a bag that'll zip around my backpack (actually, I may already have such a bag... gotta check)
•buying more Sea Foam for my poor car, which still idles low and stalls
•gathering up the cash to pay extra fees relating to Tom's ticket (fuel surtax, etc.—about $400)

Another worry I have relates to how I'm supposed to handle my baggage at the airport. Tom's round-trip ticket is only from New York to Seoul to Seattle (best he could do with Asiana, given my travel window); it was left up to me to figure out how to get to New York on April 18 and from Seattle on May 18. I've already bought my DCA-JFK ticket, which gives me a decent time margin before I have to catch the flight to Seoul. But I guess what's going to have to happen is that I'll arrive in JFK, collect my bags as if I were staying in New York, then line up at the Asiana ticket counter to re-check my bags for Seoul. Same deal when I'm in Seattle: arrive, go to the baggage claim, then reenter the airport and go fresh through the check-in procedure to fly the rest of the way home. It's unfortunate that I can't somehow check my bags all the way from DC to Seoul, but that's the price I pay for using different airlines to fly the separate legs of the journey.

Lots to do, lots to think about, but many of the above tasks can be performed in a short time.


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