leaving work early to do some last-minute shopping

I'm out of the office four hours early, today, so I can go downtown and do some last-minute shopping for a mess of little trinkets to take to the US with me. In theory, I'm leaving tomorrow (the 9th), but my cousin, the airline employee who's been monitoring the state of my flight, says the seats are suddenly filling up. She says she's nevertheless determined to "check me in," which I suppose means she wants to get me a definite seat on the flight. We'll see how that goes. At this point, I'd say the odds are not in my favor—not tomorrow, not Friday, and probably not over the weekend. If I actually get out of Seoul tomorrow, I'll consider that a miracle. The next step, of course, will be getting out of San Francisco (where I must change planes) and flying to Dulles Airport in northern Virginia.

My driver's license expired last year, but I've spoken with the Virginia DMV office, and the process for getting a new license isn't that painful: walk in, take a number, hand in the proper paperwork, get an updated photo taken (older, uglier), and I can get a new license without retesting because I'll be obtaining it before my previous license will have been expired for one year (the one-year mark is on my birthday, August 31). After a one-year lapse, I have to start from scratch in obtaining a license.

Righto—off I go. More updates soon; I really don't have much to prep as I plan to take only a single carry-on with me, with very little in the way of clothes and toiletries. I had thought about bringing along my faithful trekking pole for long walks along the GW Parkway, but I think it might be easier just to buy a cheap pole once I'm in the States.