a calendar and some nailpolish

for two months my ghetto fabulous africa countdown calendar has served me well. today is my last day at work before my month-long vacation, and i put on the last little cutout elephant. all done.

tonight i'll finish packing and try to get some sleep before i leave reno tomorrow afternoon.

oh! did i already mention the suprise i have for the orphan girls i'll be spending time with? i have little bottles of nailpolish i'll be bringing with me to paint their nails. apparently they obsess over bright nail polish. its a little something to make them smile.


(me in the walmart checkout line buying the polish)

shopping is easy... packing is harder

shopping for a trip? oh i can do that... that's the easy part.

it's the shopping for everything i need, and the gathering of everything to pack, that's so easy.

the packing though? i keep thinking i'm going to forget something, and because of that my list of things to bring has gotten a bit longer than i thought it'd be.

i think i'll end up gathering everything i think i need and then packing and repacking a few (million) times just to make sure i've been as efficient as possible and haven't forgotten anything vital to my trip. it'll take alot of trial and error, but i'm betting the quantity of things i pack will go down a bit more each time i repack.

tomorrow i am shopping for a whole lot more things i need like the proper wardrobe and just little necessities that i have to stock up on... i will feel so much better when those items are purchased and i can start the aforementioned packing and repacking cycle.

14 days

i leave for africa in 14 days.

14 days.

holy mother!

i've never been out of the country before, so i'm a bit nervous, but i know it'll all be good. my friend michele and i are sooooo excited. i drive down to her house in the bay area, on jan 1st, and then we leave from SFO around 12pm on jan 2nd. we'll fly to london and have 12 hours from 7am to 7pm, to bum around london. then we hop on our plane again and go to nairobi where we will meet up with the dan man, and get on some form of ghetto fabulous african "transporation" and travel 10 hours to kitale, kenya.

omigosh its probably going to be so long and exhausting, but i dont even care... not in the least bit. wanna know why?

'CUZ I'M GOING TO AFRICA!!

freaking exciting, is what that is...

so that's the plan for now. i've been getting travel advice from everyone who's been there, and keeping a running list of what i'll need to pack in my suitcase. i'm going to recruit some friends to help me pack - and eliminate certain things - from my suitcase next week.

i'll keep you posted!

hepner christmas pictures

we took christmas pictures while bill was in town for the holidays.

enjoy!