Lady Bizness

Okay, this post is strictly about lady business. Men, if you're uncomfortable or not interested, don't read ahead. 

Human Pin Cushions

Imagine every medical decision you'll have to make over the next year - eye doctor appointments, prescriptions, annual check-ups, teeth cleaning, over-the-counter meds, insurance coverage, birth control, etc... And now imagine that you have to make all of those decisions in advance, at around the same time. That's basically what we're doing in preparation for our trip. We know we don't have to have everything we need before we go - you can certainly buy headache medicine and Bandaids nearly anywhere, and we're almost always 100% on-board with any remedies offered by locals. Side note: One time, when I had a bad cold and had lost my voice in Jamaica, I accepted a home brew from a local Rasta Jamaican I had grown to know and respect very much while living in Negril. It didn't look great and appeared to have small twigs and leaves floating in it, so I held my breath, pinched my nose and took it like a shot. It tasted surprisingly good - like a thick fruit juice, loaded with honey and ginger and something earthy. It immediately started working and I was myself again by the next day. I found out later that the concoction included several buds from the, um, local herb. I swear that this home-brewed remedy was the fastest-working medicine I've ever taken, so I'll never knock the local ways.

While we certainly don't have to be prepared for every ailment or illness we may face on the trip, there's still a lot of medical preparation to do, starting with vaccinations. Last month, I filled out a questionnaire from the travel clinic of my doctor's office, telling them where we'll be going and for how long and describing our activities. They mostly want to know if you'll be staying at resorts vs. budget accommodations (budget), staying only in tourist areas (probably not), eating from street vendors (definitely), coming into contact with livestock or animals (probably), or spending time on a farm (I hope so). I've used this travel clinic for less-adventurous trips in the past and have easily secured prescriptions for Cipro and, for longer trips, a few Ambien to help recover from jetlag. For this trip however, because of our activities, locations, and length of stay, they referred us to the San Francisco Adult Immunization and Travel Clinic. My consultation appointment was last week and I.CANNOT.BELIEVE how many shots they say I need.

One Way Ticket to India!

We've finally finished the unpacking and cleaning of our new place. Steph says we're not finished yet, but it's livable, so I'm calling it dunzo. And now we've started up again with research for The Trip. We've been making a lot of impulsive decisions about The Trip lately. A few weeks ago, we decided to leave San Francisco in early September (instead of October). This will give us better weather on our route for driving, camping, and cornhole and, honestly, we figured an extra month of saving and preparing wouldn't make that big of a difference anyway, and we're anxious to get going. (I think this decision was made while Steph was scrubbing our new apartment's filthy mini blinds in the bathtub and I was taking down 40 year-old drapes loaded with hornets. We decided we need to leave a month earlier.) Our lease is up at the end of August, so we're planning on leaving SF on September 1st or 2nd. We figured we need about 5 weeks to make the trek, allowing time to see most of our friends and family. (Details on our Great American Road Trip plans here, here, and here). We think this is plenty of time. (I once did a Washington DC to Breckenridge haul in 26 hours with my friend, Mat. We even made a pitstop to bowl a few frames in St. Louis.) If Steph and I were an aging rock band from the 70s, we'd call this our 2012 Farewell Tour. We're ending the road trip in North Carolina and had planned to  head to NYC or DC for our departing flight to India after some time with my mom in Wilmington, NC.   But we hadn't talked seriously about booking the flights yet and planned to get that taken care of in the "next few months." That all changed last night when we were looking at flights on Kayak and saw that prices had gone up considerably from 6 weeks ago. So, on impulse and with giddy excitement, we booked our flights. 

ONE WAY TO INDIA!

Oh Sweet Jesus

Holy vaccinations. I had an appointment with the SF Adult Immunization and Travel Clinic today. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to be filled with more vaccination fluid than blood when they're finished with me. Apparently, this trip puts me at risk for a crapload of diseases for which they'll happily take (a lot of) my money and stick me with needles repeatedly.

That's all I have to say now...details later.

Doll Arms and Chicken Wings

Our move is over. As we were packing up our stuff at the old apartment and the movers were emptying out our home, I started giggling, wondering what it will be like when we do this the next time - except our stuff we'll be going into storage and we'll be heading out on The Trip. EGADS!

We're in the new place. And it's....fine.

Truth be told, I'm warming up to the new apartment. I even like it a little. But it took some serious TLC to get me there. Among the obstacles to true affection: 19th century drapes, Rug Doctor, hornets, rotten refrigerator, 20 year-old dust, door removal, naked baby cherubs. Put lightly - the apartment was a disgusting mess when we got here. We have been cleaning for 10 days. No joke. But we got a new refrigerator out of our landlord, so that was helpful. And the slats on our mini blinds are seeing the light of day after 20 long years buried under dust and grime.

Because of the move, we've been a bit distracted about the trip, but it's back to focusing now. We made the decision to leave SF in early September (instead of October), so that was exciting. And now, I give you Part III of our cross country adventure. (If you want to review, check out Part I  and Part II.)