The Night Before Departure

It is about ten o'clock on Thursday night, August 6th. I am getting all the last-minute things together before I leave for Italy tomorrow. I think that I have a tendency to get nervous before I travel like this. Only tonight did I articulate to myself that this is probably because I always wait for the last minute before I get everything done that I need to do. Well, tonight I decided not to wait for the last minute, primarly by trying to acccomplish everything tonight. Just think, I was going to leave my packing, finding everything, and getting all my digital stuff together tomorrow morning, before I leave in the afternoon. So when I finally got home after administering a final exam for my last class of the summer, the stress in my jaw from biting my teeth was probably asking me why I just didn't do all of this nonsense tonight. I couldn't come up with a good reason, so I took care of business tonight. I am sure that I will feel better tomorrow when I am waiting in line, going through security, undergoing cavity search, and sitting waiting at the gate with everyone else. After that it can only get better sitting in a big tube, breathing everybody else's recycled air, in a pressurized cabin that squeezes my head, and constantly shaking my soul's sense of balance and stability.