volunteers wanted for a very special trip

Some days, I just want to pull out my favorite Owen Wilson Shanghai Noon line: "I don't know karate, but I do know kar-azy, and I will use it." Just out of sheer boredom. I'm an ingrate to b*tch at all about my job, but as the old EBF tune proclaims, I can't complain but sometimes I still do.

Other reasons I really shouldn't complain: my best bud W sent me a package from Deutschland that should get here this week. I lurve packages. I need to do more sending and less receiving, I know, but I still have to express my fondness for them. I have a few in the works right now, and that might actually be more enjoyable than being surprised by one myself. Except that I'm always so woefully tardy at getting them out the door.

Tonight, I brave REI- like a good Guju, I am chasing a sale here, but I do need some gear for my trip to Peru. I remarked today to a friend that my feelings toward this trip have oscillated between excitement and panic. The itinerary is pretty locked in now, although that's been mostly my doing, and I'm a little weirded out by that. I always assume there's going to be some feedback, but my other travel companions have just deferred to me on everything at this point. Here's what it looks like now, with details to be filled in much more later:

Day 1: arrive in Lima
Day 2: wander around Lima, meet up with random person I met a few weeks ago at a party
Day 3: meet up with the tri-guy at the airport, fly out to Arequipa
Day 4-Day 5: Arequipa, Colca Canyons
Day 6: fly out to Cusco
Day 7-Day 9: Cusco acclimatization
Day 10: begin Inca Trail
Days 11-12: pain
Day 13: get some religion at Machu Pichu
Day 14: limp back to Lima, catch flight home

When I first started planning this trip, it seemed like an amazing amount of time. It is for me. It's probably the longest real vacation I've had in years. Even a trip to Southeast Asia I made was shorter than this. And yet, when I mapped out the itinerary and started doing some research, the duration seemed so meager suddenly. Still, it's something. And it's something that's keeping me sane at the moment. It's always good to have a light at the end of the tunnel. I keep randomly meeting SOuth Americans lately, who continue to recount tales of how travelling to Machu Pichu changed their lives. My response has always been the same: "Really? I hope that's true for me." They always look at me strangely at that point and move away slowly.

Note to George Lucas: dial it down on the Natalie Portman-Hayden Christiansen nonsense on the previews. You're doing a great job of marketing Kicking & Screaming.

Also, the score with the white chocolate cake remains as it was on Friday- white chocolate cake: 1, me: 0. Hopefully, that will change soon. I decided to take the babysteps approach, and made chocolate chip meringues last night. For anyone who cares, meringues look a lot prettier than they smell prior to going into the oven. They do consist of an egg product after all. However, it's hard to remember this when you have a bowl of fluffy, shiny white clouds that looks like it should smell like marshmallows.