Being Productive! (221 Days!)

Time for me seems to be moving at the pace of a lame turtle while simultaneously moving as quickly as a lightening strike. In the past few days I have done so much, and yet August 26th seems like a lifetime away. How in the world is this possible? How can I have too much time while seemingly having too little time!? Am I about to rip a hole in the fabric of time (or does it just seems that way?)

So, I have decided to measure time in small pieces for now. I filed my passport paperwork yesterday, and the man said that I should have it in around a month or tow. So, My first real tiny chunk of time has been sent by the passport office (and I imagine travel Visa's will follow that). getting my passport application filed really makes me feel as though this is real (a feeling that gets more real every day and with every new task I do). I am the first member of my family to get a passport or leave the country. It's kind of a big deal :)

In a somewhat related story, here is a letter I drafted to the snow storm that blew through town Wednesday. Enjoy!

Dear Snow Storm,
Thank you for picking this particular time to slow down the clock. I know I usually complain about your presence in my life, and I know I usually use some pretty colorful language when I do so, but this past Wednesday you got it right! So thank you! Because of you I kicked myself into scholarship mode, because of you I am half way through the ISE scholarship applications and it is because of you that I have mailed most of them. Because of your timing I sat down at my desk, printed form after form, wrote essays, printed resumes and got to work.

Thank you for making me get to work. It is really helping me fell like this crazy journey, that SAS, is really going to happen for me. That I can get myself there.

Thank you so much, and I will try to be more understanding about you trapping my car in the future (but really, don't hold your breath).

Best wishes, Mal

I also got my cabin class assignment in the last few days, which was exciting and frightening all in one. It was exciting having something concrete to pin my excitement to, and frightening because of these:


Yes, these are the photos of possible rooms in my cabin category sent to me By SAS. I am in the lowest possible class for cabins. Your cabin determines your overall price, so I have opted for the cheapest category of cabins; Economy class. These pictures came in an email for SAS, informing me exactly what my category/ class is, with the warning "Flexibility is extremely important when selecting this category." Naturally I accepted right away, since I would sleep in a trash can of it would shave a few thousand off the tuition price, but anyone who knows me at all can see why I am a wee bit nervous about rooms of this nature.

1) I am a painfully introverted introvert. I need time alone to reflect and recharge or I become depressed/upset/moody/generally unhappy. Clearly with a room like that, finding alone time in the cabin will more than likely not be an option.

2) I am a neat freak. If I get paired with a messy person in that close of quarters, I may explode. I need order in my life, and that order is reflected in the tidiness of my room.

3) I have a new anxiety about where I will put my luggage once all my stuff is on the ship.

All that being said, my excitement level continues to grow.