It's getting close!

Today I allowed myself to begin gathering my travel stuff and packing it up. I'm hoping to only carry-on for this trip, so I'm attempting to take as little as possible. This process also entails trying on all of my clothing to see what is India appropriate. Somewhere between hand washing my camera strap, and deciding whether or not to make a choli skirt out of old set of curtains, I realized I forgot to apply for my travel visa!

SHIT!

I don't know what happened here! I remember knowing I needed to send away for it before my trip, and even printing out the application form. But somehow or another it completely slipped my mind in the last few months. I like to think of myself as someone who is at least semi-savvy about these types of things. Apparently not...

Luckily for me, I have a friend who was recently traveling in India, and he gave me good news. I's not too late, but I have to get on that business asap. There is a consulate in Chicago, and I might be able to get it quickly through them. But, oh! The stress! I haven't thought about where my birth certificate is in a while. I think my mom has it, but making a copy would require an hour in the car. I could give her over-the-phone directions on how to scan it, but I don't want to go there. I'll get it done by Thursday at the latest.

In other news, doula training was awesome. The weekend was quite overwhelming, but awesome and I can't wait to get started. However, I don't think I'm going to contact the doula in India about tagging along. I got the feeling from the training that something like that would be inappropriate and unprofessional. I might change my mind in the next few weeks. We'll see.

Also! There's some important information that I am proud of. I've decided to lower my spending budget while in India, and pay off some of my debts before I hit the road. The more I thought about it, the more it didn't make sense to go to India for three months and blow an entire year's worth of hard savings. I've been putting off dealing with these bills for the last four years, and I now have the savings to make a significant dent in my debt. So I will, and it's such a good feeling to know I'm handling it like a mature adult, not an impulsive child.

Later gator(s)!

MCC