It's Almost Here!

Hello my dears!

Last Thursday was like Christmas! I received my passport back from the Indian Consulate in Chicago and my new camera I ordered a few days earlier. The camera was a combined graduation gift/bribe from my mother. She wants some personal emails, not just public blog posts. Since the camera arrived while I was at work, I spent the majority of my day taking random pictures of my stapler and keyboard. I have to say, for a camera marketed as an advanced point and shoot it takes really nice photos. I like it lots! Thanks Mom!!

In an attempt to keep this whole Christmas thing going, I also purchased some special camera batteries from Amazon, and a used copy of Lonely Planet's India guidebook. I'm not sure whether I did it because I'm cheap or because I'm savvy. Either way, I intentionally opted for the book that was described as having lots of writing in it. I figured that chances are good that at least some of the writing may be helpful. If it's not helpful writing, it'll be useless writing. Helpful or useless, I've been buying used textbooks for years so I'm used to tattered, dog-eared, highlighted, scribbled in, and generally crappy books. And I saved, like, 20 bucks!

What I'm not excited about is the weight the book will add to my backpack. I'm resisting the urge to check luggage for this trip. Aside from the additional weight of my new book, I'm also worrying about bringing sunscreen. I have been told by numerous sources to bring a huge bottle of high SPF sunblock. But there isn't a way to bring that on a plane without checking my bag. I'm torn! I have two weeks to figure it out.

MCC