Preparing to fly to Chicago

Maybe, given recent world events, it's not the best time to fly, but I am doing so this week, going to traveling in four cities--Lexington, Atlanta, Chicago, and Detroit--and five airports, on four separate aeroplanes. Wish me luck! But in the meantime, I've:

1. Bought luggage tags for all bags (rolling carry-on, which I'll actually check, small matching carry-on, CPAP bag, and laptop bag) in basic black, and printed out and inserted contact information in a colour matching my suitcase (which of course, is a type of purple, sort of the clothing colour often called plum or aubergine, but lighter than either of those actual objects).
2. Put said tags on each bag.
3. Called Delta to make sure they knew I was travelling with, but not using, my CPAP, which means an additional bag that doesn't count as such.
4. Checked my model of CPAP to see if it needs a label (it does not).
5. Bought a small crossbody organiser that is flat with pockets for a boarding pass, passport (which I will not have to use on this trip, so I'll leave it at home), and ID (I may take my passport card, however, as I'm not sure our state ID fully complies with the RealID law yet--I know there was some issue about the fact that they are issued by individual county seats, not centrally). It hangs crossbody and will be very good as I will most likely not have pants with pockets, and I have enough to juggle (liquids, CPAP, and laptop usually come out to be screened, at least here in Lexington).
6. Found and registered the Ventra card I'll use on the trains and buses. I'll load a one-day pass while I'm there, which will save me some money.
7. Have printed my airline confirmation, my hotel confirmation, my meeting agenda, and directions/maps from O'Hare to the hotel and from the hotel to Midway.
8. Have typed up an itinerary of flights with numbers, hotel contact information, and meeting contact information for a friend in case anything goes wrong.
9. Have found the almost elusive tiny Fixodent from the last flight (it was part of my introductory pack when I got my partials; I usually use Polident, and I think the large tube is actually under the per item limit, but the little one is better for getting things into the quart bag) and put it in the bag with my other liquids.
10. Checked to make sure I'm complying with my liquids.
11. Checked to see if I can put a light jacket in my checked bag (I doubt I'll need it, except if we go out to dinner that night). It's supposed to be in the 40s and sunny or partly sunny while I'm there.

I'm going to wear my Mary Janes (the really comfortable diabetic shoes I got from the doctor a couple of months ago). They do have stick in gel heel pads, which I hope will be okay, as they're not normally removed. My actual inserts are foam; they should be fine. I will most likely wear a light sweater that will go with either top I wear, and keep everything simple. I'll pack an empty purse in my checked bag so that I can transfer things as needed to it for moving around town. I haven't chosen what I'll wear yet, and I haven't actually packed--that will be for the night before, because there's always some last minute thing, anyway. Oh, and I bought a little pack of facial tissues in case I need those. I also have to make sure I get up v-e-r-y e-a-r-l-y the morning I leave--my flight's at 6 am, I'll probably need to be at the airport about 4:30, so I need to get up about 3:30 am. I'll try to go to bed early the night before.

I went to see my family member tonight, and she's doing much, much better. I explained that I have physical therapy tomorrow night and am flying out later in the week, so I'm not sure I'll be able to visit till the weekend.

I am up exceedingly early

I'm going to break Internet protocol, and post things ahead of time about a short trip I am taking. I hope that does not mean bad things will happen, but this is really basically my diary, and given my driving anxiety, I need to write a bit here before I go.

First, the things I have to do before I go to work (and for once I won't use strikethrough on the list; suffice to say it all has to be accomplished:

1. Get some water in me; I'm very dry.
2. Switch from my backpack to my Chicago tote bag in terms of 'purses'.
3. Take a portfolio with various information on the training I'm doing related to the class I'm teaching.
4. Make sure I have the Kindle charger with me.
5. Fill up my medicine box, replenish my pen needles, get extra insulin together, and put in an extra phial of test strips.
6. Make sure I have my highlighter and plenty of pens, as well as the sticky notes for the training notebook they'll give me.
7. Get my clothes together for the weekend.
8. Bring three books, Pete Earley's Crazy, the Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, and a book on mobile technologies in libraries that I have to review by month's end.
9. Take apart my CPAP and get it into its bag.
10. Charge my phone (I fell asleep without doing it.)
11. Charge my laptop.
12. Transfer the game recording over to the laptop so I can work on that if I have time this weekend.
13. Get ready.
14. Feed the fish.
15. Water the plants.
16. Put the toiletries into a bag.
17. Put the bags all together.
18. Make sure I have distilled water jug with me for the CPAP.
19. Program my destination into my phone
20. Return an interlibrary loan to the public library.

All in all, with my 'purse/tote', I have five bags, plus a water jug, but they're all small and portable. Fortunately there will be no plane rides with this, so I can take whatever I want.

The training is pretty intense: 7:15 am Saturday to 7 pm plus dinner; 8 am Sunday to 5 pm, with breaks about every two hours and meals provided.

I'm a little nervous about the drive, but not in full-blown panic, which is good. We'll see if that changes once I'm on the Interstate. But people have assured me that I-64 is much easier to handle than I-75, I should avoid most construction, and the plan is to leave work early enough to get a good start before rush hour traffic happens. Of course, once I get to Louisville, I'll be in rush hour traffic there, most likely, so I guess you pick your poison there. It's only about an hour and a half drive, straight up the Interstate to the hotel. The college where the training is a little further away from the hotel than I thought it would be, but it's a short jump on the Watterson Expressway from I-64, and while I could go the back roads, I've never actually driven in Louisville and it would probably be easier to keep to the major ones. In a way, I'm looking forward to the actual trip up there. I have a roommate at the hotel; I hope she's okay with my (very quiet) CPAP.

Okay, I have reached the point where I get ready for work. I haven'd decided whether to get my allergy shot before I leave town or not. I'm afraid I'll get bogged down with things if I try to run any errands or do anything before I go. I think I'll skip this time; I can double up next week. In fact, I may just pack up everything into the car before leaving for work and then drive straight from there to the Interstate. I think my CPAP would be okay in the car trunk. We'll see.

So the hospital called today

to confirm my surgery, and they want me there a full hour before I was scheduled previously. Now I'm already getting two people who are not morning persons up at an ungodly hour, one of which is driving in from another county, and I live practically across the street from the hospital, so I asked if I could come over at the appointed time and then they come over an hour later, and they said that was fine. There shouldn't be a problem so long as they are there to take me home, and I won't be going back to surgery until after they get there, anyway. Of course, it does mean walking across the street where I was hit a couple of years ago very early in the morning, but hey. Now I'm very tired, but I have things to do before I go to sleep. I've gotten my insulin, taken a friend to an appointment, made keys for my friends, and gone to the grocery so there's food for A and me to eat that is not too involved. But I'm running out of steam. I don't know if I'll be up to blogging tomorrow or not, but I'll try to. For now, though, I'd better get a few things done, even though I want to put my feet up and rest.

Things I have to do in the next 24 hours:

• Go into work early
• Get some cash on the way
• See if I can get the keys made before work, as Home Depot opens at 6 am (did it after work)
• Send my mom a birthday card (I forgot to get A to get it out of the car glove compartment so I could send it today; but her birthday isn't till next month, so I have some time)
• Fill an interlibrary loan request
• Take some children's books to our laboratory
• Take a couple of boxes of stuff that's accumulated in my cubicle to the car (I'll do that next Wednesdsay if I can)
• Recycle some withdrawn journals I can't find homes for (I'll do that next Wednesdsay if I can)
• Shelve new journals (I'll do that next Wednesdsay if I can)
• Re-shelve things in the library (I'll do that next Wednesdsay if I can)
• Straighten up the library (I'll do that next Wednesdsay if I can)
• Fill paper and supplies for the copiers
• Work on referrals, including removing unnecessary ones from the queue and starting others that are needed, and send names that won't come off the list so they won't be included in Monday's report
• Put in my charge entry sheets
• Reconcile the operating room charges
• Ask about an unusual data entry case
• Deal with anything that might come up tomorrow at work
• Set up an autoreply for the e-mail at work
• Check with the organisers of a mobile conference from a few months ago for speaker ideas in their area for a forum being done at a forum I'm helping with at another conference (I'll do that next Wednesdsay if I can)
• Call my endocrinologist for a prescription for a medicine that I've had from samples that's been working well
• Take a friend to an appointment
• Have keys made if I couldn't that morning
• Give keys to friends
• Show a friend how to find my apartment from the bus stop
• Pay bills
• Go to the grocery store
• >Clean out the refrigerator
• Do dishes
• Set up bedroom and bathroom for recovery
• Water all plants, inside and out
• Straighten up living room
• Pull out air mattress, inflate, and put sheets and pillows on it
• Pull out the assistive items such as the shower chair and bedside commode in case they're needed
• Get the medical surrogate/advanced directives paperwork together, etc., just in case it's needed
• Put together loose, comfortable clothing for the next day
• Pare down my backpack to what's necessary
• Put my walker by the door to take just in case it's necessary
• Stop all food and drink by midnight

I'm not 100% sure I can get all of that completed, but I'm going to do my best.

Almost too tired to blog

I don't often blog on game Sundays, and to be honest I'm doing it from bed at the moment, having brought the laptop in here instead of setting it back up in the living room. I have returned home with clean laundry, the laptop case with computer and voice recorder so I can work on notes, as well as a lunch bag full of food and my purse. So I had quite a bit to bring in, although only the computer was particularly heavy, as I have a book in the bag I meant to show Brenda on small-scale gardening. That's twice I've brought it and I've forgotten to show her.

I did get with her about taking me to surgery, and formally asked YKWIA if he would come, too, since he's my medical surrogate. A is going to come over by bus when he gets off work and stay overnight with me.

I have to admit, I am a little nervous about the surgery and recovery. But with any luck it should go fine. I hope so, anyway. I have to be there very early on Friday morning, so I really appreciate Brenda and YKWIA taking me. I did overdo things a bit while cleaning today, and my knee hurts and my feet are very swollen, so I'm going to elevate my leg and ice my knee a bit. I've already made the switch from ibuprofen to acetaminophen in terms of preparing for the surgery (ibuprofen works best for me in terms of pain, but as an non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, it can make bleeding more likely if you take it before surgery). Here are some other things I need to do by Friday:

• Go to the pharmacy and get prescription refills for three people, including myself.
• Pay bills.
• Get an extra key, either from Brandon or, if he can't get it to me, I'll have to have one made for A in case he needs it.
• Get some things out of the walk-in closet I might need for recovery, like a shower chair and bedside commode (that goes over the regular toilet so I don't have to bend so far at the knee).
• Get absolutely as much as I can do at work for the week in four days.
• Make sure everything is ready at work in terms of backup in case I can't come back as quickly as I expect.
• Work out who will get YKWIA (either Brenda can get him on the way, or I could go get him that morning and meet her at my apartment).
• Get some documents together in case they are needed.
• Get the house ready for company.
• Put the sprayer on the kitchen faucet for bathing/washing hair.
• Make sure there is plenty of easy-to-make food, as A does not cook and I probably won't feel up to even trying.
• Blow up the air bed on Thursday night and put sheets, etc., on it, so A can stay the night comfortably.
• Move the laptop back to the bedroom Thursday night.
• Get the bedroom ready, making sure I have plenty of pillows, books to read, water bottle, etc.
• Lay out comfy clothes for the surgery the night before, transfer my purse stuff to a backpack, and have the walker ready to take even though I hopefully won't need it.

Meanwhile, here's to celebrating the first moon walk (and not the Michael Jackson kind) 45 years ago this evening, and I'm sorry to hear that actor James Garner had died. RIP. I think that's it for the night. I was going to write something else, but I must confess it's fled my mind. I guess I'm really sleepy. I'm going on to bed. Good night!

Time for a makeover

For whatever reason, my template decided to start spewing items on random parts of the page, making things difficult to read, plus it would no longer let me edit gadgets from the page when I was signed it like it should. Now, this blog is almost 13 years old, and has gone through a couple or three re-designs, with lots of coding, much of which I did myself, and with some layering of template designs upon one another, and quite frankly, I didn't want to go through line by line and try to debug the problem. And yes, this is a ready-made template that I thought worked well with my personality. (I like watercolours, I like art, and it kind of looks like someone just sort of splashed the paint onto the paper in an attempt at flowers or some such, and that seemed a good metaphor for how I sometimes see and live my life.) Anyway, feel free to give me some feedback. But something had to be done. Unfortunately, the translation gadget didn't seem to actually be doing much anymore, so I removed it. I hope that doesn't inconvenience anyone. Again, if you want it back, be sure to write me or comment, and I'll try to restore it properly.

While going through some of the links. I discovered that Abbie the Cat died last year, in fact it will be a year in just a few days. I'm so sorry to see that. I'm glad they kept the blog up as a memorial. I'm sure he was a good cat, and I know the pain of losing a beloved pet. While I didn't read Abbie's blog a lot, it made me smile each time I did.

I've got a friend lined up to take me to my surgery (poor thing, she lives in another county and I have to be there at 7 am on a Friday later in the month). I also have lined up a friend to stay with me that day, as I'm supposed to have someone with me during the first 24 hours. I think I'd probably be okay, but it's best if we go ahead and plan for him to be there. A friend offered to take care of me at his house like they did when I had oral surgery, but the problem with this is they have a bedroom and a large library, but no guest room, and I don't think I could get off the air mattress to go to the bathroom with my knee like it'll be--I kind of have to roll off onto my hands and knees usually. So instead, A will stay with me and he'll sleep on the air mattress (I just have one bedroom and a loveseat). I've promised him TV and munchies. I'll just blow up the air mattress the night before and put it in the living room and get it all set up with bedding.

I'm getting the library ready for anything that may happen if there are any complications or if I can't make it back as quickly as I'm planning to. I ordered toner for both copiers so there are two bottles of each type. I'll order paper before the surgery date. I'm doing some organising and rearranging, as well as cleanup of my desk area, removing some extraneous stuff.

I must confess I am somewhat nervous about the surgery and recovery, but it really has to be done. I am in pain daily, sometimes enough to take my breath away, especially in the afternoons and evening, and that's when I'm just sitting. I've been leaning on the other knee to take up the slack and it's actually hurting just as bad at this point. So I definitely need to take care of this.

Okay, it's almost 10:30 pm. I'm a little tired and cramping a bit. I'm finally starting my period, which is a week late, although I haven't really begun in earnest, so I'll wait to do my libation tomorrow night. I think I'm going to get some water, curl up with Alchemy of Murder, and afterwards go on to bed. I'd like to get to work a little early tomorrow as I overslept today and was about 15 minutes late. Then I'll be back on track time-wise. Good night. I hope you like the new design. Good night.

Seven hours before liftoff and I have decided that

I will just have to live with being a slob, and the house will not be straightened up, and the best I can do is take the trash out so nothing goes sour and live with it. It took an hour and a half to pack. I am terrified that I will oversleep. I have set no less than eight alarms on three devices, plus arranged for a co-worker who is insomniac to call me in the wee hours of the morning if she happens to be up. I don't know what else I can do.

One nice thing is that my CPAP humidifier comes off completely, halving the size. I'm carrying it in a very small bag, which includes my liquids, my medicines, my tablet, and Kindle. I'm not taking the laptop. I unfortunately could not fit the hose and face masque into the small bag, so it's in the rolling bag. Unless it's somehow too heavy, I should be able to not officially check that bag, but rather on a plane this small, they usually just tag it and put it in the back so as to free overhead compartment room.

I debated on saying anything about the timing of the trip, simply because it's an invitation for mayhem when you're away. Hopefully none of you who might be horribly drawn to crime are reading this and know where I live. I try not to be terribly specific. Someone might figure out the general location, but hopefully my specific apartment number isn't out there. But unless you plan on stealing books, there's not much of value in my house, really. :) Even the laptop is extremely basic.

Anyway, I'm charging up the electronics, I've packed and laid out my clothes for tomorrow. I'm going to wear my slip-on Birkenstocks through the airports but change to my regular walking shoes for sight-seeing. I tried to find a pair of pants that would have decent pockets in the front but still work for a business meeting, unlike my jeans, but alas, both Lane Bryant and Gabriel Brothers failed me. I called LB earlier and just asked, saving myself a trip to the mall. I went to Gabriel Brothers briefly to look, picking up a small umbrella, as there's about a 30-40% chance of rain tomorrow, and some underwear. On the way there was an accident involving a motorcycle. I don't think the cyclist was terribly hurt, as he was up and walking, but it tore his mirror off the cycle and I'm not sure what all else. I didn't actually see what caused him to wreck, just him falling, as I was several cars back, so I didn't wait for the police once he got up and got out of the street. But it was scary. I hope he's okay, although I suspect the bike is very much the worse for wear. But he didn't have a helmet on, so it could have been much worse. And I'm glad I wasn't involved. One, having been run over by a car, I try to avoid doing that to others. Two, the last thing I would need is a last-minute accident right before the trip. As you may remember, I was hit by a car last time I was supposed to go to Chicago.

So the only things left are to pull the CPAP back out, go to bed, get up early, take out the trash, and then get ready to head over to the airport. I should probably get some cash to tuck about my person, too, for the trip, while I'm still around an ATM that won't charge me. Good night.

Well, that's a relief

So, for some reason, I thought the Transportation Security Administration's 3-1-1 rule for liquids meant that the total liquid allowed was 3.4 oz, when it's individual bottles under that, with the quart-sized clear bag limiting the overall amount allowed per passenger. I was concerned because yesterday when I was at the optometrist's office, I asked for one of those little starter packs because they come with a travel-sized bottle, but the old ones were smaller than this one, which was 2 oz on its own. So I was trying to figure out what else I could take on my upcoming trip to Chicago. But I should be able to get that in the bag, along with the sample bodywash I have and some other necessities with no problem. And I don't have to include my injectable medicines, at least. So I'm good.

Things to do before the trip:
1. Clean house. I hate the idea of coming back to an unkempt house, and if (Gods forbid) anything happens, I'd hate for my friends and family to have to deal with my mess.
2. Figure out if I'm going to take my laptop or not. I don't really need to. It's a short trip, after all. I have other ways to get online, too. If I take it, I have to use its case as the second carry-bag, put my CPAP in larger bag (it will fit in the tiny case that came with the set, but I can't have that and the laptop bag, unless I check the larger case). Also, I'd have to put the following in the bins to be screened separately from the luggage: shoes and any jacket, laptop, CPAP, and liquids. That's quite a bit of bringing forth items through security.
3. Set a gazillion alarms the night before. I don't wake up easily like I used to. I have to get up by 3:30-4 am in order to get to the airport in time to go through security and be there for my flight, which is very early. The plan is to go to bed by 8 if possible, as I have a very busy couple of days once I wake up.
4. Do a little laundry. Yeah, I meant to do that this weekend. Mainly I want to make sure I have a couple of decent outfits and enough underwear, etc., for them.
5. Get all my printouts together. I have my confirmation to check in with, and definitely want a couple of copies of that, along with info on the sights and the actual meeting/seminar I'm going to.
6. Relax. Preparation got me through last time really well. And last time I did the whole trip and only spent $20. This time I should actually be able to have some fun.

Wish me luck.