A month and change to go...

Listening to:
BONNIE PINK
Every Single Day (1995-2006)
track: "A Perfect Sky"

I've always been a procrastinator by nature, but if there's one thing that I learned in college, it's that one month is virtually no time at all. It sucks if you've got a ton of things to take care of, but kind of nice if you only have your weekends to look forward to. Right now? It's Sunday and I'm already waiting for next Saturday...still looking for that perfect sky. For what it's worth, I've been slowly (SLOWLY) making some preliminary preparations for my trip.

• My initial setup costs are looking to be pretty staggering. Yeah.
  
• I'm being told that men in Japan don't really use any deodorant. What's that all about? I wasn't counting on having to pack a year's supply of the stuff.
  
• My apartment comes furnished with all the essentials - washing machine, fridge, TV, rice cooker, etc. - not to mention something called a "shoes box." That got me momentarily excited for some stupid reason. It took me a minute to figure out that it was probably just the下駄箱 (getabako) that most Japanese houses have near the entrance.
  
• I'm also being told that it's pretty much impossible to get by in Okinawa without a car or a moped. I really can't see myself on a moped, so I guess my options are pretty limited in that department.
• The middle school that I'll be teaching at supposedly has one of the top basketball programs on the island, although I guess that's probably not saying much.
  
• Part of me wants to ship all of my sneakers over to my new place (I will have a "shoes box" after all), but part of me feels that this is the perfect opportunity to grow up and drop the habit altogether. I already told myself that I would sell off most of my CD and DVD collection, but that hasn't been progressing much either.
• More than anything else, I'm worried about my grandma and my dog. I initially had some misgivings about breaking the news to my grandma because she has a history of being dramatic about these types of things, but she took it really well. I guess you can't really ask for much more than friends & family who want the best for you.