this time tomorrow

it's interesting getting ready to travel to the other side of the planet and at the same time get ready to have a daughter. there are elements very similar to waiting for labor to fall upon you like a 20 ton boulder off the side of a mountain. there are other elements of the world adventure sort. you would think it would be non-stop fun but it really does start to get old. i wish i could make up my mind which thing to either be excited about or to be in complete dread over because the constant roller coaster is very tiring. i used to think i'd like to do one of those roller coaster marathons, you know, like they do for charity. but if it's like this, i'm not so sure anymore. (speaking of charity: help us build an orphanage in cambodia! see the link to the right.)

i've had various theories of preparation over the last year or so. one has been to try to learn mandarin. we'll see how that goes. i'm hoping to be, at the worst, an amusing if not slightly annoying very tall, very white stranger in a strange land. but i'm not going to be surprised if i cause some minor international incident. the words for horse and angry and mother are extremely similar. as are the words for chicken and prostitute. another theory i have is to try and switch over to chinese time before i even leave wichita. it's 8am right now in that case. i did take an incredibly long and late nap. so i sort of feel like i'm just waking up. i'll have cereal for dinner. in order for this to work i have to stay up the remainder of the night, too. the downside is that though my mind may be in china my body is still solidly in kansas and unless i want to try and sleep walk through the airports, my poor wife wheeling my lifeless body along with the luggage, i have to also stay awake through my usual day here as well. the truth is, i probably am not going to sleep much any way you slice it.

amy is re-re-re-re-re-re packing. clearly some of us deal with stress in more constructive ways than others.