I am going on my first trip to Europe tomorrow. In fact, other than a brief layover in Toronto, it’s my first trip out of the country. It’s about 15 years later than I had originally intended, but I think that’s a good thing. I have the resources to do it right. I am wise enough to know the necessity for relaxation, and how to throw myself into that with abandon. And I have a new friend Roy to show me around and have a fun time with.

The itinerary is approximately:

• Lyon fr: 12-15 may
• Entrecasteaux fr: 15-18 may
• Munich de: 18-20 may
• Dresden de: 20-21 may
• Berlin de: 21-24 may
• London uk: 24-27 may

I’ll be hanging with Roy, seeing his (or his friends’) performances, and eating a lot through Berlin (where he is also real estate hunting), then I’ll head to London to hang with Sean (and possibly Erik?) for a few days. I unknowingly planned my return on Memorial Day weekend, which is perfect, as it gives me a few days to force my system back into a rhythm with my alternating friends benedryl and caffeine.

The operas I’m seeing are:

• Alcina (Roy’s) in Lyon
• Orlando in Munich
• Dead Man Walking in Dresden (in English. I’m speechless on this one ;))
• and Volpone in Berlin… actually that one is a play.

Tomorrow is final countdown to an early evening departure. I need to go get some traveler’s cheques and euros for when I land, shave my head one last time, remind people to feed my cat, repack the bags, double check my lists for all the silly shit like phone + adaptor, ipod + adaptor, computer + adaptor, camera + adaptor, adaptors for the adaptors etc. etc. etc.

I was going to try to get away with no computer (and rely on Roy’s or internet cafes), but I *really* want to document my trip on flickr and in my blog. Doing so on unfamiliar machine’s without my favorite tools around me will make it slightly to very annoying, which means I will be less inclined to do a good job with it. So… I am taking the works.

MONEY TICKETS PASSPORT DARLING!

I’ve spent the last week ripping movies to my iPod (which will likely be unnecessary as I sleep deeply on planes) and practice packing. Yes. I said that. Martha would be proud. I’m borrowing a nifty suitcase from Stacia and needed to see if it would hold all the crap I want to take. Work also EXPLODED. I naturally had to accelerate some stuff to make sure it was as done as I could get it before I left. And handing stuff over to others. But new and random projects came out of the woodwork at the last minute… and to boot, we had a non-trivial reorganization, and I was in the weird/nifty position of choosing my own path. I am happy with my choice (and would have been almost equally happy with the other one. Go figure.)

But… at 5pm today I walked out the door and disabled my mail account. I will be utterly incommunicado until my return on the 30th. That. feels. so. good.

Jesus this post is so disjointed. I am buzzing with excitement and bone tired.