Details.

My good friend, K Savvy, has been helping me understand that some people are better at details than others.
I am somewhere in the middle. Well, I think I'm in the middle.
With some situations, I'm perfectly fine not knowing the details. But for others, I like to know a lot.
This is pertinent to life right now, as I prepare to travel to South Africa.
I leave in 3 days.
No less than 14 days after I moved, and 9 days after I started my new job.
So . .. my life is all about details right now.
I am traveling to meet a friend, who will be guiding me around his country.
I'm quite fine with knowing general details about the itinerary, as I know that things will change, and I mostly think that a general schedule is fine.
Except that it feels like it has been pulling teeth to get an updated/concise schedule.
To be honest, I recieved a long version, which had a boatload of information that my friends and family here don't need. Like descriptions of Kruger National Park (where I will be for a couple of days) and Sea World in Durban. Very sweet, but also kinda random. And not what my mom wants to know.
Also? It was significantly different than the last, 1-page version.
*sigh*
Just thinking about it makes me crazy. And my desire for more details is no doubt driving my south african friend equally crazy. But at least I am owning this? Ha ha.
So I will not digress. Too far.

Back to the details. Today I'm trying to pull together what seems like a million little details to prepare for my trip. So I thought another "in the last hour (or day . .. I'll cheat a little this time), I've . .. "
1. Put together a 2-page contact/travel/flight/host/general South African information document for my friends and family. This might have taken all day.
2. Registered my trip with the state department. There's a cool travel program, for anyone who is traveling abroad, go to http://www.travel.state.gov/
3. Contacted my "old" bank to let them know that I was traveling out of the country, and could they please make a note on my account so I could please buy things while abroad? Please and thanks. [Not to be confused with the new bank, who I have already informed.]
4. Written out cheat-sheet of addresses for a few folks so I can send some postcards from the motherland.
5. Started pile of stuff to put in carry-on. Pile currently includes: iPod, iPod charger, cute-new-journal, neck pillow, bag of snacks and travel kleenex.
6. Started another "things to do before I leave for SA" list.
7. Tried to buy a bus ticket (to take to O'Hare, where I will fly to Columbus to get onto my original flight). [Side note:Why on earth did I think this was a good idea? From a budget perspective it was fabulous . . . but . . . now that I've realized that I need to get on the bus at 5:00AM on Wednesday morning to get to O'Hare in time (the 7am shuttle gets there an hour before my flight. I only have a carry-on. It COULD work. But I'm not risking it. So  . . 5-freaking-AM flight it is. Lame.)] But I have to print the ticket. So I can't do it at home. Argh.
8. Flipped through SA travel guide.
9. Freaked out because I feel like I have a million things to do.
10. Reminded myself that I have, in fact, already packed my "real" luggage, so . .. that's off the to-do list.
11. And then we get back to the details. The little stuff. That can add up and make a person crazy . .  so, left to do are:
  * Make copies of passport and drivers license
  * Print off airline tickets, specifically return-tickets, as to gain entry to the country, you have to prove, in fact, that you are also going to leave. :)
  * Email compilation of travel information to list o' people who want it
  * Call health insurance to see if I am covered in case - God Forbid - something happens to me while I'm gone
  * I'm sure there are other things that I should do. But I don't know what they are. Or even if they exist. I might be fine. OR? I could be forgetting something I should have thought of.

Details. The devil is certainly in them. I'm looking foward to getting on the plane(s) and enjoying the vacation instead of worrying about getting there.