You guys! It's the last day of the year!

A crazy amount of stuff has happened and I'll probably take time to reflect on that later, and probably more on my own time so that I'm not rehashing it all here.

Anyway, I have errands later, then the hockey game. It's a really good thing that I'm getting out tonight, because I really just need to get away from the Brazil crap for a while.

Now I have a better picture of how things work, but the major issue (time) is still the major obstacle. So now I'm looking into maybe going to Chicago for a day or two to try to handle it in person. It might cost a bit, but after all the shipping and service fees I might just end up even. So... any good hostels in downtown Chicago somewhere between the Consulate (401 North Michigan Ave.) and the Greyhound station? The only times I've been to Chicago I've been with family so I haven't dealt with accommodations or transportation, so this could be a fun new experience.* ETA : OR. I can use Megabus and overnight so that I'm there early in the morning, then that night return? Plus if I do it this way, it's only like $50. Hmm.

Additionally, the travel agent my mom uses is out of her office until next Monday, so I can't work on some of the paperwork with her. So basically, a break really is called for.

Now I'm going to go try to think good thoughts (like how I only have two more days of work!) and watch a movie or something.

I hope everyone has a great New Year's Eve!

* : The sarcasm here isn't because I have anything against Chicago, but rather the visa process which NEVER ENDS.

I'm better now, I think. At least I'm not freaking out quite as much.

I have my immunization appointment, and I went in to the county building and got another state ID (I forgot to mention in the last post that I lost mine whoknowswhere). I've also been contacting the different agencies about the visa issue and there's actually some good news - I get an extra five days because it's only necessary that you have to enter the country before it expires, not leave.

So now the major freak out point is money. Because the future expenses keep adding up and I'm pretty sure I have enough in my checking account to cover it as long as there are no emergencies. But I'll have hardly anything when I'm done. It's actually really frightening.

Though it is making me even more determined to try to do the Korea thing. I'm about 95% certain now that, if they accept me, that's what I want to do next.

Maybe I'll feel a bit better tomorrow. Work (three more days!), then stopping at the mall (where I will not be buying anything, but I do have a B&N exchange and giftcard), a stop at a bank to see if I can finally get all my Euros exchanged, and then getting to see my camp friend and her friends! Not too bad, actually.

My mind is doing that stupid thing where it goes a mile a minute and I can't stop obsessing over what needs to be done and how little time I have to do it and what am I going to do and what if it fails.

I still needs vaccinations, I still don't know what I'm going to do about the Brazil visa, I still don't know where all I'm going to go. I need to go to the dentist and I want to try to donate blood before I leave (which in itself is always this terrible ordeal for me and has only successfully happened one time).

I did get a few things accomplished today - thank-you notes from Christmas, cleaning my room, calling for vaccination information (even though they replied too late for me to set up an appointment).

OMG how am I going to pay for South America? The flights are so much more expensive than I remembered, and I don't have enough time to only take buses.

I know I need to relax, but I only have a month left. Which seems like so much, but if I don't start getting this done I'm so screwed and I could be stuck on another continent and all my friends will have already come to the MN for camp and there will be no one to bail me out. :(

PLUS LJ is being dumb and not loading and everything is just mildly aggravating today.

First off, YAY FOOTBALL. Barely, barely the Vikings were able to win, becoming division champions and making it to post-season. Sure, they won't make it much farther, but it's nice to win every once in a while.

Other than the terrifying last few minutes of that game, I had a nice day visiting with my grandmother. After all her health scares in the last couple of years it looks like she's doing pretty well.

I got part of my Christmas present from my dad - a South America travel guide, and an intro to the Korean language. It's a little silly, but it's nice because it's his way of showing his support for all my little adventures. My mother is kind of the opposite in that way - she accepts them, and does what she can to help when I'm here, but she's never overly enthusiastic about it. Either way I'm extremely lucky, but it's interesting to see how they are (once again) very different.

FOUR MORE DAYS OF WORK!

Christmas was good. Way too much food and too many presents, but everyone was happy and laughing. :)

Tomorrow I have to start work at 2:00 a.m. and I am not happy about this. I just have to remember that after that shift I'll only have five more days. I can do this, even though it will be painful.

Wow it's late. Today we drove in to SLP to my (old?) church for the afternoon/kids service. Which is kind of weird, because even though the building, decorations, and even costumes haven't changed in my lifetime, I didn't recognize 90% of the people there. There are so many memories there, but it was just wrong.

Then it was dinner with my mom's cousins and their kids at my aunt's house. Most of my close family was not there, but it was kind of nice meeting up with my second cousins, most of whom I haven't seen since I was about six years old. That was definitely interesting.

I still can't believe that it's Christmas Eve. Time has gone by really fast.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a wonderful day tomorrow (or had one today, or whenever people plan on doing most of their celebrating)!

Some best songs of the 80s is on VH1 right now, and I've forgotten just how scary Steven Tyler's mouth is. Seriously though. I used to actually have nightmares about his mouth.

Do they still have the Storytellers program? I haven't seen ads for that in forever, so maybe not. I never actually watched that show, but I still love the SNL version of Neil Diamond's Storytellers. I hate that the only versions of that online are from the 25th anniversary.

And that's all I've got, so I guess it's back to Merlin.

Don't you hate it when you want something to be over so badly, just so that you can say you've completed it, but at the same time you don't want it to end?

I finally finished that series - fifty episodes in like a week or something ridiculous like that. And while I rushed through it because I wanted to know what was next and how it ended, I always am sad when it ends. Partly because I can't follow the characters anymore, partly because it gave me something to watch and think about for a while.

Though now I have time for Merlin, right pleiades? :)

Having a show I'm not crying over will be a nice change of pace I think.

I just don't know about anything anymore. No, that's not true. More like I just can't think about anything right now.

Some combination of too much television, no real life activities that are actually challenging and interesting... I don't know.

And now Firefox isn't working at all, and I don't like IE and don't have the patience to get anything else and I'm trying to watch a show online and it's streaming sooooo slowly.

Everything is just really depressing right now.

Wait - when did it get to be 10:00?

Anyway... the U of M's Men's Basketball this year is good. Or at least, they are right now. It's still early.

And with everything from yesterday, I forgot my good news: only two more weeks of work! Of course I'm going to miss the money part of it, but January 3rd is the last day I'll have to get up at 3:15! Then I'll have a few weeks to spend in Minneapolis and getting everything together before I leave.

The other stuff from yesterday is still pretty horrible and won't be better for a long time. :(