This wasn't supposed to be a part of the preparation

Warning: This is just going to turn into a few paragraphs of bitching and moaning and a photo from inside me.

The last few weeks of my life has been crazy.  All in preparation for spending the next 5 months in Antarctica.  I've done over a hundred pages of paperwork.  Then each page was scanned and e-mailed or faxed in.  Some forms had to be faxed three times because people couldn't seem to keep track of stuff.  Finally I got word that everything was good to go.  Except for a plane ticket.  I asked my boss how that process would work since I was supposed to leave in 4 days.  Her reply was "You'll have a ticket, it just might not be until the night before."

Then my computer screen died with absolutely no way to fix before I hopped on a plane.  Had to get a new one because how else am I going to process the thousands upon thousands of photos I'll take down there and watch all those episodes of Family Guy, Seinfeld and Macgyver I just downloaded.

Just to top it all off I had to have my Appendix taken out yesterday.  I guess it is better that this happened now instead of on a 15 hour plane ride over the the Pacific or at some remote field camp in Antarctica.  After 13 hours of pain I was planning on simply going back to sleep.  But just for the heck of it I called one of my favorite people ever who is in Med School right and and she absolutely insisted that I go to the ER.  A couple of hours later they took it out.  Thanks for Dorothy for making me go in.

They said my Appendix was twice the size of normal.

Its crazy that there is a small chance that I could still fly out of here on Thursday.  I'd rather have a couple more days to recover though.  I'll end up missing a really valuable Search and Rescue training in New Zealand, but hopefully I'll still get to fly onto the Ice on October 1.

I'll keep the updates flowing.  I'll also soon post my address in McMurdo Station.