to do...

hepatitis A vaccination...check!
typhoid vaccination...check!
vaccination agains 'traveller's diarrhia'...check!
passport finally picked up...check!
'culture shock, thailand' picked up from local library...check!
mercifully tiny three dollar overdue fee paid...check!
copy of oscar wilde's 'the picture of dorian gray' purchased from garage sale on the way home...check!
agreement to bring digital camera to young girl in thailand who forgot it at home turned in to agreement to bring digital camera and small duffel bag full of other items family forgot at home...check!

things are really coming along.

in related news, it is concrete fact and no longer suspicious rumor that needles make me faint. any and every piercing i've ever gotten (except for my ears, which were done with a gun, and my belly button, which was done my this really cute irish guy in amsterdam who distracted me with his witty irish banter) has made me light-headed to the point where i've had to lie down. i tried to give blood a few months ago, but when they pricked my finger to check my iron levels, i full on passed out (how embarrassing). today, when given my (mercifully combined into one) hep A and typhoid shot, i was dizzy almost immediately and had to lie down and drink a juice box. i am, what they call, a sissy. i know it's not going to hurt, and that it's no big deal, but i get myself all psyched out...

in related news, i borrowed a book from the library last summer and hadn't finished by the time i returned to abbotsford, so i gave it (a big ole hardcover) to my friend robyn to return at her leisure. what with one thing and another, her leisure was unavailabe for at least a month, so it was with great trepidation that i approached the library counter. *wah wah* went the computer, as my card was scanned. i'm picturing my face with one of those 'no smoking' circle-and-a-lines forever banning me from abusing the system, or reading for free (one of my chief delights, and proof of a God). 'ok, ma'am, we'll just have to renew your card real quick, is your information still *blah blah blah* and you have a three-dollar fine. would you like to pay it now, or later?' *relieved giggle* i can pay that now.

in related news, it's great to be back in the lower mainland. true, i had to transit out to get my shots done, but translink picks me up a block from my house and drops me off a block from the vaccinators (granted, i have to transfer twice, but that's a gripe for the unsufferably spoiled). returning to metrotown, i walked two blocks to pick up my passport, walked another block to the library, and then strolled the seven or eight blocks home. i don't have my license because up until now (and my transit commuting nightmare of the past month), i've never had to.
'
i still only travel by foot, and by foot it's a slow climb/but i'm good at being uncomfortable, so i can't stop changing all the time.' - fiona apple (extraordinary machine)