all my bags are packed, I'm ready to go

Wednesday, 01/13/16, 3:33pm

We're on the final stretch of Nasser's work trip. He lands in Denver tomorrow morning, then picks up a set of our friends who fly in soon after him. We have 5 friends flying in for the weekend, along with another 5 of us joining who live in Colorado. We're going to be leaving our kids with my parents starting Friday, heading up to the mountains to ski Saturday/Sunday, heading back home with people having flights out on Monday. I am so excited. I've done a lot of planning for this trip, starting way back last summer with the initial emails to gauge interest from friends. It's going to be a mix of people, with Nasser and me at the center of knowing everyone. Some friends from high school, college, and beyond. We're going to be renting a home in Frisco, walking distance to the little downtown, has a private hot tub and a grill.

I've been stressed and busy planning this trip at various points over the last few months, but I'm at a point where we're almost there and there's almost nothing (or at least not much) left to be stressed about. I've already bought about half of the food that we plan to drive up, I've started setting aside clothes for packing, I think most of the logistics are handled for how everyone is getting up to the mountains, and I know the house that we're staying at is good since we've stayed there before.

As I'm writing this I am thinking about various things to worry about of course; someone mentioned there was snow in the forecast for Friday, there will be a ton of people driving up at the same time as us despite weather conditions, hmmmm, maybe I should figure out a way for us to leave earlier on Friday, I still have to buy the rest of the food but I think I can send Nasser and/or friends out to get the liquor Friday morning before we leave...

Stop.

I think I need to make some more lists, huh?

Oh right, I wrote out a schedule for the next several days through Friday. Maybe I should just look at that.

I'm neurotic sometimes, huh? A schedule? Yeah, yeah I am.

Anyway. I'm super excited and stressed about the next few days, and Nasser returning from his trip ok, and I should be getting to my list of things to do, but here I am blogging instead. This is one of those times where I need it though, right?

A few days ago, Nasser told me that his boss wanted him to schedule his India trip soon, like in the first 2 weeks of February (for a week's duration). Work had gotten all his passport and visa stuff taken care of at the end of last year for the possibility of there being an India trip "soon". But that's all we knew. Now here it is.

The trip is almost booked or booked now for the first week of February. It really sucks. He has to leave Saturday evening and comes back the following Saturday night. It totally sucks.

I realized today, when looking at the calendar, that Nasser has work trips 3 of the next 5 weeks (including this one). It sucks.

Granted, he doesn't travel like this all the time. His trips aren't really that often, but somewhat regular each quarter of the year. And he gets a lot out of every trip, having face time with the people he works with in San Diego. And it will be really good for him to finally meet a lot of the people in India. This is, I believe, his first international trip. And India is a lot further than Europe, so the travel on either side kinda just sucks. A lot. And really it's rare that he has to travel on weekends, although there was that trip just last fall.

Hmmmm.

Yeah I don't like Nasser traveling a lot for work.

He doesn't like it either though. So at least we're on the same page there.

Sigh. But I'm still excited about the in between the trips times over the next few weeks. Poor Nasser, with the traveling so much. He doesn't get to see the kids much in between these San Diego trips, because he also flies out Monday evening along with many of our friends, but then we have a family ski trip planned a week after he gets back from India. Lots and lots of travel.

I'm doing pretty well this trip so far. No major breakdowns, I'm getting a ton of help from my parents which is making all the difference. And I even have friends helping me out, between texting words of support, coming and hanging out with me, providing a ride to school for RG. It's great.