This is really happening, isn't it?

Ok, so 'm 9 days out and it's just now beginning to hit me that this is not only actually going to happen, but it's gonna happen pretty damned fast. I'm getting myself psyched up by listening to a fine little Irish band from Boston called Dropkick Murphys. I particularly recommend "Flannigan's Ball" from their "The Meanest of Times" CD. A fine little ditty, it is.

Oh - I solved the whole trans-Atlantic telecommunications crisis. I bought a SIM card from Irish cell phone company O2 on Ebay and subsequently discovered that one of my "inventory" cell phones (an old Motorola V400) was shipped from the factory unlocked, so I just popped the Irish SIM card in and I had an instant Irish cell phone. Cool. Of course, there was much drama surrounding the "topping up" of the phone, but the details make my hair hurt, so I'll spare you. I did get to speak to O2 customer service in Dublin. The woman I spoke to was appropriately aloof, bored and possessed an accent the thickness of which I feared had long left the old country. Yeah, this is gonna be cool.

My itinerary is not solidified as of yet, but I do have a general outline. Of course, I'll be based in Sligo, in northwest Free Ireland. From there, I can make day trips to Dublin, Galway, the southwest and southwest coasts - all of which are in Free Ireland. I also plan to do day trips to Belfast and Derry in Occupied Ireland - just to piss off the English.

My dedicated pile of "take with" stuff is growing nicely. I now have three (maybe four) pairs of flannel-lined pants, a nice wool hat, full sized headphones, a GPS unit with maps of Free and Occupied Ireland, voltage converters and adapters, a spare battery charger thingy, a really cool National Geographic camera bag that's big enough to hold my Nikon, two lenses, GPS, netbook, sunglasses and at least two packs of smokes.

Now, all I have to do select my shoes...