Nearly Final Thoughts

Here's the text of an email I just sent to my parents. They'll probably read it here first, anyway. It adequately sums up how I'm feeling at the moment (totally crazed) and doesn't require additional effort from me, so I can get pack to figuring out how I can turn 30 kg into 22 through willpower and magic. If you have suggestions, let me know.

The email:

Can you just let me know for sure that you have my info and know how
to find me on Thursday? I won't have a phone, but should be at the
baggage claim area for my Aeroflot flight from Moscow by 4:30 at the
latest, barring any delays (that's giving myself an hour to get off
the plane and through customs). If I don't see you I will just sit and
wait until you find me or another family adopts the poor orphaned
stray.

Remember almost 10 years ago when you picked me up from my first
living abroad experience? It was probably JFK and not Dulles, but I
was broke and exhausted, and that's how I'm coming home this time,
too. If we stop for hamburgers, sorry, but you're buying (I'm having a
conflict with my landlady about the fact that she is estimating twice
what I think I owe for utilities. I broke their lamp, so I'm probably
going to let them cheat me, which takes care of every last bit of
cash. If I'm overweight on baggage I'm in a LOT of trouble at the
airport). At least this time I won't be hungover and super skinny.
Actually, the super skinny wouldn't be all bad, but I think those days
are behind me.

Tonight I'm packing and a friend is coming to pick up the clothes and
kitchen stuff I am donating to a local DV shelter, then I study for my
exam. Tomorrow I desperately try to find a box (who knew it would be
so hard? I didn't. I should have) to send stuff to myself, have a
lunch with a friend, take my final, buy some souvenirs, meet my RA for
the last time (she is all of a sudden moving to Dubai in two weeks, so
things are kind of crazy on that front, too), re-pack, clean, have
another friend over to order pizza and have her laugh at me while I
prove, once again, how terrible I am at the whole "travel" part of
being a traveler. People keep giving me stuff, which isn't helping.
Last night my RA's family had me out to their place for dinner and to
see the person they've heard all about, and of course I came home
loaded with goodies that I can't take into the US and can't pack even
if I could.

See you soon! If you forget, I'm the really pale tired and bloated
looking one with the reddish hair that everyone assures me has turned
brown with age. I'll be wearing glasses and a red coat. Can't miss me,
although I'll be less conspicuous than I have for the past year. Can't
just say "red headed and foreign looking" as a description anymore.