Aren't vacations supposed to be relaxing?

It's funny how stressful the last day before a 10-day vacation can be.

I was so excited I couldn't sleep last night (and can't sleep tonight for that matter considering it's 2 a.m.).

Not falling asleep until 6 a.m. translated into not waking up until 2 p.m. when I realized, "Crap I only have one hour until the bank closes!"

I still needed to wire transfer the money for my fancy schmancy resort. They were supposed to have e-mailed me the SWIFT code and routing number for their bank, but had apparently forgotten, so I had to call them. I am so glad I have Skype for international long-distance calls.

The woman gave me a horrendous code and I hauled butt from one bank to another only to make the most stressful and unorganized wire transfer of all time. I'm still not convinced it worked (the lady gave me the wrong SWIFT code and we looked it up...) especially since I got a phone call from a strange number while I was in class.

I will have to call the bank tomorrow to make sure it went through, otherwise I'm going to tell Amorita it's their fault and they'll have to take the $60 I already have in my bank account and just wait until I get there for the rest.

Otherwise, everything with Amorita has been pleasant. I can't completely fault them for this. I did wait until the last minute. They're even giving us an upgraded room without extra charge because they ran out of the regular rooms.

Hello third-floor room with its own little "living room" and an ocean view balcony.

I can put up with a little idiocy from a secretary in the reservation office as long as the service and accommodations are actually as glorious as all the reviews say they are.

Otherwise, I continue to stress out about weather and, honestly, Mother Nature in general. She seems to be a bit pissed off at Asia.

I'm only making an observation and don't mean for it to come off distastefully but wow. Four tsunami waves pummeled Samoa and American Samoa and then an earthquake in Indonesia flattened buildings. Then there's Typhoon Ketsana that flooded Manila last week and then slammed into the Vietnamese coast.

All of that inside of a week.

Then right this very moment Typhoon Parma — at a whopping Category 4 — is ravaging Luzon Island in the northern portion of The Philippines. Hopefully Manila doesn't suffer too badly from this one. It looks like Bohol Island is merely getting a light rain so that's good.

Then there's Typhoon Melor. It's hard to tell what that one is going to do. It's up to a Category 4 in Western Pacific right now. To me, it looks like Melor is headed straight for Taiwan, but the forecast says she's going to make a funky U-turn and wind up beating on Japan's southern (eastern?) coast.

Can you tell I've been obsessing over the weather?

In fact, since I couldn't sleep last night, I looked up videos of tsunamis. I wanted to know what they're like.

I always imagined a gigantic tidal wave that crashes onto beaches (You know, like The Day After Tomorrow Style) and those who were hanging out in the sand or playing in the water had no chance at getting away... Really, it seems that's not always the case. You could potentially be standing on the beach and manage to get far enough away or high enough up to be safe. Though I suppose the flooding afterward is a whole other thing.

In fact, as far as what I could see in the video, the real dangers seem to lie in all of the stuff that could get swept into you or the building you're in (i.e. cars, boats, glass breaking, furniture moving with the flood waters and trapping you into a wall).

Though I obviously have no idea and I certainly don't know what the recent tsunami in Samoa was like. I suppose it could have been like a tidal wave. I did see a picture of a rather large boat on the side of a highway. That's telling.

And frightening for that matter.

Point is someone needs to take my Wundermap away from me before my head explodes while trying to think of all the variables involved in our potential vacation ruin.

I'm supposed to be relaxing now that my vacation technically began five hours ago, right?

How many storms does it take to ruin a vacation?

The answer is "Somewhere between two and four."

I've been obsessing over the weather ever since Ketsana plowed through The Philippines and threatened my vacation. Apparently there are three more storms on its coat tails.

From left to right you will see the path Tropical Storm Ketsana took before it became a typhoon and slammed into Vietnam. Next is Typhoon Parma which is already forecast to hit a Category 3 and effect both the northern portion of The Philippines (i.e. Manila again) and possibly southern Taiwan as well.

Then there is Tropical Depression Eighteen. I have no idea what to think about that one.

Last but not least is Tropical Storm Melor which is forecast to become a Category 1 typhoon as we are all switching our calendars to October. Melor is also forecast to head toward Taiwan.

Of course, we all know how fickle these storms can be (in other words, how rarely meteorologists get it right this far out). We have days before we can be sure what will happen.

It looks as though two of them are headed for Taiwan. The Central Weather Bureau here is going nuts. They're watching and waiting on the edge of their seats. I think they're probably nervous that they'll mess up like they did with Morakot and people are going to get angry again.

Then again, Morakot was also a much slower storm than what Parma is forecast to be. It was barely a Category 1 storm when it made landfall.

My hope is that these things don't mess with Taiwan too much until after Meghan gets here. I don't want her to get stranded in Hong Kong or something like that. At least if she gets here we can hole up in the apartment together and weather the storm drinking wine, watching movies and talking about boys.

Then hopefully it will all have passed by the time we're ready to head out to The Philippines.

Darn storms going and messing up all my plans. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll just all dissipate into thin air.