Packing Day

So my mom was asking me what my plans are for the today and tomorrow (my last two days before airplanes take a day away from me) and I started spouting out all this stuff my friend and I were planning to do on Friday in preparation for a lovely New Years Eve party. (Yay, French macarons!)

"Well if you're going to do all that stuff on Friday then you had better pack tomorrow."

Shit... She's right. I hate it when she does that.

So I've made a list of the things I have to do before then:

Laundry — Because I don't know about you but I hate packing dirty clothes. That and I have a drier here.

Clean up all the messes I've left around the house — I swear I could easily be likened to a ten-week-long tornado blowing through my parents' apartment. I swear I'm not always this messy.

Go to the store and buy up all the stuff I won't live without and the things my friends in Prague requested I bring back for them. (See bottom of post for detailed list. It's kind of funny when you think about it.)

Pack...

Man I hate packing. I went through all my stuff that I've been storing at my parents' since I left and got rid of a lot of things. However, in the process, I also found a lot of stuff that I think I'd like to have with me for the next year and would especially like if I'm going to be living abroad for another two years. *ahem*cookbooks*ahem*

Well, the kitchen is clean, the living room looks decent and I'm doing laundry. I need to clean my room before I can even think about packing and honestly it wouldn't do much good to pack until I have everything, so it's time to go to the store. (But instead I'm procrastinating by blogging which also makes me feel productive. See how that works?)

Here's what is on my list:

• Mac 'n' Cheese - Honestly, I might fold on this one cause I make kick ass Mac from Scratch. (Can I copyright that?)
• Lipton's Chicken Noodle Soup - Again, have recently learned to make awesome chicken soup.
• Spices in bulk *I <3 HEB* (i.e. Cumin, Curry Powder, Chili Powder, Turmeric) - It's really difficult to buy spices in the Czech Republic because of the whole language barrier thing but also because they seem to think that cumin is cardamom... Cardamom does not belong in taco seasoning, ask my lovely roommates who kindly sucked it up and still said it was good. Either way, I can't trust the Czech's on spices until I start learning the language at which point I will proceed with caution.
• Corn tortillas - Yes, they have tortillas in the Czech Republic but they're rubbery and weird. A 50-count bag of tortillas can be frozen and last me forever (or I'll blow through them like hotcakes we'll see).
• Rudy's BBQ Sause - Yes, I know "Sause" should have a 'c' instead of an 's' but this is Rudy's we're talking about and in true Texas fashion they took the liberty of misspelling it for what I could only understand to be Southern redneck branding purposes.  
• Austin Grand Prize Peach Salsa - 'nough said.

Ok that's my list but then I took requests from some friends and had to add these few things.

• Snowcaps - That's a candy right? I hope so, otherwise I have some logistical questions.
• Reese's - Two people actually requested these.
• Tabasco sauce - The largest bottle I can find.
• An English-language Puzzle Book - Crosswords, Sudoku, Word Searches, whatever as long as it's in English.

There was also a request for crumpets, coke and hookers... But I'm not from the UK and though I'm sure coke and hookers could be crammed into a checked bag, I figure TSA is already looking for a stupid reason to strip search somebody I ought not to give them a good one.

One last thing, if you didn't see the mention for it from before, I'm starting a Project 365 on 1/1/11. Go check out Eyes of a Traveling Texan which launched yesterday and start following me now so you don't miss out on the first photo!