there's a total art to packing. the trick is to start at a timely manner so you're not running around last minute trying to shove everything into a suitcase all willy nilly. but if you start too early then you can't pack half of your stuff because it's either yet to be cleaned or used. i usually start making a list mentally about a week in advance, and then sit down to actually write it about three days later. since our flight is tomorrow night, i started taking out the stuff i needed already on Friday when i packed to go away for shabbos, but that was really so i felt like i was getting ready. this morning i went over my list one last time and then took everything out and packed it all. and it looks like i won't even need to sit on my suitcase to close it. then again, i haven't yet packed all the things I'm taking for other people, like the four pounds of jelly beans for my brother in law, or the Utz potato chips for my friend's brother in yeshiva. it looks like Mr. FCG might actually be packing more than me :)

so I've cleaned out my fridge, made sure i don't have anything due at the library, checked my passport, gotten instructions from my grandparents (we're staying at their apartment) and brushed up on my Hebrew. and we're off to Israel! going as a married person will probably be a wholly different experience than going as a seminary girl or on a family vacation with my siblings

why i love facebook

there comes a time when you have to grow up and step out from under your parents wings. I'm not talking about getting married and moving out. that i mastered pretty well. I'm talking about paying your own phone bill.

like most families, we had a family plan from Verizon, so it paid for me to stay on my parents plan, because it was cheaper than any single line plan i could find. but when sister2 needed a phone, someone had to get booted off the plan. so i was left to searching for a phone plan that would give me what i wanted without being too expensive.

i looked at Verizon, Spring, AT&T, Boost Mobile, Orange, and virtually every other phone company I'd heard of. but the plans were either very limited, way too expensive, or didn't have good service where i live.

so i networked. i updated my Facebook status to express my desire to join someone else's family plan. within ten minutes my friend commented on my status that she had an extra line that wasn't being used and was more than happy to add me to her plan. that was Sunday night. by Monday evening i was on a new plan, and sister2 could start shopping for a new phone.

even if I'd emailed everyone i knew, i don't think i would have gotten such quick results.

of course the three and a half hours i spent on the phone with a very inept woman named Julie who kept hanging up on me and didn't understand what i was trying to tell her is another story...