17 days and counting till we leave for our first overseas trip. How do you keep yourself sane towards the end? How come it seems as if the before my trip chores and need to do list keep growing! Send soothing words PLEASE! ANy last minute advice?

Find a naked man!

If your before-trip chores keep growing, I guess you proabably don't have time to groom all those flying monkeys, do you?

Enjoy these last two weeks of anticipation--they're an important part of your trip! Now's the time to get out the guide books that you read when you started planning and look at them again. Try to actually plan which days you'd like to see what things. Make a VERY LOOSE agenda.<BR><BR>Now go to the bookstore and pick out a paperback or two to read on the plane. Get a clean journal. Clean your shoes. Call your credit card providers and give them the dates you'll be using the card out of the country (and which countries). Call and stop the paper and mail.<BR><BR>Check the batteries in anything portable you're taking.<BR><BR>Little things like that will be stressless reminders that you leave soon.<BR><BR>Have a great trip!

Or, drink.

Hio<BR><BR>mel said .........Call your credit card providers and give them the dates you'll be using the card out of the country (and which countries). <BR><BR><BR>Why ?<BR><BR>Does the computer care where you are ?<BR><BR>Peter<BR>

But seriously -- how exciting! There's a thread here about first overseas trips, worth reading. <BR><BR>I find this helps me: when I find myself *thinking* about what I need to bring (security money belt, euros, etc)... get a big bag, start tossing stuff in as you remember it. By the time you're getting ready to pack, you'll already have a lot of stuff at your fingertips.

Remember- as long as you have tickets, passports, money and itineries you can buy anything else where ever you go!!!!<BR>Remember to get your post redirected and cancel papers etc.

......deux!

Peter... you need to do this so it does not appear as 'unusual activity' on your card and it ends up being unusable! Call and let the CC companies know you're traveling and you could save yourself from a HUGE hassle. I notified mine a month in advance and that was fine.

Peter, the above poster hit the nail on the head. It works the other way, as well. Your card company puts a note in your file that the card won't be used in the states during that period of time so if someone gets your number they can't use it as easily, either.

Hey, another W.W.! <BR><BR>The only thing that keeps me sane is LISTS. I have a to-buy list, a to-call list, a to-take list (subdivided: to pack in suitcase; to pack in carryon, etc.), and a misc. to-do list for things that don't end up on the other lists. I also have a to-do-on-return list of things (like paying a certain bill or making a certain phone call) that I'm terrified I'll forget once I'm distracted by my trip.<BR><BR>I leave the lists on a table with a pencil so I can add to them and cross things off. I feel much more organized knowing that if I wake up at 3 am with something I'm terrified I will forget, I can put it on the list. Half the time, it's already there!<BR><BR>I also have discovered that one thing that makes me much calmer about the possibility of forgetting something crucial is that I have a red zippered case, about 6 by 11, in which I put the essential trip-doesn't-happen-without-them documents: tickets, itinerary, passports, phone numbers, vouchers, photocopies of drivers' license, etc. Knowing that red pouch is VERY visible in my carryon is somehow reassuring.<BR><BR>Otherwise, remember that you are not visiting Mars -- almost anything you forget, they have "over there."

Wicked Witch:<BR><BR>The unwritten rule of overseas travel is that by the time you get to the airport, you've never needed a vacation so badly in your life, just by virtue of having planned for it.<BR><BR>Lists ARE crucial! I make a packing list, a to-do list, a schedule, and all kinds of other lists that normal travelers wouldn't have to make, and I do check them off and recheck them before I lock the front door. <BR><BR>Drink, yes, in combination with tooling around the neighborhood doing test-runs with your packed 22" roll-on, is a good antidote to total pre-vacation paralysis.<BR><BR>Just make sure you know where the passports, the airline tickets, and the keys to your house are.

Advice: Start packing if you haven't already. Don't leave it for the last week, too stressful.

Great ideas! Thank you. I have started the to pack pile and several lists and am also rereading my printouts and books somewhat. I have prepaid bills, arranged to have the yard cared for and pool. I will call credit card companies today. I have snack packs started for the plane, books to pass the time, emergency numbers for us and hotel/flight plans for family, addresses for post cards, copies made of all documents... The anticipation is so high! I feel high sometimes! I think it's part of the packaged deal. I feel ready but crazy! Thanks again for the advice. Oh by the way Capo I always have time for my monkeys! Elvira I can drink while I do my lists and Oh brother, I never go without my naked man! Best stress reliever there is! Thanks again all! Have a safe summer.

The naked man - is that the TravelSmith or the Orvis catalog?