Trip within a trip

We'll be in New York City three days before we leave for Mexico. Goodness gracious...We've spent twice the energy planning for those three days than the entire Mexico leg. It should start coming together tonight though. Looks like we'll be doing some fun things...with a splash of Arabic. Stay tuned.

Ugh...

That quart-size bag gets smaller and smaller with every trip.

Black Friday

Today was so-called "Black Friday," and, in prep for the ever-nearing convention, I made the following purchases:

A Casio EXILIM Ex -Z33, a humble point and shoot that retails for about $130. My sister and I paid 89.99 plus 5% VA retail tax (boo!). Radio Shack ever so kindly included this gizmo with the purchase:

This is a Polaroid PoGo instant mobile printer. Plug-in your camera through the USB cable provided, and it will print out 2"X3" sticky-backed photos. Fun. It normally retails for about $60, but again, it was free with a $40 in-store credit and $20 mail-in rebate. I also needed (well, since I only owned micros) a 4 GB SanDisk SD card, which set me back $10. They said that was a sale price, but I wouldn't have paid much more.

I also realized yesterday that I needed flats for the convention. A random text message I received a couple days ago for an additional 20% off Black Friday prices persuaded me to go to Payless. I left with the following:

A google search for "Dexter Noir Charlotte" rendered nothing. So I'll describe them. Black, matte, patent-leather flats with a wide--also black--buckle across the toe. They retail for $25. If you want to know why I didn't use my new camera to take a picture of the shoes, the answer is I'm lazy. Second pair:

These are American Eagle Purple Cecil Button flats. They retail for $20.

Payless's BOGO (buy one, get one half off) deal, plus my text coupon brought the grand total to $29.38.

DAY'S GRAND TOTAL: $129.38

I think I'm done. I think.

The ground rules

We got our two-page letter from the society last night on the dos and don'ts of the international convention. Here are the highlights:

• Pack light (They suggested two outfits. I'm sure that's open to interpretation)
• No jeans :(
• Be savvy. Carry little in town and only use taxis/transport recommended by the hotel.
• Be courteous and wear your lapel badge at all times. We are not only representing ourselves but Jehovah.
• 3 oz liquids in a quart-size bag
• Did I mention no jeans?

I can do this.

Finally

This will be my travel blog, something I've been meaning to do for ages, but never actually did. As travel is often on the fly, snatches of time for writing can be frenzied and harried, and I tend to pour my memories out like some Jack Kerouac, steam-of-conscience novel, I make no promises about the quality of the grammar, photography or any other aspect of this blog. But only my dear friends will be reading this anyway, and I think y'all knew that already.