Jan. 5: Both my sister and I had gift certificates to a nice restaurant at South Coast Plaza so we decided to take my mom out to lunch with them. I haven't been shopping with my mom and sister in about fifteen years - it will be longer until the next time. The lunch was great, then next four hours were almost hellish.

Jan. 6: Picked up another prescription for Larium from Harvey. I realized that it's only three more days until I leave my parents, so I started packing - I hate packing so I didn't make it very far. Spent most of the day working on my mom's new web page (check out JulitaJones.com).

Jan. 7: Met Dana downtown for lunch at Henessy's - Dana's a friend from University who lives in New York so isn't around much. After lunch we went back to my parent's and looked at photos. When she left I walked around downtown looking for shoes. At night I went up to Chris and Chanthu's house and watched the video The Perfect Storm with them and said goodbye. I was up very late getting a head start on packing.

Jan. 8: Last day. Did some more work on my mom's web page, and spent a big chunk of the day creating a cover for my dive log (scanned all the stamps from various clubs out of my log). I'm in trouble now as neither my phone or my contacts were in the mail and if I wait an extra day before heading North I may not be able to get my visa for India before heading to Bangkok. I the evening I went to Sav-On to pick up last minute sundries and a travel prescription, and make some copies of some photos for Amy. Of course I spent an hour doing the photos first, then found out there was an hour wait at the pharmacy - so I was there for a long time. At home I had dinner with My parents and Melinda and Gary then spent some more time on the computer. Once again I was up very late packing for tomorrow's departure.