I had lunch at Chevy’s (I was craving the table-side guacamole) and when I got back home, I accomplished several more tasks:

I upgraded my return flight from London/Heathrow to Business Class. I was 470 miles short of what I needed, but sometime last night, my 4,000 bonus miles for joining United’s Red Carpet Club came through and I was able to upgrade my flight. I made use of Seat Guru to make sure I chose good seats in Business Class on the return flight. (I also changed my seat on my outbound flight to a better seat–at least according to Seat Guru.) Now both of the long legs of my trip have been upgraded to United Business. I’ve flown Business on a 777 before and in my opinion, business class on a 777 is far better than First Class on a 2-class airplane, like a 757.

Having done that, I began to collect all of my itineraries and other travel-related information into a binder. I’ve got all of the paperwork in page-protectors, and organized in the order of the trip, with a reference section at the back. It includes my notes and recommendations that I’ve gathered for the various cities, in the proper order. It even has tips on the various airports I will be going to. I know it sounds a little OCD, but I’ve never traveled internationally before and I want to make sure I’ve got everything in order. The system may collapse once I realize everything is easier than it sounds, but at least with my binder, I’ll be relatively stress-free.

I photocopied my passport data page, which is recommended, so that you can keep it in your stateroom on the ship.

I completed all but one load of laundry, the last being a small load that I’ll do tomorrow to basically take care of what I was wearing today and yesterday.

I called Rich and left a message for him. Today was the last day of his fellowship at USC and I believe tomorrow he begins his Air Force career. I also called Dan and talked to him for a little while. I talked to strausmoue as well just before getting a haircut this morning. And I talked to Mom and Dad a few times today as well.

Tonight, I’ll begin the actual process of packing. But for now, I’m taking a break. It’s been a busy day and I’m going to watch TV and chill out for a little while.