Ripping, cleaning, packing...

...That about sums up what I've been doing on this, the first day of freedom from the indentured servitude that I euphimistically called "work." Now that I don't have to stare at a glowing box from 9 to 5 for the better part of the week, I have begun my London preparations with gusto. As I type, I am ripping nearly my entire CD collection to my hard drive so that I don't have to lug all my disks to London. Just finished ripping Dvorak's 9th Symphony (From the New World) and will start ripping Rachmaninoff's second symphony in a moment. Also in the mix I've got some Brahms, Elgar, Beethoven, Saint-Saens, Dave Brubeck, with my only non-classical/Jazz CDs being The Cranberries "To the Faithful Departed" and "No Need to Argue," the latter being the first ever (and one of the few) non-classical/jazz CD that I have bought.

Once I'm done ripping CDs I seriously need to clean up my room. It looks like Katrina made a quick stop at Chez Joe around here. This leads logically into packing...

...once my room has achieved some semblance of order (read: I can see the floor), I will proceed to begin packing. To me, packing is not simply a necessary chore one performs prior to travelling, it is a delicate art, to be performed with grace and panache, a dance if you will. I will first lay out everything that I intend to take with me. I will then eye my luggage, much like a hawk soaring high in the skies eyes its prey prior to swooping down upon it. Subsequently, I will determine some system for packing, shirts on the bottom, pants on top, vice versa, or shirts on the right pants on the left. Nor should I forget the sweaters, jackets, underwear, socks, and other odds and ends that I plan on taking with me. All will be accounted for. My luggage is like Noah's ark...not that I own two of everything...

Alright, well, I best get back to CD ripping...if you think of any "Ooh, don't forget to bring _____" items which are commonly forgotten, please let me know.

Salaam.

T minus 15 days.