For the last week, I've been in an exotic and seldom-seen locale: my house. Previously, I was on travel for three weeks. I should be leaving tomorrow for another three weeks of fun-filled foreign travel. What makes this coming trip so exciting is that I didn't really know about it until I got back from the last trip, giving me a week to prepare.

Preparing for a trip to a former soviet republic on official lab business requires me to get all sorts of approvals and signatures and what-not; the last week has been rather hectic. The trickiest parts were getting permission to bring my laptop, pick up a travel cell phone, and get some sleep aids for the horrendous flight itinerary. In all of these cases, I had to fight against a bureaucracy that seemed intent on not letting me get my work done. The cell phone and laptop people both needed over a week of lead time to get the relevant form signed (why?) so they were naturally pissed at me for bringing this to them with only 4 days to go.

OccMed is still not giving out Ambien to travelers without a signed exception letter from the head doctor. He was out all week. So I went to my regular doctor to get a script from him. He's out this week too. I couldn't get a script from a random doctor who doesn't know me without first getting a physical. Apparently I passed with flying colors, since she gave me a script for 90 pills (I usually go through about 5 per trip, and OccMed gives prescriptions for 10 pills).

Yesterday, my last official work day before I leave, the state department decided to let me know that I would need a transit visa to change airports in Moscow, and that I didn't have one and couldn't get one in time. So we changed my whole flight schedule last night. Getting home now involves a 40 hour travel nightmare that takes me from Aktau to Almaty to Istanbul to New York to Atlanta to Albuquerque. And because it takes so long, I have to do a layover in New York. Note to Camille: I tried to get them to let me do the layover in Istanbul, but to add another country to my trip would require a re-approval process which cannot be completed before I leave; Sorry!

This morning, my day off, I found myself back at work doing last-minute packing and preparation of equipment. Mike comes in to inform me that the facility people at my destination are still dicking around with access authority and as of today it isn't clear that I'll be allowed on site when I arrive. There is some discussion of postponing the trip until we can get confirmation that I won't be sitting in a hotel for three weeks. So I don't know what's going on.

update: I am, in fact, going to Kazakhstan today. Right now, in fact.

As a cute aside: when I was at OccMed getting some inoculations and a travel med kit (and arguing with them about their lame Ambien policy), I ended up in a waiting room watching The Today Show, on which the anchors were playing Rock Band. A nurse who I would estimate is pushing 60 was there and commented that she should stay away from Rock Band because she didn't have time for any more video games. I asked her what she was spending her time playing and she said Warcraft. We chatted a bit about the game and I got a kick out of the fact that she was totally into it. Apparently she had been up till 2am the previous night running Kara with her guild. When I was leaving, she walks up to me and gives me this devious smile and whispers, "For the horde!" It was the cutest thing ever. Old gamer lady, you're awesome.