The Trip has Begun!

I'm hanging out for a few hours in the Washington, Dulles airport awaiting an 8-hr flight to Italy. Thank goodness there's wifi here, I don't have my trusty iPhone so have felt all morning like I forgot something (like an arm or something of equal importance). I bought 2 hours and it's taken all of that time to finish up loose ends that I didn't have time to take care of in Denver. Skype calling has saved me. I was freaking out at the idea of using a pay phone. Oooh, did people use those once upon a time? $1/4 min talk within the US. Sounds not as cool as Skype calling on the cute Netbook. So far, it's connecting to the internet great (better than Linux systems used to).

Packing last night was dizzying with being excessively tired and probably a little more stressed than necessary considering that I was trying to pack so few things, but I still hardly had room for those basics. The bike stuff takes up a lot of room, and the helmet is outside of the bags (it'll be tossed promptly after the bike portion of the trip is over).

Everyone sitting around me is wearing nice shoes. Must be Italians. I'm feeling a bit too casually dressed. One has to wear pants, however, if one is wearing compression stockings (those that are used for patients). This is a test run for these. If they work here, I trust they'll work great after races, too. I digress.

Off to walking laps in the airport and shifting into sardine mode. Thank you to everyone who's emailed in the past day or so! More from Rome, maybe in Italiano!!!