Restless...

I made it back to Chicago in record time Sunday evening. I was lovingly greeted by my awesome mommy and cute kitties :) I unpacked my car and wanted to show my mom all the great gifts I received from my job(I love them and provide such great inspiration for me!) and as I was telling her I wanted to show her something, her first guess was an engagement ring! Haha, not quite there yet, but one of the many creative tactics she uses to keep me here. She supports me wholeheartedly and I think she is secretly getting excited about buying me things for this trip(is it a trip? I think more like a short but kind of long term move)(it's kind of like a scanvenger hunt trying seek out all the things that will help me survive life in Africa). I'm her only daughter and we provide pretty good support for eachother, so I can understand where she is coming from. I know she knows deep down that I'm capable to taking care of myself and making good decisions, but is still afraid of the endless things that can happen to me an ocean away. I try not to think of those things because it will drive me nuts, plus I don't think about them here so why stress myself out? Anyways, I've been having a hard time sleeping or staying asleep at night. I'm anxious and excited and my mind runs in a million and one directions. I think of all the things I have to get and all the things I want to see, all the people I want to spend time with, and of course hanging out with my mom as much as possible. This weekend my mom and I are going to Kenosha to do some shopping, I think I have my list down to the things I need, but find myself adding on daily. Today I bought bug repellent, fogger to kill bugs in my house, a heavy duty poncho, a battery charger and extra battery for my camera. Yesterday I bought my luggage and backpack, a few books off Amazon, and a sarong skirt.Malawi is conservative and long skirts are a must but no one sells long skirts anymore! So I ordered one off of Amazon to see how it is, if it's good i'll be another one or two or three...I'm sure tomorrow i'll find something else to buy. I have about 3 weeks to get everything together, but for some reason it doesn't seem like a lot of time. Plus, i'm looking forward to spending 5 days in Portland,OR with my twin, so that narrows it down to about 2 1/2 weeks of gettings together. I don't know if i'll be able to handle being this excited and anxious for the next 3 weeks.