5: the number of days until my 23^rd birthday. Or, as I keep telling people at work, until I have one foot in the grave I’ll be so old. I fully realize that being 23 means that I should be all adult like, but right now, I am starting to feel like I would do just about anything to go back to grade school and start over. Mom and Dad made all your decisions back then, and you never had to go out into the real world. But, that is most definitely what I will be doing during this 23^rd year, so hopefully I can come back from Spain as a full-fledged adult! (or something close to it). Unfortunately, what I wanted most for my birthday was to visit my sister in Georgia, but after trying to work our schedules closer (and keeping in account my Spain budget) it just didn’t work out. Oh well, there’s always next year, right? Here is a cute picture I found of us, though, from when we were little.

6: the number of shifts I have at Wal-Mart. For now anyways. It’s kind of a bittersweet temporary goodbye. I did end up getting my Leave of Absence approved, but am not guaranteed a position back in Electronics. But, I’m not too worried about that because I know that we are losing a couple of people between November and February so I think I might be coming back to a perfect opening. Either way, it will be weird not to be working. And I suppose I’ll admit to the fact that I will probably miss being the only girl in my department besides my department manager. Sam won’t have anyone to shoot rubber bands at anymore. Adam won’t have anyone to tease. Two unnamed others won’t have anyone to babysit them anymore. Nope, instead Brianne will be all by her lonesome with a bunch of boys!

11: the number of days left in Idaho. The number just keeps getting smaller and smaller. In this eleven days, I will still probably end up repacking at least two more times (once before my grandparents get here, and then I will probably take everything out of my bags and ask their opinion on the stuff that I am taking). But it seems like time these days is moving so much faster than it was at the beginning of the summer. Now, all of a sudden the days are gone, and I’m freaking out because I’m not entirely sure I’m ready. I also wont be able to see my baby brother again after I leave Idaho because he isn't able to take off work to come down to Oregon with everyone else. He probably thinks that 11 is the number of days until he can drive my car without me telling him no, but that is definitely not the case! I will take my keys to Spain if I have to!

25: the number of days left in the United State of America. Also kind of bittersweet. This will be the first time out of the United States, and honestly one of the first times I’ve been away from family except for the weekends spent at NACURH conferences. Luckily, since I am going to Zoe’s house before Sevilla, she will be there to help ease me into life away from mommy and daddy (and by ‘luckily’ I mean lucky for me, but probably not for her J ).

1: one last time to do everything. It is definitely weird to be doing stuff and thinking “this is the last time you will get to do this for a while.” Last week, I had one last outing with Grandma Lockie to Lewiston. Technically, Grandpa was there too, but his hearing aids were dead until we made it to Costco so that was like ¾ of the trip that he probably was not really there. Yesterday, I had one last casino run with just my mom and me. Granted, I will probably go to the casino with my grandparents this weekend, but Mom and I like to go by ourselves every once in a while. As the days get shorter, however, there will plenty more of these “one-lasts”, which is what is making this so difficult.

Spanish word of the day: seta-mushroom. (I’m practicing how to tell my host mom what I don’t like to eat!)