For me, going on a trip isn't as simple as just picking up my bags and heading to the airport all willy nilly. I have the dog to think of, and for her to stay at my Australian friend's house requires a lot of preparation. I probably overthink it, because other than her medication, there is nothing that she has in her overnight kit that can't be replaced at a local store.
The cool thing about this pal of mine that is going to look after my puppy is that he loves that dog, probably as much as I do. Every Thursday Nadi goes to stay at his house while I am at bowling and every Thursday it is the friend who contacts me with excitement about her coming over, not the other way around.
I know that Nadi will be safe and in good hands. I don't need to worry about her health and safety. He would protect Nadi with his own life, of this much I am sure.
The issue here is the separation anxiety and I always worry about that. There have been times in the past where Nadi has been so sad when I am gone that she won't eat, but we have plans for that. No doggy can resist chicken and I have a bunch of that frozen and ready to go.
As far as my own pre-flight jitters are concerned it is something that is just totally normal for me. I can't sleep very well the few days before a flight and the night before I will definitely need sedatives in order to get to sleep.
The good news is that my flight doesn't depart until nearly 7pm and that works so much better for me than some early morning nonsense. I've never been much of a morning person and even though it will likely stress me out tomorrow afternoon at least I know that I can get a good night sleep in and not need to be worried about alarms and stuff like that. I can't stand crack of dawn flights.
I also have the added benefit of not needing to really bring anything with me at all.
Even though I am going to be gone from Vietnam for 3 weeks, that is the only suitcase I am bringing with me. I have traveled enough in my life to know that the less stuff you bring with you the better. All the times that I have had some majestically huge bag with me I have ended up not using almost all of what was in it. I am traveling to stay with family and friends and most of these people are people that have spent the past 20 years or so living in the same spot and accumulating such a massive amount of clothes that they don't even wear that it will be zero issue at all for me to just borrow clothes.
Im bringing one pair of jeans with me, a couple of shirts, some athletic socks and shoes, and also things you should never borrow from other people like underwear and swimsuit. I will be bringing almost nothing else with me.
One thing i have discovered in my trans-pacific flights is that they sell soap and toothpaste and other such stuff all around the world. there is no reason to bring all that crap with you.
I tend to bring some level of travel size stuff on the plane and a change of socks or something like that but for the most part I don't concern myself with too much luggage. If I end up in Mexico and all of a sudden realize that I forgot something "important" they sell it there, and probably for dirt cheap as well.
The only really truly important things to remember are my electronics, and those are going to be in a separate backpack that I carry on the plane with me.
[src](https://mapofairport.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Los-Angeles-Airport-Map.png)The only thing that is truly stressing me out is that I am headed to what I consider to be the worst airport in the world. There are dirtier and less-advanced airports than LAX (Los Angeles international) but LAX has this horrible mix of being very outdated, too busy for what it can handle, and also just a general attitude of unhelpfulness by everyone that works there.
I have a 13 hour layover there, which is crazy but at least it is in the middle of the night. My plan when I arrive at 10pm is to be the absolute last person off the plane, the last person in every line, and to just very casually and slowly work my way through the ridiculous amount of security and other bullcrap they have going on there. The lounge that I want to get into doesn't open until 5am, so if I can just manage to find somewhere to sit and something to do from 10pm to 5 am, everything is going to be fine.
I don't relish the idea of sitting in what is bound the be the world's most intentionally uncomfortable seats for 7 hours, but the only alternative when I was booking was to pay over $1000 more and while I do think my time is valuable, it isn't that valuable.
I have a portable video game system, a Kindle, and a laptop but I would be willing to bet that LAX protects their power outlets like ISIS is going to try to take over the city by stealing electric. I don't know why USA has to be so terrible at this sort of thing. The rest of the world intentionally gives you places to plug in, USA tried to hide the fact that electricity exists at the airports for some reason.
I'm just going to take it in stride. It's a long as crap trip, but maybe that will make reaching my destination a lot more sweet.
