Skip to main content

The Packing Predicament

Cue Elton John.

I am traveling tonight on a plane.  I can see the red tail lights heading for Spaaaaaiiiiin, oh and I can my children waving goodbye.

Technically, I do not leave until tomorrow...but it's so early, it might as well be the night before.  And obviously, I can't really see the tail lights because I'm inside the plane...and I can't really see my children waving goodbye - but I can if I imagine it!

Hm.  Huh.  Well.

The Boeing 767 I will be on tomorrow touches down in Madrid early Saturday morning.  And while I'm terribly excited to travel overseas, I must first complete what some call "packing".  I find there are two schools of thought here:

1. The MicroPacker: This is a word that describes someone who starts the packing process by making a list...a very detailed list (or maybe even multiple lists).  Then, with suitcases laying off to the side, they lay everything out in neat little compartmentalized piles and double-check everything off the list before fastidiously putting in into their suitcases.

This resembles my husband.

2. The HastyPacker: You can probably guess where this is going.  This person (maybe) gets their luggage out of storage the day before (or even the day of, depending) his/her flight and begins to throw items into it haphazardly.  Naturally, many things are forgotten but this person figures they have enough to get through or, worst case scenario, they can pick some things at the duty-free airport.

This does not resemble me.  I know, you all must have thought I was leading you there.  But no, I probably settle somewhere in the middle.  I'm a hybrid.  I get good gas mileage.  I do make lists of what I'm packing and where it's going, but I do not really start this process until a day or two before I go.  For me, it's all about the laundry - I feel I truly cannot begin the packing process until I know ALL my laundry is done.  And that includes ALL my underwear, because it's ALL going with me.

Okay, so I'm going to Spain.  The Iberian Peninsula...surrounded on nearly all sides by the ocean.  Of course I'm taking my swimsuit!!  But as I'm sitting there last night, folding my swimsuit, it occurs to me that if I'm taking a suit, I must have a beach towel.  And from there, I wonder if I also ought to bring my beach bag?  And then I begin to hyperventilate, slightly, because I only get 50 pounds!

Now.  I could leave my beach towel at home, with full intent to buy one in Spain.  However, suppose I don't come across a store close to the beach that sells them?  Or, what if the shops are far enough removed from the beach area that I can't go back to buy one?

You see how this could carry on, yes?  My mind will turn over every possible question and become to agitated that finally, I need to grab the nearest bottle of wine and have a glass to calm my nerves.

In fact...that sounds pretty good right now...erm, oh...it's not quite seven in the morning.  Boo.

Comments

  1. We have friends who pinch and save all year to go to France every summer, (I think in 40 years they have gone 35 or more) their trick is take their oldest underwear, throw them away as the trip goes on and you end up with space for bringing back "stuff".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such an exciting trip, it's easy to see how you could over think it all. Try to remain calm and enjoy the excitement!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I believe the gamer term is gl;hf!

    Seriously, I hope you have an amazing and educational time!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Go Placidly

My food truck business started back up this past weekend, and from here until November, the weeks will be packed.  Sandwich-slinging Thursday-Saturday and bartending work Monday-Wednesday.  And Sunday, I guess, is the day to sleep in and hide in my house. Hiding out is the one thing I feel like doing a lot of these days.  My food truck's ReOpening wasn't the only thing happening in my hometown this weekend past.  A 13-year-old boy was accidentally shot and killed on Saturday and then yesterday, the police department busted one of the biggest meth labs in a long time. Both are tragic...one is a sad loss, one that will devastate a loving family for the rest of their lives.  One is tragic only because of the profound stupidity/ignorance/addiction of a few people who happen to be living in a town mostly filled with good-hearted, hard-working people. And if it's not drama at the local level, then there's the constant bombardment of news that seems to be vividly...

We Overeat...Because We're Getting Fatter?

Well, if that just doesn't flip conventional medical wisdom on its head, I don't know what will. So I'm reading "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes, right? Chapter 9 is titled "Laws of Adiposity" - much of the first section discusses an experiment conducted by George Wade.  After removing the ovaries from three sets of female lab rats, this is what he found: 1. The rats who were allowed to eat whatever, whenever gained weight and became obese. 2. The rats who were put on a strict post-surgery diet still gained weight and became obese. 3. The rats who were injected with estrogen and left to whatever eating pattern they chose did not grow obese. Obviously, this experiment (with further explanation in the book) linked the presence of estrogen to weight loss/gain.  Taubes goes on to say "estrogen influences an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL)".  These enzymes pull fat into cells that express a need for it (91).  When there is no estrog...

Fun With Tomato Juice

This blog entry has quite a backstory, but I'll sum it up quickly. In making the mega-batch of Red Sauce, I drained roughly 32 oz of juice from a large can of diced tomatoes.  "Waste not, want not", so I froze the leftover liquid, to be used at a later time. That time was today.  My original thought was to concoct a chili or similar, but then...I had ideas! Searching online, I found a recipe for Tomato-Basil soup at www.allrecipes.com.  With slight modifications (I had no crushed tomatoes or fresh basil) to the soup, today's lunch was soup and grilled cheese sandwiches.  Raves all around, and I guess now I can say goodbye to Campbell's Tomato Soup. Thank you - allrecipes.com! That left me with another 20 or so ounces of remaining tomato juice, and I was hankering to do something crazy with it.  And what would be on the other end of the tomato usage spectrum, if innocent, comforting tomato soup is on the another? The Bloody Mary, of course!  Blo...