Packing

What is it about vacations that turns us into the ever-ready bunny?  We almost kill ourselves getting everything done before we go, defeating the whole point of having a break.

Part of it I think is our need to have all our paper work neat and tidy – kind of like wearing clean underwear – just in case something goes wrong and we don’t make it back. Heaven forbid people’s perceptions of us should be sullied.

I maybe exaggerate, but we do seem to have this obsession to leave everything in order before we leave, unlike the chaos of the other fifty weeks of the year.  Well, I may be giving up on that one, partly because I am running out of time and I still have to pack, which is a time-consuming process in itself.

Packing. Don’t know about you but it starts with my looking out my favourite clothes and then having to make some big decisions about what goes, and what stays.  All the time I am muttering under my breath – it’s only x number of days.

Part of my challenge is I am, OK I 'fess up… a dirty girl.  That’s what my girlfriend Anne and I call ourselves.  What does it mean?  Basically, we tend to spill stuff on ourselves, our clothes, etc… As my daughters would say to me, “ You give new meaning to take-away, Mom” when I have half the meal on my topJ

But this and the anticipated colder weather where we are going, creates a packing challenge.  “Travel light” my husband instructs, but that’s easy for him to say.  As the fashionista in this family, I have a reputation to uphold.  I can’t just pack my jeans, I have to be prepared for all social occasions.

The other challenge is leaving room for a few, well all right, several, purchases, while I am away. I won’t lie, I love to shop and to shop in another country is fresh fodder to me.   

No, while I want to pack light, I have to be cognizant of the weather, my tendencies to spill and my fetish for shopping, all of which means that we are already on overload.