On Wednesday morning the packing adventure began. Starting with the obvious: pulling the suitcases, two suitcases, out of the closet and throwing them on the bedroom floor. It has started. Now to the hard part. What to pack?
Packing for a weekend trip is one thing. You throw in a shirt or two, maybe something a little dressy for church, maybe not. A second pair if pants (depending on where you are going or how much space you have, or how much crap you want to lug around with you), pajamas, and of course, the very essential, and ever necessary: even if you pack nothing else be sure to pack some of these: underwear. It's a must. Above all else. Although, I'm sure you already knew that. After that comes the toothbrush and toothpaste (also a must, as long as you have toothpaste you can get by ... even without a toothbrush). Soap would be good too, though that is dependent on where you are going to be staying. If you are going home or to a friends house or a hotel, there is probably (at a hotel most certainly) some soap for you to use. After that everything is pretty much packed up. I mean, you've got the essentials, maybe you might take your make-up bag and some deodorant. Well, deodorant is pretty important because if you can't get to a shower to wash and make yourself smell a little fresher, deodorant it is automatic freshness in a stick. A few swipes and you're good to go. Good as new. You're done. The weekend packing trip is no problem.
Packing for a week or two doesn't vary terribly from packing for the weekend, you just take a few more changes of clothes, but as far as soap and toothpaste goes, you would be taking that anyway.
Packing to move is another story. But a simple one. When you pack to move you just pack everything you own. Everything up to the cotton swabs. The challenge of packing to move is when you come to the tiny little left over things. Not the clothes, bedding, linens, pots, pans, or the couch. No, it's the little things, like the remote, the alarm clock, and the candles. But still, it's all going, you will unpack it all in a matter of weeks (most likely) so all you have to do is get it into the boxes.
When you pack for any amount of time over two weeks and under six months, you pretty much have to take the same amount of belongings. For example, I had the challenge of packing for an eight week trip. Now, that is a challenge. Going in I was determined to pack one suitcase for me, one suitcase for the hunny, and a carry one bag for us to share. Perfect I thought. Most certainly doable. yes... well, that is until I kept packing.
I started with the essentials. You know the ones: clothes, pajamas, underwears, deodorant, soap... like that. no problem. Well... I kept finding things that I needed to take. And clothes, kept finding their way into my suitcase. I have no idea how they kept appearing on top of my bag, but they did. They are crazy magical like that. They decided they just didn't want to be left out of the big exciting trip. So I kept folding, rolling, and stuffing. My suitcase resembled a huge casserole dish full of tightly rolled enchiladas. It's true.
After ten years of smooshing everything into my bag and closing it successfully, more things appeared on the floor next to the other suitcase, the second suitcase. The suitcase for my hunny. And his essentials weren't even packed yet.
Welcome suitcase number three. joy. just what I wanted. three whole suitcases. eh, what can you do? It is after all an eight week trip. So the packing stopped. Until Saturday morning (hours before we had to be at the airport) when it resumed.
The one thing I just don't understand is that even though we are going on the same trip, to the same place, at the same time, his suitcase didn't seem quite as snug as mine did. Why? Why is it that his suitcase wasn't an enchilada dish like mine was? Why do girls always always require more than boys do? even if it's only one or two little extras, it is still more than the boy will have. I don't get it. ... and I consider myself to be a light packer. But for an eight week trip you just can't tell what you are going to need and what you won't. What will I feel like wearing in the morning? I have no idea, and so the charade continues. Although, I did notice the suitcase my sweetie used to pack his things, it was bigger than mine! It's true. That is how I came to accept that his suitcase wasn't as stuffy as mine was merely because of the sher size of it. Way bigger than mine. And he still had to put three of his four pairs of shoes in the third suitcase. All the better.
Two big suitcases, one medium suitcase, two backpacks, one laptop case, one small handbag, and a gazillion hours later we were ready. The suitcases closed and zipped. They went downstairs. The trunk opened and in they went. And so the adventures of this summer begin...
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