11/12/2012

Overpacking.

According to R, one of my superpowers is the ability to see worst case scenarios and to prepare for them accordingly.

This comes in handy, oh, say, about 75% of the time.

My house is prepared for nearly any kind of emergency including zombie attacks, and I have a six three month supply of food and drink... you know, just in case.  

The problem really starts when I'm going to be AWAY from my house for any extended period of time.  Like for more than 45 minutes or so.  BECAUSE WHAT IF SOMEONE RIPS HIS PANTS AND I NEED A NEEDLE AND THREAD AND I NEED TO TAKE PLENTY OF TISSUES WITH ME AND SCISSORS ALWAYS COME IN HANDY AND SNACKS AND TAPE AND PLATES AND EXTRA SOCKS AND MAYBE A COUPLE MAGAZINES AND THIS HOUSEPLANT AND THIS EXTRA COAT I HAVEN'T WORN SINCE 1993.

Ahem.

Yeah.

This tendency of mine to over prepare is especially predominant when I'm going to be away from my house for more than a day.

Like I was last week.  

See, Zachary had a long weekend from school, and R had some vacation time to burn through, and the stars were aligned so we decided to take the boys to Great Wolf Lodge for a few days.  This place is a family favorite for us...  It's seriously one of the only places we can take the boys without one of us (the grown-ups, that is) having a full blown meltdown.  It's not that it's somewhere I would ever go without the kids, but in the grand scheme of kid-friendly places, this one is pretty awesome.  It's never that crowded, it's big enough to keep the boys occupied without being so big we can't fit everything in, there is plenty of liquor available, oh, and did I mention there's plenty of liquor available?  Anyway, every year for the past three years we have set aside a good chunk of our entertainment money to go, and it hasn't disappointed us yet.

But I'm getting off track, so back to me and my issues.

For weeks beforehand, I started narrowing down my "WHAT NOT TO FORGET!!!!" list.  Yes, I make a list.  This is not surprising, is it? 

When it was time to start packing to leave, I promised myself that I WOULD NOT overdo it this time.  I would scale way back on what had to be packed, loaded in the car, unpacked at the hotel, repacked, loaded back in the car, and unpacked and dealt with when we got back home.  Only necessities, I promised myself.  Bare bones packing.

This box?  Totally filled with necessities.


So I packed.  I had to talk myself down repeatedly a few times - "No, mj, you don't NEED to take the iron.  You haven't ironed anything since 1994," and a couple times I waffled, putting something in the suitcase, taking it back out, putting it back in, like some bizarre suitcase hokey pokey or something.  

And I think I did a pretty decent job, even though it stressed me out.  "But what if we need the mixer?" my inner voice whined?  "SHUT UP," my other, saner inner voice answered.  "You can go four days without mashed potatoes.  Plus, we're not bringing the potatoes this time."

This is all I took for four people for four days and three nights.  This is a November miracle.


And it was fine.  Of course, I forgot something we really did need (Zachary's special wand to play one of the games there), and when R asked me for the nail clippers I nearly had an aneurism, because that was one of the things I made myself leave at home, but mostly, it was just fine. 

Really.
And the next time we go out of town, I think maybe I can pare it down just a little more.

But I'm bringing the mixer next time.  

Four days without mashed potatoes is just too much to ask.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Pin It button on image hover