Monday, April 05, 2010

The Day before the Day We Leave

I am a natural procrastinator. Not that I am not organized, but somehow I just do things near the end. Not at the very end, you understand. I won't throw my clothes into the suitcase tomorrow morning, just before we walk out the door. But I haven't finished packing yet. Peter has pretty much finished his packing, from a list that he made some time ago. My list is pretty much in my head. My packing is kind of done, even though not much is actually in my suitcase. It is a notional packing. Some things are out, ready to go in the case. Pills are bagged in individual groups and then in a collective bag. The underwear, much of which is old and will be discarded as we travel, is in a stuff sack.

One trick to all this is to decide what my color scheme will be and make sure that everything I take will match with everything else. And then you also have to be the type of person who doesn't care if people see you in the same clothes over and over. I find a few things that I am comfortable wearing and I just wear them in various combinations. We will be gone for a month and I don't want to have to spend a lot of time thinking about what to wear. And I want my stuff to wash and dry easily.

Some things can't be packed until tomorrow and that is one reason that most things aren't really packed yet. If I want to make sure that everything is packed in the most efficient way, taking up the least amount of space, then I have to put it all in at once. So there is no real point to putting things in the suitcase now. I just take things out and put them near the suitcase, day bag, and CPAP case. Tomorrow, when everything can be packed, it will all get put into the available space in the best way that I can manage.

Then I have to hope that I can carry it all on the plane. This is especially tricky because I have three pieces and you are only allowed a carry on and a purse or briefcase. Since the cpap is medical equipment, they should allow that as an extra piece. It has never been an issue in the past. Except flying Ryan Air, but then everything is an issue with Ryan Air. If you have a purse, that is your carry on and you have to check everything else. I put my purse in my CPAP case and sent my suitcase through on that flight. One nice thing, although having a CPAP machine is not particularly nice and traveling with it isn't either, is that my MacBook Air actually fits in the same bag. Since I have no plans to get an iPad any time soon (maybe when the second generation comes out), this arrangement works out very well if I am to travel with a lot of electrical equipment.

Traveling with just carry-on luggage takes a little thought and planning, but even for a procrastinator like me, it can be done ... and without too much effort.

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