Oh Shit

You should have seen my bedroom.  The floor was covered in colorful layers of summer clothing, wedding decorations, bathing suits and flip flops.  Normally, this kind of disorder would stress me out.  It was actually a beautiful sight as it can only mean one thing...after six months, I'm going home, back to Michigan.  I leave tomorrow bright and early.  My heart races a little when I think about what the next three weeks have in store for me.  Oh shit, its happening.  And after a month of packing preparation, I am ready.

The process of packing, for me, is quite a production.  If you're interested, allow me to enlighten you.  I begin by going through all the departments of my belongings.  You know, clothing, jewelry, shoes, bath and body and so on.  I tackle one department at a time.  The first is usually bath and body.  Its the easiest for me as I travel pretty lightly with items I can just pick up when I get to my destination.  Then I move to jewelry.  You'd think I would have to wait until I knew what clothes I was bringing before I decided on accessories.  But over the years, I have assembled a versatile collection of jewelry.  Each piece can be paired with just about anything in my wardrobe.  Nice.  The most difficult department is clothing, as one could expect.  I do a preliminary pack, then go through it again, eliminating about half of what I have chosen.  Making sure if I pack a shirt, there is a co-ordinating bottom.  Also, since I am already riffling through every piece of clothing I own, I see it as an opportunity to purge a few things.  Its most gratifying. 

The last part of my pack is a thorough cleaning.  Once my bags are packed, I make sure I will be coming back to a clean house.  I wash sheets, dust, vacuum, the usual.  There is nothing better than knowing when you return from a long trip, you can just unload your luggage, put on some comfy clothes and chill.  As you can probably tell, the packing process is an exciting one for me.  Mostly because it means I get to see some pretty cool people once I get off that plane.  But also because I am slightly obsessive compulsive and take any opportunity I can to showcase my mad organizational skills.