grrlTravels

The To Do List Runneth Over, Thusly

If you were thinking perhaps you would get a Christmas card from us because, you know, you sent your own version of holiday good wishes our way or because you have received such an item from us in the near past or because I have expressed my undying love for you (perhaps not in so many words), well, you could still be correctly correct. The Christmas card sending has finally clawed its way to the top quadrant of the To Do list. It shares that hallowed space with items like "Name Your Son" and "Shop for Impending Flight Half Way Around the World" and "Clean as if the Living Room has An Emergency Appendectomy Scheduled Next Weekend". In other words it has not ascended to the tippiest top of the list, but it is up there.

I must admit that the other items at the top of the list impact my restful slumber more than the Christmas (now New Years) greetings. I spent a good long time two days prior googling various baby name sites, making lists and taking notes and wondering how odd is too odd. Every name on The Working List has its meaning defined, its popularity ranked according to the US Social Security, and its origins duly noted. I changed course midstream and am approaching the naming laterally: I had 3 nicknames I liked (obsessively) and a list of names corresponding to those nicknames was composed. Perhaps a peculiar way to run at it but the regular list was uninspiring and the nicknames have been floating around in my brain for months. I must rid my brain of the pseudonyms! I MUST!

Yesterday we spent more than 2 hours in L.L. Bean outfitting ourselves as if we were soon to leave for an extended stay on the top of K2. There is a method behind the madness, stemming from a slight disagreement between K. and myself thus:

Me: I am gathering items for that suitcase full of stuff that we are taking to donate to the China Care Foundation. Better late than never!
K.: (looks at me as if I am insane) We are taking extra stuff on the plane to China with us? Are you insane?
Me: (feeling my innocence) What???
K.: You know how you are. You cannot overpack. If you want to take things to donate you cannot overpack. No overpacking!
Me: I'm going to be good this time. I promise. No overpacking. I am taking just a few little things, necessities. And the suitcase full of stuff for China Care.
K.: Fine. Get everything we need together and then I'll get rid of half of it and we will be in good shape. (snippily)
Me: (glaring)
K.: I'm serious. You know how you are.
Me: (stubbornly) We. Are. Taking. Items. To. Donate. To. The. China. Care. Foundation. On. The. Plane. To. China. With. Us.
K.: We'll see.

It is not as if K. does not have a point. He does. You should have seen the suitcases we took on our honeymoon cruise in Hawaii, to Bangladesh, to China, and to, well, every single other destination we have ever visited on vacation or otherwise. He isn't wrong. Well, he isn't wrong if one goes solely on the basis of past behavior, but he is wrong because I am determined.

So. L.L. Bean. It isn't that easy to pack lightly in the winter. There are heavy coats and sweaters and long underwear to combat the windy cold weather. We have to take 14 days (estimated) worth of formula for Z. (@ 3 cans/day that is...4 times 3...carry the one...42 cans) and E.'s nebulizer and the cameras. Shoes. Shoes are a big ticket item. Clothes for the baby. Stuff.

I have been on fire though. We are taking substituted, powdered formula for Z., something we have never done. BINGO! We are purchasing a diminutive nebulizer. B-B-B-BINGO! And we bought special zip-apart coats and very thin, very warm fleece for all kinds of layering options. How's that for thinking outside of the box and stubbornly insisting on getting my own way all at the same time? I also removed disposable washcloths from the packing list just like that.

This morning I cleaned one room of the house. When I say cleaned I do not mean my normal cleaned which is really straightened up. I mean pack up 5 boxes of stuff for storage and organize the closet and wash the floor under the couch cleaned. (It's nesting, I know. Such an odd compulsion.)

The To Do list runneth over, but I am taking a sledgehammer to it. I hope it works. Happy NEW YEAR my dear friend. There's another item to check off / bludgeon.

Posted by grrlTravels at January 6, 2008 9:31 PM