Countdown to India

I feel like the countdown for my trip to India started today. I've been feeling twitchy and unfocused all day. Of course, it doesn't help that the cats have been crying like teething babies today, either. I can't for the life of me figure out what they want. They have food and fresh water, I've cuddled and played with them both, but lord help me, they just won't stop. They're probably just picking up on the mood in the house.

Scoob came downstairs for lunch today and just held me. He said it just became real to him that I'm leaving and how much he is going to miss me. And as much as I want to cuddle with him and wrap myself up in that sentiment, I just cannot turn off my brain and I'm thinking about laundry and packing and customs and visa/passport and power supplies and FedEx deliveries and all this stuff that needs to happen or get done before I leave. And of course, I'm expecting 3 FedEx deliveries tomorrow; the one day I need to be away from the house this week.

Add to that the fact we're trying to get through the one-year punch list with the builders and I'm thinking about lighting and plumbing and drywall and nail pops and paint and trying to remember again exactly which cabinet drawers are rubbing so they can be fixed Thursday morning when the cabinet guy comes over. I'm actually kind of thankful the lighting vendor did not get our order placed—it's one less thing to try to squeeze in before I leave. I'm hoping I can postpone that appointment until after I get back.

After much wrestling, a little cursing, and a blood offering, we finally managed to get the Christmas tree packed away today. The pieces just did not want to come apart and I was tempted to make it a permanent fixture. But it does feels good to complete my first goal for 2013—get the tree put away before February.

We made one last pre-travel shopping trip this past weekend. At one point I wasn't sure if I needed a rolly carry-on in addition to my laptop bag because the bag is large enough for a change of clothes. But then I put the laptop and iPad in the bag and realized how heavy it was going to be once I added the power brick and adapters, plus the clothes. And then started thinking about all the other items I usually keep in my carry on—prescriptions, make up, hair brush, curling iron, toiletries. You know, pretty much every thing you would need in order to function for at least one day should your luggage get lost.

Even though I may have been able to scrunch everything in the laptop bag, it was going to be very heavy by the time I was done. And it would be so filled to the gills, I could forget about trying to open it to get anything out of the bag during the flight. So I ended up getting a rolly carry on. So much for traveling light—I'll have my laptop bag, a rolly carry-on, and a spinny checked bag—but not hurting my back is more important to me. At least I know I'll have room if I find some great souvenirs/gifts to bring home.

I also realized I would need an electrical outlet adapter/converter, so we picked up one of those along with what seems like a never ending list of things. One of those things was a Smashbook. My bestie got one recently and was talking about it on her blog, so I'm going to give it a whirl. I've never been interested in scrapbooking; it always seemed far too fussy. But the whole premise of smashbooking is you just smash it in there, who cares if it isn't perfect.

I've taken several trips—Mexico, Chicago, Washington DC—where I picked up items here and there to save, but then I never did anything with them when I got home because the idea of creating a scrap book was just to daunting and I ended up throwing out most of the things when we moved. Too much time had passed since the experiences to even hope of being able to create a meaningful memory book.

It felt like a frivolous expense given how much preparations for this trip have already cost and the bills will come due before the reimbursement checks arrive, and the fact that Scoob is still out of work and I hadn't received a paycheck yet (paychecks arrived today!!). But Scoob thought I should give it a try, too—he saw how upset I was when I threw away things that should have been made into memories when we were moving.