atermoyer

With a healthy dose of family time just around the corner I'm starting to realize that I'm going to miss my family and friends.  It began Sunday with an almost full water works that took place in the kitchen by none other than Mama Cath. It is obvious that I will miss my family.   I suppose Claire's return from NY after a

5 year escape, is one of the things I will certainly miss. I have changed since 17 and so has our relationship. We are no longer the zebra and croc at the river, we are zebras migrating across the Mara, making sure the other doesn't get eaten by the croc.

(I admit, that's a pretty lame analogy, but it's pretty accurate, she might get eaten without me).

I will also miss my brothers random stop ins when he demands the focus be placed on him, everyone MUST stop to check for his camping gear, watch him while he eats or just play rockband with him (you have approximately 3 months to master the lead vocals... I'm not a one man band). I think we have E to thank for the stop ins.

Mom will certainly miss my helping her although I won't miss that, but I will miss cooking with her and our unspeakable telepathy. As for my pips, I'm one skype away to remind you that some thoughts just belong in your head.

Some of you might think I'm absolutely out of my mind for writing a "dedication" as if I was moving away for years, but for me, going away for months is a first (JLC). I've spent the last 22 years, 8,030 maybe 8,000 nights of my life sleeping at home, and I just graduated from college.   

Later Sunday night, I had a lovely froyo date with GM. Although we only briefly talked about my pending reality, I felt a slight loneliness that I've never really felt before. It's only normal, but I have some of the best friends a girl could ask for and I will miss them deeply. Not to mention FA who might make it hard to stay within the data limit because of our constant bbming.

One thing I certainly won't miss is packing. Although I'm extremely methodical, my room still ends up looking like a tornado swept through the place.

Luckily my mom headed the cleanup mission. We emptied the closet, looking through each drawer one at a time, picking out the things that I would need for my trip and neatly setting them in piles on the floor (this process took about 5 hours spread over 3 separate occasions). The stacks were dark, black/ winter color shirts and jeans, leaving the pop of color, if any, to the scarves.

It was on the Air France website that I had my first (for the trip) encounter with that other measuring system that Lorien and the rest of the world is accustomed to. I’m allowed 2 suitcases with a weight of 23k each. Thanks to the Internet, I immediately googled the conversion and realized that I'm allowed 100 lbs total.

I grabbed the scale from my bathroom and weighed the empty suitcase. With all these restrictions these days, a ten-pound bag really puts a hamper on my chic Parisian style attempt. Although the airline may not think that I need 6 pairs of boots plus all the other shoes I'm taking, a woman needs her things (and stuff).

With 40 lbs left in each bag, I filled the first one with shirts, sweaters, boots, most dresses and scarves. I zipped the suitcase, the one with the white and red polka dotted scarf, and lugged it onto the scale, it read 51 lbs. I took two pairs of shoes and two dressed out and put them on the scale, they weighed about two lbs total. Just to make sure I put my life back on the scale and it weighed in at 40 lbs, go figure.

I filled the next suitcase and it also weighed in at 40 lbs.

What is a girl to do?

Not to mention, the whole time I was thinking about the potential for one bag to get lost on it's direct flight to Paris, a fear I discussed on Sunday with Lilwhy.

My still not-fully packed bag is the equivalent of a half written term paper due in a few days or as the French say, atermoyer. 

Au revoir