Listening to Anberlin "A Whisper And A Clamor"

Today is going to be quite insane. I have to pack for a 12 day excursion, and work, and pack, and pack. This is how I pack. I find out I will be going on a trip, I smile and think happy thoughts about the lovely trip.

2 weeks before the trip: smiling.

1 week before the trip: still smiling.

2 days before the trip: smiling and wondering if I should start packing.

1 day before the trip: have thought about packing, but that is pretty much it.

1 hour before leaving: Yelling manically while throwing various assortments of clothes and a dozen toothbrushes in a bag.

Why so many toothbrushes? Because I have reached such a point of insanity that I do not know I am packing a dozen toothbrushes, I probably see those as other necessary things, like toothpaste, shampoo, hairbrushes, notebooks, pens and iPod accessories.

Now, that above image may be slightly stretching the truth a little, but I have been known to wander around the house aimlessly looking for more stuff to put in my already full backpack, 10 minutes after we were supposed to have left. My parents have made a rule that you have to be packed THE NIGHT BEFORE you are leaving, no matter if you aren't leaving until 10pm.

Hence the reason today is Packing Day. I hate packing, I don't really know why, but it might be because I have to go through all my stuff and pick out what I am going to take with me, and I have to leave most of it behind. I just hate it when a shirt or sweater I especially love whines so pitifully when I can't take it. I then have to get down on my knees and speak in soothing tones, telling it that it is now April and I don't need to wear sweaters in April, that I will be wearing T-Shirts. The sweater cries and asks me what I am going to do when I get cold, and I have to tell it that I am bringing a light jacket. Then the poor little sweater gets so distraught it starts sobbing even louder and I finally have to just shove it in the closet and turn my radio on...

Another reason I hate packing is because I am a teenager. Did that last sentence make sense? No? Let me explain further. Most teenagers are alike. They are slightly messy, they don't mind throwing their clothes on the floor and leaving them there for weeks on end. The latter is the very same for me, only I consider myself a slightly higher class of teenager, I throw my clothes in assorted piles on the floor. Skirts over by the purple chair, fancy clothes on top of the purple chair, t-shirts all over the floor, and the jeans crumpled by the door. My family just doesn't seem to appreciate my organization. They can't seem to see my distinct piles.

But where was this going? When I go on a trip, I have to sort through ALL my clothes to find the ones that I want to take. I have to pick up ALL my clothes and put them ALL away. Why? Because my parents insist on VACUUMING THE ROOM before we leave. Rolling the eyes, rolling the eyes.

So that's what I did for how many hours this morning? I don't even know. I've also been sick. And when you are sick, you really don't feel like doing a lot of stuff, particularly getting up to put a freshly used Kleenex in it's proper garbage disposal. There were lots of little herds of Kleenex mounds running around my room. I had a mental picture of myself in bed, nose red, eyes blurred, and sick, just finished blowing my nose and then just throwing the Kleenex anywhere my arm cared to move. I then had a mental picture of myself stepping out of my mental picture and going over to my sick self and slapping her for being so lazy. Sadly, it didn't work.

My mother is doing one last load of laundry, and then I should have all the clothes that I need to take. So that is my excuse for not being upstairs packing my bags right now.

I have given myself one hour to myself. The very special all request hour on the Effect Radio. I am waiting for them to play my song, but so far it has been 40 minutes. After this, my list is pretty much endless, Finish cleaning up my pitifully dirty room, Take a shower (must be clean to board a plane) Eat breakfast (must have eaten to board a plane - actually, this I'm not too sure of...) and pack.

Ha, how applicable the words on the radio are, "you're going under, going under," by This Beautiful Republic.

So if you don't see any blog entries for the next week or two, just know that I have successfully packed, successfullly left stuff behind and am Off visiting relatives.