Monday, January 26, 2009

Spitzbuben. Always.

The best thing about spontaneous trips is that, due to their immediate nature, you don't have to deal with the three days before you leave. The three long, agonizing days prior to departure are the worst part about traveling.

They are the days when you should be packing. You should be preparing, but you still have time left, so you can easily put it off. You have so much to take care of, so many ends to tie up, so much to do and to get... but you still have three days to do it in. It's too far away to excite the butterflies in your stomach, but too close to ignore. You can't start any big new projects because you won't be able to finish them, but you've probably finished any projects you were working on; after all, you know that you're leaving soon.

So what do you do?

Well, knowing you, you probably watch tv. You probably pull out your bags with every good intention of packing, and you probably stare at them for prolonged periods of time in a battle of the wills. Looser has to pack. (Luckily, you manage to beat the luggage for a good long time, and they remain sadly unpacked.) You probably think about going to see the places that you cherish and you know you'll miss when you're gone. You may go see them, you may not. You probably spend long periods of time staring out the window and call it "preparing yourself mentally."

Unless you don't. You don't because you're one of those people who actually does pack three days before leaving. But that doesn't save you from those 3 ultimate days. Because even if you're all packed, especially if you're already packed, you have that much more time to worry about what you forgot. That much more time to re-pack. To add clothes, to subtract clothes, to re-organize. To research the up-to-the-minute weather to make SURE you've got the correct clothing. Which really only ends up stressing you out for three days, instead of 6 hours.

Me? I'm making spitzbuben.

As always.

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