July 11th, 2010

I wake up at the crack of dawn with my stomach in a knot. On a Sunday. It must be One Day Left Before I Fly to Europe day. There’s no point in trying to sleep, I have thousands of things to do and precious little time to do them in. I promptly get up, make breakfast, figure I have time to check my email, mess around on my computer, realize Sunday Morning is on, spend some quality time contemplating whether I should take a shower tonight or tomorrow morning before I leave while petting the cat, and then am ready to start seriously thinking about looking at my To Do list.

Technically, it’s my 300th To Do list. I love lists. Is this because I am enviously organized or obnoxiously anal? No, it’s because I’m a huge space cadet and am easily distracted by shiny things. If I didn’t have a list to keep me focused, I’d end up painting the cat’s claws a smart pink, which does not happen to be a priority To Do item the day before you fly. (I’m kidding of course, I’m not a crazy cat lady. I’d be much more likely to see if she’d let me put lip gloss on her.)

~SuperNova Travel Tip: Make lists. Things you want to get done before you leave, things you need to get done before you leave (yes, there’s a HUGE difference), and things you should pack. And do it in advance. Even if you have an excellent memory, life is distracting and traveling is stressful. You’re still going to forget something, there’s no preventing that, but this will help you forget less.

My list actually wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t left packing to the last minute. I ALWAYS pack at the last possible second. There are many reasons why; if you pack too far in advance, you find that you need something that you packed away and take it out and it never makes it back in, you forget what you’ve already packed and end up with a ridiculous number of socks, and, most importantly, I am an all-star procrastinator.

I did, in the end, get everything on my list done by the very reasonable hour of 8pm, I even made it to the gym for an hour (because going to the gym one day before I leave will most certainly offset the amazing array of German food I plan on trying). I should note that when I say “got everything on my list done” I mean that everything got crossed off, not that every individual thing got done. When you get down to the wire, eventually you have to just come to peace with the fact that the house will not be vacuumed before you leave, and you cross it off the list. The sooner you come to terms with this, the less stressful your day will be. A friend of mine, who was a first time traveler, said to me in a panic, “We should have started getting ready earlier!!!” I laughed and gently shook my head at his naiveté. It doesn’t matter when you start preparing for your big trip (“big trip” = any trip that involves more than one flight or requires you to be away from home for longer than 5 days), you will not get everything done. That’s because your brain keeps coming up with thoughtful things that “have” to be done before you leave. I am here to tell you that they don't. The world will not come to an end if the fruit bowl is not shaped in a pyramid before you leave. (Consequently, your pet will come to an end if arrangements aren’t made for it, so that definitely goes on the “needs to get done” list.)

*SuperNova says: “When it comes down to it, as long as you have your ID and your credit card, you will be fine. (Unless you’re going to a 3rd world country, then you should probably get some shots or something.)”