Going Traveling

My boyfriend made it home last night from a week spent moose hunting in Canada. They had a great time and, luckily, no moose sacrificed its life in support of manly fun. He said that, due to a spate of warmer weather, the leaves are still good almost all the way to his house. I’m looking forward to my trip but I have ten million things to do before I go. Yesterday I got all my container plants muscled down into Subterrania, (aka my basement). I have a two-story house and keep some big bougainvillea on my second-story balcony. What a workout that was! I got the two extra lights hung down there and have everything set up to start the gardening experiment. I’m trying to decide about planting the seeds now or waiting until I get back. I’d hate to have them sprout and then dry out while I’m gone. I fed the worms very well, so they should be happy until I get back. In spite of the large amount of food I put in their bin, when I went down this morning to turn the lights on, I couldn’t smell a thing. You really should try vermicomposting!

I need to pack and mail my son’s birthday present since his birthday will happen while I am gone. I told him he needed to rein in his usual extravagant gift list and, good boy that he is, he said he’d love a crockpot! I got him one at Walmart the other day. He told me I should have just told him to go to his local Walmart and get it himself with his emergency credit card. He really is growing up! He used to hate that kind of thing. It certainly would have saved me some hassle and postage.

I’ve also got to make some more dog food. That experiment is going fairly well. I can’t tell that the homemade food is making left behind pug feel any better but he doesn’t seem to be feeling any worse. He eats the real food much more slowly than he did the dry food, which is probably a good thing. I no longer have to drive 25 miles to get his prescription food but I do need to take time to cook the real food. I haven’t been doing it long enough to see how it’s going to end up. So far, I’m happy I made this choice.

I love to come home from a trip to a really clean house so cleaning my house is on my list of things to do before I go. Unfortunately, it’s usually the first thing to be jettisoned when I run out of time! The usual things like laundry and packing are also on my list. Plus I need to pay a visit to my out of town clients so they won’t fret while I’m gone next week. Getting ready for a trip is always stressful. I love getting about an hour down the road. Too late to do anything but enjoy the trip!

For some reason, I’m feeling unusually stressed about the food issue of long airplane travel. My flight leaves at 2:15 in the afternoon, which means I have to be at the airport by about 12:30. I don’t land in Albany, New York, until 11:00 at night, which will be way too late to eat. My only plane change is 30 minutes in Chicago so I can’t eat there. I don’t really want to spend a bunch of money buying expensive airport food. I also don’t really want to go through security with my bag lunch! I haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to approach this issue. I did ask my boyfriend to pack me a sandwich and a piece of fruit that I can eat in the hotel room that night.

How do you get ready for a trip? Are you a procrastinator, like me, or are you super efficient? How do you deal with being hungry on the plane?