floss

Why have a travel size? Does the extra 1/4 inch make that much of difference?

We're leaving for Philadelphia on Sunday morning. Chip is going for a work conference, and Alice and I are tagging along. The approaching certainty of traveling with a 2-month-old infant has me wondering about space-saving. I've always been a heavy packer. I'm the one who shows up with the too-big suitcase, the extra three pairs of pants, the kitchen sink, and the soap dispenser. Now that I'm packing for two, and one of us requires her own seat and conveyance (in the form of car seat and stroller), I'm trying to pare down my own needs to the bare minimum.

My problem is that I lean toward the extreme: when I overpack, I REALLY overpack. When I strip my travel needs down to the nuts and bolts, I'm left with one nut and one bolt and NOTHING to do on teh plane. Truthfully, even when I pack an I-pod, a book, a magazine, snacks, a bottle of water (purchased AFTER the security check of course), knitting, another magazine, and a book purchased at the airport bookstore place (AND GUM) - I still find myself waiting for the darn plane, totally uninterested in anything I can find in my bag.

Luckily I now have a built-in To Do in the form of BABY. I will be bringing my I-pod and a book. I doubt I'll get to either one of them.

Wish us luck.


*** Can I just ask you, WHY THE HECK ARE THOSE AIRPORT BOOKSTORES SO TEMPTING? I swear, I could run into the same horrible selection of reading material at another bookstore and easily walk away. There's something about the airport that makes purchasing a little something IMPOSSIBLE TO AVOID. I buy the worst books there. The books that I'm ashamed to claim when I get home. And the thing is still UNREAD. I think there's a drug circulating through the air filtration system, or something. It's a mystery to me. (So I Married an Axe Murderer: They put something in the chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly.)