Packing

Raleigh, here I come. It's kind of nice knowing I get to go on a mini-vacay all week and get paid for it without doing any real work. It makes me feel like I have a job that actually requires travel. I just hate packing - everything about it. It's such a process and it pretty much follows the same steps every time I have to go through it:

• Decide what to wear
• Try on all possibilities, decide against the items that are too small at the moment because of how bloated I am 
• Wonder why I am so fat tonight
• Stuff anything that fits me into my suitcase
• Shoo the cat away from my suitcase
• Panic that the suitcase is filling up extremely quickly; fear I may have to bring out the duffel bag
• Meticulously count all items in the suitcase and mentally match them with the other items in the suitcase to insure I have outfits packed (all too often I remember the shirt and not the pants...)
• Pick out pajamas that match and aren't hideous because other people will likely see me in them (this is harder than it sounds)
• Get duffel bag
• Shoo the cat away again
• Shooing the cat reminds me to pick out shoes
• Make a mental note for the morning to pack makeup, hair brushes, shampoo/conditioner, moisturizer, etc.
• Random thought: Does the hotel provide DVD players in each room? Should I bring workout tapes? Should I bring a laptop? My Italian notes?  

See what a pain in the ass this is? Granted, packing is always a fiasco for me, but if this training we were going to wasn't "business casual" I would have had an easier time picking out clothing. I have tons of great stuff but somehow I've out-fatted a few pieces so I had to resort to stuff I don't like as much. A pair of jeans and a nice top would make things so much easier (I did pack jeans... but the shoes, shirt, and jacket they'll be paired with will bump it up to "business casual," I think). I know I'll get down there and will realize I forgot something important, because that always happens. I suppose as long as I have my makeup and a straightening iron it won't be the end of the world.

To recap the weekend, I gotta say it was pretty productive. I got some work done on my drawing:

baked and decorated 2 dozen cookies for my friend Jessica's daughter's birthday party (snowflakes... very cute. It's a winter wonderland theme. Get it? W"one"derland? Because she is turning one?), and brushed up on my my Italiano. How is it possible that I had such a productive weekend while sitting down the whole time? The fact I didn't do much moving this entire weekend doesn't make me feel like I really did anything at all. I suppose I could benefit from some exercise... especially considering how bloated I feel. It's just a fat day. We all have them. 

I'll be sure to try to snap as many photos as I can while in North Carolina. I am really bad about remembering to use the camera that I usually stuff in my purse last-minute... speaking of purses, should I bring more than one?