What's a girl to wear?

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ok, we are down to 13 days. There are moments where I feel like I have gotten so much done and could leave tomorrow…and other moments where I feel a panic that I haven’t gotten enough done and will never be ready. Though truth be told, most of those moments involve wardrobe planning. I have a hard enough time planning my outfits for a week long trip, let alone a 5 month move. I am sure the above quote by Emerson is not referring to beautiful clothes, but that is the thing about quotes, you can interpret them any way you choose. I like to make sure when I travel that I carry the beautiful with me (clothes that is).

My family would tell you that I have the opposite problem from my Mom when traveling (please see my blog dated November 25th in regards to her old underwear)… I over pack… no I mean really over pack. Case in point: I was in 10th grade and my family was going on our biennial trip to England to visit family. If my memory serves me correctly, we were going for 2 weeks; though I should point out that we weren’t going to be with any group of people for more than 3 days. So theoretically, I could have packed 4 outfits and no one (outside of my immediate family) would have known I wore the same outfit more than once. However, that is not how my mind works… I mean surely we were taking pictures during that time, God forbid I am photographed in the same outfit twice.

So we get to the airport and the “enforcers” at the British Airways terminal told me that my carry on bag was too heavy and I was going to have to “check it” (keep in mind I had already “checked” a regular suitcase). So there I am in the airport emptying out my carry-on bag (read: mid sized suitcase) to determine what in the bag I was actually going to use during the flight, and what was in there for the sole reason that it wouldn’t fit in my already overstuffed “checked” suitcase. To my Mother’s horror, along with many other things, I unpacked 13 pairs of shoes. Yes I said 13, 13 pairs of shoes for a two week trip…don’t laugh; someone might have taken a full length picture that included my feet!

I should also point out that I was in 10th grade during the 80’s, so in that pile of 13 pairs of shoes were most certainly white pumps and hot pink pumps. I was a woman of fashion you know.

The story above is one of many. It is a pattern of behavior for me, I always over pack… and if you talk to any guy who has ever had the fortune of traveling with me, they would tell you that I expect them to carry my over packed suitcase. I am a southern girl after all. And if I am going to grant you the privilege of sleeping in a bed next to me while we are on vacation, the least you can do is carry my suitcase.

Anyway, back to my current packing situation. What does a girl who packs 13 pairs of shoes for a two week trip pack for 5 months? I think the answer would scare you. I started pre-packing last weekend by pulling out my summer clothes to sort them into “yes,” “no” and “maybe” piles. In my initial run through there was hardly anything in the “no” pile… and more in the “yes” pile than would fit into my two large suitcases (which left me wondering what a girl who lives in SF is doing with so many summer clothes… but that is not the point here). My next step was to try on everything in my “yes” pile to see if I still liked it, how it fit, and if possibly it would move into the “maybe” or the “no” pile. I mean I do, after all, need to leave space in my suitcase for the floatie I bought for the pool… don’t laugh, it has a drink holder, and I can not be totally sure that the floaties in Costa Rica have drink holders. Just trying to be prepared.

Back to my packing dilemma, I am trying on everything in my “yes” pile… which has some VERY cute items in it… while simultaneously trying to remind myself that Costa Rica is a very casual country, I am living at the beach and will most likely be in shorts, a tank top and flip flops every day. With that mind set, I started trying to really justify everything I was packing that was not in the above mentioned “every day wear.” Pretty successfully I might add, until I tried on one of my favorite skirts. It is a white skirt with large print black flowers, and every time I wear it I get lots of compliments (and more importantly feel great) which should clearly make it a “yes.” However, it is kind of a dressy skirt so I had to remind myself (for the 100th time) that I will be living at the beach in a laid back country. Begrudgingly I took off the skirt and went to throw it into the “no” pile when I suddenly thought “What if I get invited to a wedding in Costa Rica, what would I wear? That skirt would be perfect!”

I know, I have issues.

Luckily about 5 minutes into this psychotic episode I forced myself to realize that I am crazy, and that I had somehow allowed my mind to leap from moving to a country where I don’t know a soul, to needing fancy skirts to wear to weddings. Don’t judge me, I started off this entry by telling you that I over pack.

However, you should be proud… I did put that skirt in the “no” pile… but only after I made a phone call that resulted in my friend promising to send me the skirt if, in fact, I was invited to a wedding. He feels pretty confident that he won’t be running to fedex, however, I am pretty sure he now regrets volunteering to store my clothes at his house.

Gotta go, I have packing to do.