My Bags Are Packed ... Sort of

Well, I know it's been a while, but as I said last time, things are a bit crazy in my neck of the woods. Next week at this time, I'll be in Germany. Meanwhile, this weekend is filled to the brim with last minute things to do before I leave. My bags are nearly packed, my itinerary is pretty set, and all that remains is to make sure I have my passport and am up and functional in time to catch the 3:00am bus to the airport.

I'm really looking forward to the trip, but not necessarily the flight. I'm going with a large group, so we had to split up into two groups for the first part of the journey. My group leaves here at 5:30am and flies to Cincinnati, where we have a 3-hour layover. Then we get on another plane bound for Atlanta, where we have another 4 hours to wait before boarding our flight to Munich. So we will actually have been travelling about 12 hours before we get on the longest leg of the trip. I'm hoping that means that I'll be tired enough to get some sleep on that last plane.

My itinerary is filled with places I've only read about, or seen in the movies. Who knows if the reality will be as good as the dreams... or better. Rome, London, Berlin, Salzburg, Interlaken, Edinburgh, Amsterdam, Brussels. They're all on the list. (But then again, I was never very good at sticking to the list.) Hopefully, I'll do a bit of writing about it here while I'm gone. If not, I promise to take good notes.

Auf Wiedersehen!

In the deep freeze

Sometimes, I wish there were 48 hours in a day. Of course, then I'd just find that much more that needed to be done.

In a month (give or take a couple of days), I'm off on my adventure of a lifetime. A jaunt around Europe. It's something I've always wanted to do, and the opportunity came along, so I just decided to go for it. But... I can't seem to make any decisions regarding my itinerary, or what I'm taking with me. Part of me wants to just 'go with the flow', while another part of me wants to have every last second planned out. There are so many things I need to do between now and then, that I'm nearly paralyzed with indecision.

Then there's work. We've been short-handed (but then, who isn't?) for about the past 6 months. Suddenly, we're also adding several major projects to the already full daily grind. One of these projects rests solely in my hands, and has a deadline of the day I come back from my vacation. Translation: get it done before you go. Meanwhile, the day-to-day stuff keeps piling up. And when I do get a bit of time to work on it, I am once again paralyzed. What should I do first? What can wait? Is there anything I can pass off to someone else? Where do I start?

Then there's the home front. Smith (my husband) and I are on the downhill side of a new home construction project. We've been working on it in our 'spare' time for almost 2 years now, and it's finally in the stage where we can live in it, but we still have a lot of (mostly) minor things to finish up. I made a list. It's 2 columns wide, and 3 pages long. Last night I actually crossed 2 things off of the list. But I also added 2 more things. So I have my list. It should be simple, right? Not so much. Some of the things on the list depend on other things being done before they can be completed. Some of the things on the list are things I cannot (or will not) do. So once again, I am paralyzed.

How do I make this all work? Or do I just give up on trying? It's at times like this when I feel an old commercial coming along: Calgon, take me away!

Persevere.