Boxes or Bags?

Packing can be stressful or soothing.

You can put it off ‘till the last minute and then have to hurry to get it done. So this probably means shoving everything in boxes and garbage bags and putting your shampoo in the same box as your socks and sunglasses and a lot of other nonsense things like that. This just makes for a very stressful situation.

But if you put on some good music and give your self a few hours, then packing can be fabulous. It gives you the chance to organize your life and the opportunity to be excited about going somewhere new. You can pack everything in an orderly fashion, which insures for an easier unpacking. Taking down pictures and packing them away is discouraging to a lot of people. But it just makes me anxious for the next wall those photos will be up on.

My photos will be up on a different wall each of the next four weeks.

18 Hour Timeouts

Flying is like the “timeout” for adults. You have to sit in a specific seat uncomfortably close to other people for hours, which is worse than sitting in a corner. You have to listen to the same exact lecture every time before you take off: No smoking, turn off electronics, put on your own mask before assisting others, blah, blah, blah. You are not allowed to get up or unbuckle your seat belt until you are told you can. But even when you can, only a few people on the plane can stand up at a time. You aren’t allowed dinner—maybe some peanuts or pretzels if you are lucky. But if you fall asleep you don’t get anything! They will tease you by giving you fizzy drinks, but as soon as it goes through our system they tell you we have hit “turbulence” so you can’t get up to go to the bathroom. Now that is punishment for adults. Now, if you were bad in time out, then you might not get your luggage back at the end of the day. Or maybe time has been stolen from you and the time changes made you miss an entire day.

Timeouts are rough for adults. And the worst part is that we pay money for it.