Countdown to Miami: 14 days!

Last time, many people asked, ‘So, Susan, how do you pack for 5 months?’ This time, I’ll only be gone 4-1/2 months — but am I taking 9% fewer clothes? Of course not.

If you are not already familiar with them, I highly recommend Packing Cubes. They are great for organizing various wardrobe parts and compressing them so one can fit more in one’s suitcases. (We have all long ago forgotten Nellie Bly and her tiny ‘gripsack,’ haven’t we?)

The Beret and Gloves, you ask? Well, I'll be perambulating among penguins in the Falklands, and it could be nippy that close to Antarctica.

The screaming pink Feather Boa? Well, one never knows when one will have the opportunity to model — or even perform! (No ukulele this trip.)

Clothes are the fun part. Toiletries and patent medicines are the OMG-will-they-never-end? part. Not to mention my stationery necessities: pencils, pens, highlighters, mini stapler [and staples], Scotch® tape, Post-its®, paper clips, and so on and so forth. Then there are the Jiffy® bags: 128 days’ worth of vitamins and minerals are also hidden in the midden. No, I am not taking stuffed grape leaves: that’s a repurposed container that now holds makeup.

Viking ships our bags to the ship so we don’t have to schlep 50-pound valises on our own. Well, UPS showed up more than 2 hours before the scheduled time today — I was not quite ‘there’ yet. The bags weighed in at 48+ and 49+ pounds — just squeaking under the 50-lb limit. I finished up and put The Boys out on the stoop. Unbeknownst to me, UPS reappeared and they disappeared at some point this afternoon. The exterminator has made his follow-up visit. I have rewritten my will. I’m almost ready to depart! #