Ahead of Schedule

My packing routine usually begins a few days before a trip when I see the large mountain of laundry in my bedroom. I start working my way through it, and making mental notes of all the other things that have to be finished before I go.

But the real packing routine begins in earnest the night before where I take 4-5 hours to clean my room, fold all the clean laundry, pay bills, and back up data. Usually I start the actual packing very late.

And that always takes a while as I have to reconcile Austin casual style with (usually) East Coast metropolitan. I check weather.com multiple times in hopes that looking at the temperatures will better remind me how I am supposed to dress since its always much warmer here than anywhere I usually go. Needless to say, picking outfits takes forever.

Usually, I flop onto my bed at 3 am, exhausted, for a short nap before my insanely early flight (I actually like traveling before the sun comes up).

But tonight's not 3 am. It's 10:57 pm and I am ALL DONE. The bags are packed. The plane outfit is on my dresser. I actually started last night to ensure my house would be clean when I come home. I am even tired enough to go to bed responsibly early for my 6:45 am flight. I feel like a real adult. It must be all the gray hairs I've been yanking out.