TINY LITTLE BOTTLES
And a place for Everyting and everything in its place.
A place for everything and everything in its place.
Repeating that mantra to myself wasn’t working.
Yes, I KNOW! But it was one in the morning, and the bag of all the essentials that I would need to complete my morning and evening grooming routines wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Packing for a vacation trip at one in the morning is something I say I never do, but my husband says I always do. I hate it when he’s right. But the thing is, I had it all planned out, and all I had to do was put the stuff into the suitcase.
It’s not like we were going to Siberia. Not that I’ve ever been to Siberia, and I’m not entirely sure where Siberia actually is ... we can talk about my horrible geography knowledge later. The point is, I’ll bet there isn’t a store on every corner where you can buy anything you might need in Siberia. Thankfully, we were going to Arizona. And as my husband loves to point out, the hotel will have stuff.
In my mind, I see myself as one of those travelers—you know the ones—beige linen suit with no wrinkles, perfectly coiffed hair, flawless makeup, and pulling a set of the smallest perfectly color-coordinated turquoise luggage effortlessly up the escalator. (I have left out the part about carrying a toy pug in a bag that matches the luggage. I would never carry a dog in a bag, color-coordinated or not!).
A little side note here: Why hasn’t someone invented a larger escalator?! Except for my fantasy woman, everyone struggles with their suitcase when they get on the escalator. Don’t tell me that if I have a suitcase, I’m supposed to ride the elevator instead. I saw that sign, and it’s a stupid sign. It’s an AIRPORT!
Note to self: I should call and make a formal complaint.
The reality is that my luggage doesn’t match, it’s a little too big, and it’s more than a little too heavy. I once stood at the bag drop, pulling clothes from my suitcase, and layering them on myself right there in the line! Not one of my brightest and best moments.
Another note to self: Buy a luggage scale.
When I’m not wearing three layers of clothes, my traveling outfit consists of a pair of thick-soled hiking shoes, jeans, sweatshirt, and yesterday’s hair and makeup. I’m basically unrecognizable, even to myself—which maybe isn’t a bad thing in the event I have another bag drop fiasco.
We were sleep deprived and “hangry” when we finally retrieved our rental car, so we didn’t stop at the multitude of shops we passed as we drove to our posh hotel. I would have to make do.
Once inside our room, I headed straight for the shower. The tray of products in the hotel bathroom looked enticing enough on the fancy glass tray … and then I saw it … shower gel … darn it! Hotel shower gel doesn’t lather; even with half the bottle on the washcloth, it never works. And where was the bar of soap? When did everyone stop using bar soap?
Bar soap may be yet another casualty of the war on germs. I once read somewhere that germs can live on a bar of soap for weeks! At that moment, I didn’t care about tiny germs setting up housekeeping on a bar of soap. I just wanted to wash off the traveling smell … and needed more than tiny little bottles.
lol!!! I have done the Luggage Weight Shuffle more times than I’d like to admit! I spent one time at the luggage drop swapping out heavier items into my CarryOn - that was ALSO brilliant (especially when it was time to lift and remove it from the overhead bins.) To avoid THAT again, I most recently spent the 20-minute ride from my mom’s place to the airport in the back of her car getting rid of most of my toiletries and half of my sweaters to avoid maxing out the weight on a domestic flight to snowy Colorado. Pro-tip for the shower gel - always pack a little cheap loofa because it’s the only way the gel will lather! Hope you had a lovely trip -even without the bar soap!