Packing

Packing is a b… under the best of circumstances but packing for a 1-year absence is a different ballgame altogether.  Between the three of us we have 4 suitcases (thanks to my Gold status I get to take a second, which – I was told from the beginning – I was not to consider my second suitcase but the family suitcase) 50 lbs each plus the usual carry-on.  So 200 lbs of luggage minus weight of suitcases to haul a year’s worth of stuff – that focuses the mind – or at least one should think.

Packing focuses the mind: the magic number is 50 lbs right now.
(c) Tina Baumgartner

My first instinct was to pack some favorite memorabilia, lots of clothing so we don’t have to buy anything there plus  all the important business cards I need for my job, jewelry, documents, paper work – until I noticed (and, really, I should have known this before and somehow did but repressed the knowledge) that a) paper is heavy, b) shoes are heavy and c) winter clothing is – you guessed it – heavy.  Since any additional suitcase costs $200 to ship the tasks has changed now from: let’s take as much as we can so we don’t have to get it here to “is it cheaper to buy a pair of jeans for my son here and take it or cheaper to buy it here?”  Now everything I put on the “take with” pile is second guessed, weighed in my hands, critically compared to other stuff of similar weight: wool sweater vs. 2 pairs of sandals?  The poster I wanted to take for decorating the apartment vs. Mexican and Japanese spices I am not sure I can get there? Business cards vs. documents?

Once you start paring the list down you start wondering whether it is worth taking anything.  If only very special things get to go, what makes something special?  Some things are easy, I know my son will not leave without his bear, he is 10 but he loves that raggedy old thing that he had since his first day.  My husband will not travel without at least two computers and a spare monitor but will probably think three t-shirts are plenty.  And I, I don’t know what is important anymore.  I know I need a computer, and a few business suits, my camera and iPhone but in addition to that everything else is in a grey zone – important? yes, but that important? Important enough to claim one of the “by invitation only, limited edition” spaces in my suitcase?

I am sure I’ll figure it out – and if not, I can always get a pair of shoes or a sweater – but it is weird to have to make these decisions and oscillating between “I have to bring this else life isn’t worth living” to “nah, it does not make the final 50lbs after all” and the ultimate: “am I willing to spend $200 for a fifth suitcase to take this?”

One thing is for certain, packing suitcases and packing up part of the house is certainly an exercise that should be undertaken more frequently.  There is so much stuff  that just accumulates and never gets dealt with and now we are forced to do it.  Besides the superficial clutter of piles of sweaters and socks lying around getting ready to be packed up the house hasn’t looked so clean and airy in a long time!

 

 

A Series of Lasts

With just about three weeks to go we have started a series of “lasts”-last time to do something, last time to go to a certain restaurant or favorite spot.  This weekend was the last time going to our favorite flea market.  Sigh!

We found this flea market quite by accident a few years back and have been going regularly. It’s fun, its cheap entertainment, they make good churros there and sell cheap produce in addition to all the eclectic, weird and plain old used stuff. I love this flea market – it is so refreshingly different from the sterile shopping malls with their cooled down standard stores, their food courts and all their shiny new and often utterly useless, overpriced and/or ridiculous things that will look even more useless or ridiculous next year.

Our flea market is messy, loud, colorful, unconventional, often hot – always interesting, never sterile.  It sports countless sellers with their wares on cheap tables or directly on the floor, anything from clothing to toys, bikes, sometimes even vintage items, tools, electronics, crafts, housewares, stuff I don’t know what it is, Mexican music, a barber, produce stalls and a smelly fish monger  – everything. Over the last few years I have become rather good at finding things I need (well, okay, and many I don’t need but like) and can’t remember more than a handful of things I have not been able to find there (e.g. a pair of skiing pants for my son but then, hey, this is coastal California in mid-summer I probably won’t get one in the store either).  The trick is not trying to go for to many things, in all this chaos the mind can’t focus on too many different shapes and forms one needs to look out for when, for example, simultaneously looking for a tennis racket, a ornate frame that would look good when sprayed in hot pink and Pokemon cards.

To tell you the truth, going to a flea market when one really really can’t buy anything because whatever it is one buys one just needs to just pack it up and store it for a year is no fun, it is actually depressing.  But I wanted to go and found an excuse  and so we took one last stroll around the place bought a few mangoes, marveled at things we could have bought under normal circumstances and then left.

Ironically, for the first time in months I needed to go to the mall afterwards to buy some cosmetics for my upcoming business trip – and even this die-hard flea market aficionado does not get cosmetics there.  It was cool – which was a define plus on a day with mid-90s temperatures but that is all the positive I can say for it.  All the same stores, all the same stuff, all the same food, all so boring and so many people thinking that this is a great way to spend a brilliant summer weekend day.

It was definitely my last time at the mall – I wont miss it one bit.  The flea market, however, is a very different story …