Best Laid Plans

I consider myself to be an organized packer.  I make lists.  In fact, I have many pre -made lists saved on my computer so I don’t have to reinvent them each time I go somewhere.  When I take a big trip, I use a whole notebook to contain my lists.  I am pretty confident in my lists to cover various situations and make sure I always have what I need.

This time, however, my lists got too complicated.  I actually made a packet of lists with a calendar on top to make sure the jobs for each day got accomplished.  I added information throughout the past couple of weeks, but instead of packing anything I waited until the day before leaving.  (I had a good excuse–Parent-Teacher conference week).  So I’m going to claim the fact that my packing was rushed in order to excuse the chaos that has followed.

My basic challenge was that I needed to pack for three different parts of my week-long trip with different bags.  I wanted to be able to grab a bag easily for each part of the trip and have everything at my fingertips.  When I started my packing, I thought I was doing a good job of getting everything into the correct bag.

As the trip unfolded, however, my mistakes started popping.  No shorts.  No medicine box.  Phone charger missing.  Glasses in the wrong purse.  And the final straw…no toothbrush.  And it isn’t as simple as going back to the car to retrieve the toothbrush–apparently I didn’t pack one at all!  I may have to tear the bags apart in the car to repack and reorganize all my things AND then find a Walgreens.  None of these problems are difficult to solve, but my pride is damaged.  My lists are not infallible.  I have found the flaws in my plans.  I will correct my computer lists soon, but in the meantime I am just sort of wondering what item I’m going to realize has been forgotten next…