Over-prepare, Then Go With the Flow

• Medgrl413's Profile
• About this blog
• Entry from Malden

Trip Start Jun 28, 2009 Trip End Jul 11, 2009 Next
Entry

  Malden, Massachusetts, United States
Sunday, June 28, 2009

I've been making lists for a month now.  I have a strange style of list-making.  Instead of making one list and working off one that for weeks, I make a new list every day or two.  Not sure why I do this; perhaps because I learn things by writing, and every time I write my itinerary or list of clothes or toiletries, I am, in fact, memorizing them. Every few days, something is added to the list or taken off or perhaps added back on.  Nothing is final until the suitcase is packed.

You see, I'm fussy. Not Felix Unger fussy but I want things the way I want them. I do not want to be pissed at myself for forgetting something but nor do I want to be pissed at myself for bringing too much.  Mostly I want to bring as little stuff as is possible for me. Note I didn't write "as is humanly possible." I'm not just bringing one pair of underwear, Ex-Officio...

I ordered lots of new, and hopefully useful, things from Travelsmith and Magellans.com (and saved quite a bit of money, too, since Molly turned me on to www.retailmenot.com ).  I spent hours choosing colors and sizes (none of this was clothing, mind you) only to have both packages stolen right out of my foyer. I got the last of it Friday - almost three weeks after initially placing the orders. The Travelsmith merchandise was sent in two separate boxes after they overnighted me a luggage tag and forgot to add the rest of the order.  (You have no idea how disappointing it is to open a large box you've been waiting for for two weeks only to find in it nothing but a luggage tag. It's like Charlie Brown trick-or-treating and only getting rocks.)

The good news is that all my online obsessing before hitting "checkout" paid off and I'm very pleased with everything I bought. Some of them include: a toiletries kit (the ones I already own are piecemeal from years of working at Crate and Barrel, cute but no longer functional for either my or the airlines' needs), mesh luggage cubes (so security can check your underwear without "checking your underwear," if you know what I mean), a theft-resistant backpack, which I LOVE and which people at work were coveting, a fantastic little jewelry keeper, a TSA luggage lock.  I couldn't resist throwing in a few what-the-hell items as well, such as No Jet Lag homeopathic pills, clothing shields for under the arms (yeah, right) and my favorite, Urinelle - disposable paper funnels for women to pee standing up ("paging Dr. Freud"). My friend, Nancy, mentioned them to me as a goof one night over margaritas, so when I saw them online, I had to buy them.  And you know I'm gonna try one in some creepy cave "bathroom" in Cappadocia.

I am bringing a mini laptop but the charger is going into checked luggage. I'll be on all-batteries at Heathrow, that is, if I'm even awake enough to surf the interwebs at what will be, for me, 3 a.m.  I didn't buy Bose noise-canceling head phones. I didn't buy a Kindle. Instead, I'll bring one book. I can't read on the bus anyway; I get carsick.  I am not bringing my Rick Steves Istanbul guide book.  I'm only there for two and half days - and I have a guide!  I am not bringing my non-international cell phone.  I am bringing my Charlie card to save time on the T on the way home.  I have two ATM cards, no travelers' checks.  No lira yet; no Euro. And while we're on the subject the Turkish lira is 1.59 to the dollar while the Euro is .71 to the dollar. I am SO paying with lira!! 

The area in which I think I've been most successful is clothing.  The final item I received from the lost shipments was a crushable hat that Magellan's overnighted to me because it had been out of stock when my order was placed for the second time.  Unfortunately, I think it makes me look like I'm on my way to the barbecue at Twelve Oaks. Having no alternative, though, and no time to exchange it, it's going into the suitcase.  Alicia has assured me that even though I'm not a hat person, I must wear a hat.  It is afterall, anywhere from 95 to 100 degrees in Western Turkey right now. All my outfits are fairly light in color, mix and match, and the other day, I eliminated an entire wardrobe:  anything with black in it.  I couldn't bear to buy any 'travel" clothing, which I think is really, really fugly.  I am bringing a windbreaker and sweater (temps fall to the 60s/50s at night), but not an umbrella.  I can't decide whether to bring four pairs of shoes or three, plus flip-flops.  I decided to go back to wearing Keds. The Merrell Mary Janes are going to fail me at some point, I can already tell.  I was going to bring a red scarf that I bought, in all places, Little Italy in NYC, but when I wrapped it around my head last night, like hijab, I thought it made me look like Little Red Riding Hood.  Instead, I'm now going to wear the scarf I use as a bathing suit cover-up on my head, at least the first night in the Blue Mosque.  I'm bringing one bathing suit, but will probably wish I brought two, because every hotel has a pool and I'm sure at some point I will have to put it on wet.  (Poor me - all that swimming and a/c and Wifi in those "rustic" Turkish hotels.)

I am bringing all types of meds - just a little of each - because I refuse to be the person the bus has to stop every twenty minutes for. I'm bringing enough Purell to sanitize all of Istanbul and all the "toilets" that make us women want to pee standing up. I'm also bringing several half-full travel items that I can use up and throw away, which I can't wait to do!  At this point, the name of the game is consolidate and throw away.

Confession: all of this pre-shopping makes it very unlikely that I will spend much money in Turkey.  I have no desire to buy a rug.  Pottery, maybe, so I need to leave room for that.  Maybe I'll buy a few souvenirs at the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul and some spices.  (Can I even bring spices back to the U.S.? If they're sold on the street and not vacuum-sealed, the State Department's answer, techically, is 'no.'  I'm thinking I'm going to have to smuggle it in through customs like Brad Davis in Midnight Express, but instead of hash, I'll be packing saffron.)

Right now, I have absolutely no desire to think about "things" any more, especially the acquiring of anything else to lug along on this trip.  The thought of adding souvenirs or knick-knacks is making my head spin.  The above was my final list.  I'm packed. I'm ready. Time to go with the flow.

Print this entry Share

Next Entry