Friday, April 5, 2013

Packing Slug

It's packing time for our Grand Canyon camping trip; we're taking all our food and gear for the week so pretty major. I've realised through the years that if you're really bad at something, people don't ask you to do it again. That's why my husband does all the packing.

Kevin sorting out the camping gear.  Look I think he's smiling -  he loves it!

I learned this in my late 20's when for a year I was a terribly important "business editor" for the Gloucestershire Echo in the UK.  I was so terribly important that although I had a full workload of news stories, 12-page supplements and dedicated weekly biz page, one day they told me to do the early shift in the Tewkesbury office.

Not a morning person I woke up at 5am and drove to the sleepy little medieval town. I sat in that old wooden room wondering what I should be doing and made loads of cups of tea. Around noontime I headed back to the main office. The news editor was quietly seething: "Where are all the police stories?" she asked.  Oh, shit.  "When were you going to do the police calls??? You're never going to Tewkesbury again!" she scolded.

I slunk back to my "biz desk" - opposite Sir Harold, the Allotment and Golden Wedding Anniversary correspondent - and tried to seem biz-y.

For me packing is the early Tewkesbury shift.  Even Cy, nine, says: "C'mon mom, please don't leave your packing till the last minute."

After 17 years together Kevin is resigned to his role. I put my clothes in a pile and he does the rest. He's an orderly Virgo so my feeling is that packing is like catnip to him. I am Aries, a perfect storm of laziness and grumpy ineptitude.

Stars-wise we're a disastrous couple, according to any given astrologist. Together we make a complete and perfect packer.

Have you ever made sure you're really, really bad at something?


I leave you with some Packing Porn....no not my case, my friend Lisa's. Kevin please take note of the rolling technique. Thank you.




44 comments:

  1. I'm an Aries, first husband Virgo...that's why I'm on my second!

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  2. Ha! Maybe my husband has some moon or sun rising that makes him less Virgo.

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  3. I'm with you on packing! I haven't packed a suitcase in 12 years, Mr Sulky does it all because apparently I can't be trusted with such an important task.

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    1. Move the "packing rage" onto one person - much more efficient

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  4. I am a Lisa on the packing front.....and somehow I love to read about your memories of this country...makes me feel comfortable to know your life includes a bit of ordinary old blighty...........and if he packs what do you do that Kevin doesn't?

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    1. Libby....I was hoping you wouldn't ask that question. Will think on that.

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    2. Libby that's the great thing about blogs isn't. I hadn't thought about my days at the Echo (which with a Kiwi accint is "The Icho" for years.

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  5. Oh, I'm a terrible packer too! I throw random clothes and shoes in a bag and assume they'll assemble into outfits once I get to the destination. They don't. I'm also the worst dishwasher in the world.

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    1. Same...as though things will start matching themselves in the bag on the flight. Lisa (packing above) turns up to the same destination as us with accessories and cute shoes that actually "go"

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  6. You're so lucky you have a person to help you pack! I'm much better at fitting things into a suitcase than deciding what to bring--I have no common sense when it comes to deciding what to bring! Hope you have a great time at the Grand Canyon!
    xo Mary Jo

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  7. Aries at my see
    But I still pack away with glee
    All nice and clean
    But yeah have done such things at my scene
    If I hate it
    I pretend I can't to it well one bit
    And then others do it for me
    So nice to see haha

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    1. Packing With the Stars:

      Do the Virgo roll and tuck
      Or the Aries WTF??

      (with apologies to tidy and hardworking Arians out there!

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  8. I know exactly what you mean here and as a result I haven't packed for a very long time either! So you lived in Tewkesbury - that's a lovely part of England.
    http://missbbobochic.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. It is a wonderful part of England - no news there though! We were always hoping for some scandal to ensure with the church choirs...no such luck

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  9. My husband and child do that "I can't do it very well" act. It makes me crazy, but maybe that's because I (as I have just learned) am "a perfect storm of laziness and grumpy ineptitude". You have such a way with words my fellow fire sign :)

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    1. Just realised I have insulted every Arian under the sun, grouping them in with me. I'm sure I'm a stand alone bad Sheep.

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  10. Oh fellow Aries, I too learnt that trick many years ago. As a result I 'can't' (read 'can't be bothered my ass') mow the grass, take out the bins, cook on a bbq, paint a wall, go up to the attic, remove unwanted insects from the house ... oh, the list goes on and on:) Have a great trip!

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    1. Also we "ones that can't do" have that great line:" Of but you're so good at it..."

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  11. I do most of the packing, Hubs has a bad habit of crushing his dress shirts in the suitcase. I'm really bad at vacuuming and doing dishes.

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    1. Vacuuming is one of those things you don't get a lot of kudos for - unless you have carpet and you make straight lines down it

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  12. On our first long trip together, Himself noticed me rinsing a bra in the hotel bath sink. He asked if I'd wash out a few pairs of his "dainties" since the sink was full of suds anyway. I stupidly said yes, not realizing that these were quite sizable items, compared to my li'l things at least. What a relief to discover that at the end of this ghastly exercise, my hands were bright red, peeling and broken out up past the wrists, probably from the Woolite (the then travel detergent of choice). A night or two in cotton gloves with Vaseline cured the rash, and he's been in charge of travel laundry ever since. I just bring extra stuff - my mantra: "I didn't come all this way to do the wash."

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    1. I feel a ditty about the dainties comin' on! Agreed. A lady kept trying to sell me a (white) pair of hiking trou today saying: "You just scrub and rinse." No scrubbing and rinsing will be going on, thanyaverymuch

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  13. I am incapable of doing something badly on purpose. (Doing things badly by accident is my speciality.) So I made a choice to never, ever do things I would rather my husband do - like the barbecuing and vacuuming. (As I told him, if God had meant for women to vacuum, the vacuums would never have been made so heavy.) He is a lovely, very hard working Aries, but he wouldn't be insulted by your characterization. I have two packing modes - plane travel or car trips with my husband, I put on one outfit and throw extra underwear and a toothbrush in my purse, with an extra T-shirt and exercise shoes if it's more than one night. If it's a car trip with girlfriends, I also throw almost everything I own in a tub, and shove it in the trunk. Good Times!

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    1. Yes Beryl, I am thinking I am very much the black sheep Arian. Maybe I'm hard working at something else. Will muse on that

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    2. I considering you hard working and organized with your writing. And I suspect you were a hard working student. Law School? Not a cakewalk.

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  14. Okay- I have a strange obsession with packing porn. Frankly any sort of organizational porn. So that last photo? Heaven.

    But for your camping trip? I wouldn't even know how to begin to pack! Good thing you have Kevin!!

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  15. I'm an orderly Virgo and would pack weeks ahead of a trip, my husband on the other hand is a Sagittarian and would sling a couple of things in a rucksack.(we're apparently not suited at all) I've always pretended to know nothing about cricket/scoring/positioning of players so as not to land myself with a job - not difficult 'cos I actually no nothing anyway!

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    1. Oh No! I spelled "know" wrong! I hate, hate, hate bad spelling!

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  16. I can't cook to save my life. Packing is easy, though: a tooth brush and a pair of underpants. Bahia here I come!

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  17. Packing is such an "interesting" experience. I make a list, and check things off as they go in. (I'm a Virgo, but, whatever.) Then my beloved asks, "Have you packed X?" and I haven't, and, well. . . .

    I hope you have a wonderful week!

    Blessings and Bear hugs!
    Bears Noting

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  18. Have a great time! You are too funny. My husband and I always joke that he's bad at folding laundry on purpose... then I won't ask him to do it! :) But, he's a great cook, so I guess we're even! :)

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  19. I'm a last minute packer too. When I met my husband, we lived on opposite sides of the US. The first time that I went to visit him, my suitcase was packed over a week in advance - a pretty good sign that I was into him :)

    I'm bad at doing anything quickly, terrible, but often my husband gets to things first (loading the car, etc.) or just does more than me overall, like when there's tidying to do. I do some things more/for him, not that anything comes to mind at the moment.

    We're both equally bad at a lot of things (e.g. unpacking after a trip), and I quite appreciate our mutual acceptance of the chaos generated by that!

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  21. Together you make a perfect packing couple - that made me smile. You are packing-compatible!!

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  22. LOL! Mine sucks at packing. And I suck at doing laundry. I still haven't quite worked out the washing machine yet (read between the lines - aka I do NOT want to learn so he'll have to do it FOREVER)

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  23. Hmmmm.... that's a good strategy. I'll keep it in mind.

    Hope you have a great vacation!

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  24. I never thought I could get excited by a suitcase but this is so well packed it makes me want to go on holiday right now!

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  25. I do all the packing 'round these parts.... which is why I'm always reluctant to go anywhere, all the joy in a holiday evaporates after the complicated logistical strategies are sorted out and booked, and appropriate holiday packing for 5 is completed. I keep telling my husband he's lucky he's got such a highly educated PA to run his life. Wish I'd thought to do the same!
    Enjoy the trip

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  26. My hubby is an Aries and is very different to you. He's obsessional about packing. I do the 'put things in piles' thing that you do and leave him to it. His method is to put trousers in the case with the legs hanging over the side, put the piles on top of said trousers then flip the legs back round the other clothes. This stops the trousers dreading across the knees apparently.

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  28. Have you ever made sure you're really, really bad at something?

    Dealing with Creepy Crawlers. To little effect these days.
    I find the rolling technique really works with packing.

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  29. I'm a terrible packer...am a Virgo, but still a terrible packer. I always forget something..so I end up buying it or doing without it!! But, I do the packing as my husband just freaks out and asks me too many questions to the point that I just shove him out of the room and do it all myself as it takes less time, hahaha! Hope you have a great time x

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  30. I try every day with the cooking but I still get tasked with it. I've burnt food, read recipes wrong, made some pretty inedible stuff but no I'm still left with the cooking. Pah.

    Worked for my dad though, he had a friend who was a florist and he sometimes got tasked with helping her make buttonholes for weddings. He refused to learn anything else for fear of being tasked with more. Lazy my dad? Yup. Clever. Yup.

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