We've done this countless times before: wing off in to the wild blue yonder, headed for a distant land, often for months at a time.
Frequent-traveler types tend to have everything wired, and can toss a tiny carry-on bag onto a bed, and a half-hour later have everything they need cleverly packed and ready!
I am so not one of those people.
There is almost nothing about my personality that suggests living in two different countries would be a good idea.
Why Do I Hate Transitions So Much?
I'm a Pessimist!
You'd think, as someone who used to be a therapist, and who has gone on innumerable Personal Growth Quests during my lifetime, I'd have managed to turn this shit around by now. But for all my positive thinking mantras, my attempts at self hypnosis, my cognitive-behavioral techniques, my meditation practice and breathing exercises: I'm still, underneath, Eeyore, always convinced that anything that can go wrong, will. And pessimism thrives in unpredictible environments, and is there anything more unpredictible than modern long-distance air travel?
And a Scaredy-Cat.
Call it an anxiety disorder or whatever, I've been on probably hundreds of airplanes in my life and I never am quite convinced the damn plane isn't going to crash.
I Hate Making Decisions.
What might I need over the next 5 months that they don't have available in Spain? (There are a surprising number of things in this category! For example, they don't do drugstores the way we do, and things like anti-perspirant deodorants, Tums, ibuprofen etc are dificult or impossible to find). What might I want to wear? How much of my workout stuff should I take?
And I am a procrastinator.
We are leaving tomorrow, and my wife is of course already packed and organized, and I am not, so why am I writing a blog post when I should be packing?
But Why Are the Transitions Totally Worth It?
We love being in Provincetown when we are in Provincetown, and we love Valencia when we are in Valencia! But everytime it comes time to make the shift I am certain that this time will be different, and somehow miserable. So I am always surprised just how excited and relieved I am to once again be somewhere that is familiar yet new and fresh. And in the case of Spain, still foreign and challenging, but in a good way.
Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to a crazy split life like this, and most people wouldn't want to. Even luckier, I married someone who is much more calm and practical about dealing with any challenges that arise, who can talk me down from my anxieties and figure out what gate we need to be at or what train we should catch.
We don't know how long we'll keep flying back and forth, with two addresses, two phone numbers, two sets of dear friends, two medical systems, and two government bureaucracies to deal with. I just need to tame my neurotic little brain over the next couple of days until we get there, and hope that what always has happened before will happen again. Fingers crossed.
And now I suppose I should seriously start stuffing things in my suitcase. Hasta pronto!
Anyone one else have trouble with travel or other transitions? Or are you all organized and chill?
As you might expect from a duck I fly All The Time, usually at least a week or two away from home in a month (I'm writing this in Germany), and consequently you'd think I'd be in the packed-in-half-an-hour group, right? Nope. Honestly, if you watched me you'd think it was the first time I ever left the house. And I still turn up without something essential now and then (hint: so long as you have your travel documents, prescription medicine and a credit card, you can buy most other stuff wherever you are).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of buying things where you are, I've never had any trouble getting deodorant (supermarket), ibuprofen (pharmacy, there's typically one on every second street or so) or indigestion remedies (ditto) in Spain. Are you maybe looking for specific brands that aren't available in Europe?
So it's not just me? That's reassuring that even a seasoned traveler like you struggles with packing. And why yes, you can get deodorant, but effective antiperspirants are hard to find. I've gotten more reluctant to use them myself, at least the kind where you put it on and four days later there's still a sticky film that can't be scrubbed off--that can't be good for us, right? But several friends requested we bring them back their favorite brands or antiperspirants. Ibuprofen requires a prescription where we are, which is a hassle, and while I don't use Tums, another friend always has us bring back extra strength Tums which apparently there's no equivalent of in Spanish drugstores. My personal challenge is calcium citrate, not available at all locally that I could find, and it's the kind recommended for my hypopara. I'm just hoping customs doesn't get weird about me bringing in an insane amount. But I think you full-on, full-time immigrants are much better at adapting to what's available than us half-time Expats. We keep wanting to have our favorite spices and snacks and drugstore items, because we're spoiled. We also take back Spanish treats to the U.S.!
DeleteI kept thinking about this, trying to decide when I got good at packing. Not long after I was too old for my mother to pack for me (she was one of the "bring five times as many clothes as you could possibly wear and you'll always have something appropriate" types) I started making lists. Careful lists, obsessive lists, lists of what categories of things to pack, lists of specific things to pack. By the time I was out of college I could do it in my sleep. Practice makes perfect?
ReplyDeleteI love it Mary Anne, the obsessive lists especially. I TRY so hard to do the same, but end up changing my mind over and over about what should and shouldn't be on those lists, and inevitably I fail to predict a necessity and overpack useless items. If packing is an art, you are Rembrant, and I draw stick figures with too few or too many fingers.
DeleteMy mantra has become, the older I get the more I pack like my mother and the less I apologize for it!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have had a safe flight and are enjoying Spain, and will enjoy it for months to come.
Messymimi, that cracks me up, an unapologetic "like my mother" packer! And maybe that's my problem: my mother's father was in the military, they moved around all the time, so by the time she had her own kids she never wanted to go anywhere and so I got zero maternal packing advice!
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