Starting to pack

Packing for this trip has been giving me fits. Actually, it's the anticipation of packing that's been troubling me. Clothes are easy...put everything I might want to take in a suitcase. Weigh it. Take half of it out.

But the issues for me are always toiletries and shoes (that foot, don't you know?). I attacked the shoe issue earlier in the year. I bought 3 new pairs (2 of them sandals), they're all really comfortable, and they're all going with me.  Formal, casual, on the ship, off the ship, walking six miles, at the beach or in the mud...I'm all set now.

Toiletries are harder.  So much of what I use comes from Aveda, Ulta and Bath and Body Works, and there are none of those near the port in Fort Lauderdale.  So I'm taking 90 100 days worth of a lot of things, and replacing drugstore items as needed over the next three months.  I always say that I can live without most things for a week, and some things for a month.  But for three months...unless I want to return home with leathery skin and straw for hair, I need everything.

A quick aside...last night was Halloween, and we came inside from a day of yard work just in time to start greeting trick or treaters.  One of the first groups to arrive was four little ones, ranging from about 3 to 5 years old.  You know, the really cute ones.  While I was enjoying handing out candy, the littlest one looked at me and said, "Wow. You're old. You're really, really old".

Ouch.

Now, I adore kids, you know I do.  But it was all I could do to not channel my inner Soup Nazi (from Seinfeld) and say, "No candy for YOU!"

Which gets me back to the reason I need to take every moisturizer I own.  And why I really, really need this cruise!