Pre-trip butterflies
It’s not that much different than when I was a little kid and I went off to summer camp for the first time. Once again, I am worrying about little things. It never really gets better.
Oh sure, I have gotten better at packing, but the pre-trip angst and stomach butterflies still have me all worrying and sleepless.
Will I remember everything? Probably not. I always forget some major item. Something obvious, something necessary, something important; that is the item that I choose to forget at home.
Whatever it is, when I return home I find it left out in an obvious place where I placed it so that I wouldn�t forget it. Which, of course, I did.
Would it make any difference if I forgot it? Probably not. Amazingly enough, there are these things called stores overseas. Just like at home, convenient emporiums in which to buy things.
So I go through the inventory of my belongings: How many pairs of socks and underwear? How many shirts? Should I account for buying a few shirts on the road and take fewer to start with?
And what about a towel?
The towel question has me puzzled. Beach towels take up too much room in the pack and besides, I don�t do much beach stuff. Whenever I lie down upon a beach towel, concerned citizens ring up �Marine Mammal Rescue�. I have learned to carry a smaller towel, one that I don�t care much about. One not part of a matched set.
I will pack that random towel that somehow strayed into the linen closet, the mysterious one that was placed there by aliens.
In order to save space, maybe I�ll pack a smaller towel this time.
Will my castoff smaller towel be big enough?
Without belaboring the obvious, I have a lot more surface area than most people. If I want to get dry at all, a towel the size of a hanky won�t do it.
I�ve already packed my towel and already I am thinking about replacing it with a different towel. This pre-trip fretting is something that I can never master. I will obsess about trivial things. I am a worry-wart.
�And what� you say, �about washcloths?�
The cheap-ass guesthouses that I stay in usually provide a towel or two, but for some reason they never supply a washcloth. Speaking candidly as a sweaty lad whose oily skin would be the envy of the Bush administration, I find it necessary to wash my face with hot water, (hot enough to open my pores) and then, using actual soap, scrub my face with a washcloth in hopes of getting my clean skin again. Otherwise, my enviable complexion soon resembles a deluxe pizza. Adolescence follows me into middle age.
Use soap and hot water: there�s my beauty tip for the day.
I bring along a clean washcloth and keep it in a Ziploc bag. This keeps it from getting dirty, it keeps it from getting my clothes damp, but the Ziploc bag never lets it air dry. In fact, it serves as a moist terrarium. Exotic molds and mildew quickly turn my washcloth into a science project. No way is that thing touching my skin.
Good thing that they sell new ones there.