random thoughts – Day 1,316 – (Tuesday) – departure day

It’s a late flight home, departing at 10:00 PM and not arriving in Boston until 6:00 AM Wednesday. Of course, when booking my vacation days from work, I was thinking, “we go home on Tuesday and I can sleep late on Wednesday and take the day to unwind.” That, of course, completely overlooked the critical detail where we leave on Tuesday, but don’t arrive until Wednesday morning. Such a rookie mistake. You’d think I've never traveled before. Or learned how to read and process information.

Packing it in.

There were loose ends to tend to early in the day. Like packing. Ugh. At least packing to return home from a trip doesn’t have the stress of guessing and choosing what to bring on a vacation. It’s an exercise in rolling, folding, and fitting things back into the traveling clothes box with slightly less concern about wrinkling. No worry about packing the “right” clothes because that is already water under the bridge. Yes, I brought a lot of “wrong” clothes including three pairs of jeans and two swim suits for a pool I doubted I'd enter (and didn't). 

Predicting mood, weather, and activities have never been my forte, but overpacking the wrong stuff definitely is in my wheel house. The comfort of returning to the main closet and the full selection of clothing is a relief. The laundry room in the house meant fewer dirty clothes to pack, but spending the morning on laundry wasn’t appealing enough to transform all the worn items into laundry fresh. 

The day of the wedding outfit was a satiny top and sequin pants. Of course, the morning of the day of the wedding, I was second-guessing everything, hating what I'd packed (along with everything I own), and wishing I'd packed a totally different outfit. The top and pants were rolled and packed. The top, bought new and worn for one day, has a pull in the front that happened during the wedding ceremony from a tiny snag in my nail, and a section of pulls and stupid little balls on the inside, probably from the sequins on the pants. Those will be reflected in the item review. “Nice fabric, nice drape, suffers pulls and pills at the slightest touch. Don’t plan to wear this top more than once.” The top was a straight cut, and to give it more interest, I tried a thing I saw in a video where you use something round like a hoop earring and a hair elastic to create soft folds and shaping. It's possible my effort with a smashed penny and a hair elastic looked like a giant navel, but I have no photos by which to asses this. Those all exist on other people's cameras.

The vintage store jacket bought in Boulder City was laid flat in the suitcase in an effort to keep it smooth. It made its debut for the dinner after the wedding, with dark wash jeans because I neglected to pack my black dress pants, and pinkish sparkly boots that were bought to go with the sequin pants but felt like too much bling for a daytime event. They might be too much for any event in my regular life. There is currently no photographic evidence by which to evaluate the ensemble, which might be a good thing.

Despite not really buying much, the suitcase feels more full than before. The sweatshirt is in the carry-on, the curling iron and short-sleeved short are in the suitcase. The only other purchases, two smashed pennies, are in the wallet. Yet, it seems like a truckload of stuff has been added.

Another loose end was filling the gas tank on the rental car. Enterprise Rental offered my brother-in-law gas options on his rental car and the clerk told him to return it as close to empty as possible, but the clerk at Budget told me to gas up and bring the receipt when I return the car. Luckily, I scoped out a gas station during the earlier shopping trips and could take care of it before heading to the airport.

The forecast for Wednesday is a low of 58 degrees and high of 72, but that has nothing to do with the comfort level on the flight, creating a layered wardrobe / carry-on dilemma for the one who is always cold. Sweatshirt? Sweater? Denim jacket? All of the above? Wear them onto the plane all at once and peel off as needed, or gradually layer? I’m in a window seat, adding and subtracting layers in the seat  won’t be so easy to do in the sardine can with wings.

There are still a few hours before the rental car return, shuttle to the airport, wait at the gate, and journey through the air are reckoned with. Arriving at 6:00 AM puts us on the road with morning traffic which feels like another source of potential delight to contend with. Soon enough we’ll be back to real life and all its regular responsibilities. Hooray?