Mortimer's Mom

it's 4:40 am, what are YOU doing?

I'm sitting in Shelba's kitchen, drinking coffee made by her husband, using her cousin Melissa's couputer, chatting with Bobbi Jo.

Poor Melissa! I don't think she knew what she was getting herself into! At dinner last night, she relised just HOW MUCH we actually know about each other from the computer..... she's still wrapping her head around it. Though she fits right in. Really, she does. She and Bobbi Jo are wearing the same pants this morning. And apparently, i missed the memo, because all 3 of them are wearing white tops. I went for green. I'm feeling self conscious....

So we are filling up with coffee and hitting the road. Expect snippets as the day goes on. And to Mystery Blogger, thanks for the airport pickup, delicious lunch and drive the check out houses. THAT was fun!

Oh! and I met Julia!  From Uncommon Misconceptions! That my friends, is going WAAAYYYYY Back. To my first IVF. She was absolutely the sweetest.

it's a packing miracle!

All my clothes fit in a backpack, with wheels.

H&M yielded a lovely green tote purse for 30$.

It also yielded a super cute tunic-dress, which will enable me to travel in comfort (with leggings.... sorry!) AND style. I was totally planning on flying in my "yummy-mummy uniform" of Lululemon yoga pants and zip jacket, but now, I can arrive in Texas looking a bit more fashionable and still be comfy on the way.

The un-sellable bin in the backstore yielded a couple of zippered pouches that I used to organise my ipod and assorted wires (charger, camera battery etc) so I can pretend I'm actually an organized person who doesn't usually travel with a big ziplock bag.

A piece of sewing elastic and a double sided sticky dot was fashioned into a believable lense-cap attachment to I won't lose it all the time.

Except for actually putting my toiletries in the FAA approved ziplock bag, I am ready to go. With only 2 pairs of shoes (one on my feet, one in the unbelievably well-packed backpack.)

It's only 4:30 pm. I'm not leaving my house til 4:30 am. what the heck am I supposed to do now?????

PS: thanks to modern mobile technology, expect brief updates from the trip. Grand retelling of stories will wait til Sunday night. Also, sometime tonight, expect a Swap Button to appear on Ubercrafty.

now for some REAL drama: PACKING!

Maybe you'll notice that I added a new category: Real Life Encounters. Tonight, I had dinner with Alisa from Mimosa. This is our 2nr real life meeting. The first time, I was a new mom and she was still doing paper-chasing. Now we are both moms and we've been through a lot over the last 3 years, but we had the BEST time. We shopped, she picked out some clothes and I critiqued them, we had wine, we had dinner, we had dessert and unfortunately it was already time to go.....

It is T-... crap I suck at math! But it's Tuesday night and I leave before the sun is up on Thursday morning to go meet up with Shelba and Bobbi Jo and Melissa and Secret Blogger and who-knows-who-else-we'll-run-into and it suddenly dawned on me: I NEED TO PACK!

Now, normally, this would be a non-issue. But here is the problem: I have a very tight connection to make on the way down, so I think I should go carry-on only to ensure swift passage at the hell-hole that is O'Hare. But you see, the new carry-on rules allow only ONE carry on and a personal item, which I have established can be a briefcase/purse/laptop-bag. But because I am not Mrs. Figby, I don't own either a big-ass purse or a trendy hobo tote. And I actually in fact do not own a carry-on-size suitcase on wheels, just an actual carry on.....

Also, along with the essentials for 4 days in hot weather, I must find a way to pack an EMPTY duffel bag, because (honey, turn away if you are reading this) I plan on shopping while I'm there. And bringing things back....  OK, I could just buy  cheap suitcase there, but you know, cheap suitcase in Texas isn't cheap suitcase in Beijing.....

Furthermore, the dilemma is WHAT to actually bring... because I have been wearing a parka and boots for 7 1/2 months now (only slightly exaggerating there) so even a balmy 72 could cause me to sweat profusely and find myself needing to change. Shelba gave me great tips (I'm pretty sure she was just kidding about the crocs....) but it's still a bit of a puzzle how to make that fit in there. Thankfully, I do not need to bring anything nice, since you know, I'll probably buying a thing or two or five....

The final pre-packing problem was solved yesterday. It occurred to me when contemplating packing a pair of cropped jeans (yes, I own capris. shoot me) that i was suffering from sever Kanuck Winter Legs Syndrome. So I hauled myself to the Schmall, where poor little Myriam had the pleasure of waxing my legs and giving me a pedicure. The interesting thing is that I'm not very hairy, but she did manage to wax off about 3 layers of dead, dry skin. So now instead of pasty white, I'm slightly pink from the newly exposed skin! It sets off nicely with the coral on my toes and the green/blue bruises from the ski boots!

I leave you with the ultimate cell phone photo: flip-flops in the snow. Which is why Kanuck Girls don't get pedicures in winter... How do you get home? And I'm not kidding, it actually snowed again yesterday. Fresh snow. It will NEVER end.

PS: Lemonade Stand Quilt Swap is now at 18 and I set up a Flickr account. Keep it up!