Mercury Retrograde Bites!

Sure enough, it's that time again. Mercury Retrograde. When that little planet in the sky backtracks for the next several weeks. Oh joy!

Aaron, my dear hubby came upstairs yesterday complaining that he could feel "It's started." Then this morning I awoke to him sitting quite placidly in front of fire watching "Charley & Lola" with Jordi. Now I didn't think, "Oh how sweet, a little father and son bonding over cartoons." Nope - I knew something was up. And sure enough...Aaron calmly stated that he'd crashed his computer and couldn't get back in. Yep, it's Mercury up to his tricks. Cut to the chase: hours later Aaron finally finished reformatting, reinstalling and reploading all his files.

I spent my day trying to edit and re-edit packing for our upcoming vacation. Now, had I know months ago when booking the trip that we'd be flying out smack dab in the beginning of Mercury Retrograde...hmmm... I might have reconsidered. But ignorance is bliss and now knowing what's up, I fully expect our journey to include some technical glitches. I'm packing expecting to not see our checked luggage for a few days. Hopefully Mercury won't hold them hostage any longer than that, seeing that it's only a 7 day trip! Jordi's little suitcase is crammed with all our essentials. Don't think the little guy can pull it but oh well, that's what Daddy's are for! I'm loading up my bag with plenty of reading, podcasts and tons of knitting to keep myself busy during any delays. I find if I'm aware that Mercury's doing his thing again, then it's not so bad. We'll see!

So now I'm frantically trying to do all the things on my Before Leaving To Do List that I've totally procrastinated on (as usual---Wacky Aunties don't like following lists to closely or on time for that matter). I'll be up late again organizing things that really probably could wait until my return, repacking my clothes - trying to anticipate how I'll feel like wearing days from now! That's so hard! I can't predict that so it's doubly hard trying to pack. Result: overpack. It's the only solution. So if I'm gone for 7 days that means at least 12 clothing options. I may wake up tomorrow and have gained 20lbs of water-weight and then nothing in my closet feels right. So I must pack plenty. Oh the difficulties of being me! Maybe in my next life I'll come back comfortable with my body...but until then, I'll continue to pack like I'm moving abroad for a year.

And what's up with the "3 ozs - 1 qt bag - per person" rule! Can you tell my last plane trip was over ten years ago? As if packing my clothing wasn't hard enough, I have to bag up my hand sanitizer and dry eye drops!" Does my chapstick also have to be hermetically bagged and held hostage too? And I can't take a bottle of water with me, but instead buy it on the other side of check-in for $10 bucks a bottle? Hmmm, someone is making money somewhere, I just know it. And what's up with no more bad plane food anymore? I love eating off those little trays. So now we have to brown bag it?! What's the point of traveling anymore.

Good news though: Meg's officially pregnant. Whoohoo! I love living vicariously through my sister's pregnancy. I do feel bad seeing how green and tired she is because no matter how long ago, a woman never forgets the oppressive feeling of all-day-and-night-"morning"-sickness. You think you're dying and you'll never feel good again....and really could care less that at this very moment a human is being built deep inside of your womb. You just want this god-awful feeling to go away so you can stop eating pretzels and bread sticks non-stop. That's why pregnant women gain weight; it's all those dang crackers you have to eat to stay sane!

Enough ranting. I've got to go repack our bags yet again.

(ps: Sorry not photos this time. The computer ate them all. Don't you know it's Mercury Retrograde!)