Pre-Trip Crazies

Does anybody else make themselves crazy when getting ready for a big trip? It’s a two-for-one deal here, because I not only make myself crazy but I also make R.J. crazy in the bargain! Sure I have lists, but the things I put on them are a bit crazy. For example, I got a little obsessed with the gardens. Not the yard, mind you – there are weeds everywhere in the yard – but my flower beds. I have nine of them, depending on how you count. At least four of those were completely out of control with weeds. My solution? Spend hours and hours weeding, laying a fabric barrier, buying mulch, laying mulch, planting annuals, buying more mulch, laying more mulch, doing more weeding, finding out I still didn’t have enough mulch….You get the idea. Ideally, this would have been a spring project, but we had the weirdest spring ever (cold, cold, cold, and then 90’s), so it didn’t get done. When the nice weather (70’s) hit last week, I threw myself into this project. I wanted to come home to weedless garden beds, dreamer that I am.

Of course, there were other things that probably needed doing. R.J. arrived home one day this week, just as I was moving rocks that almost outweighed me. He shook his head and indicated that I should maybe reconsider my priorities. (I’m pretty sure that’s what he said, but not exactly with those words.) I couldn’t even figure out how I got in as deep as I did. At that point, we were just four days from leaving on a three week trip. Not only that, our sons will be taking turns staying at our house, and if I asked them to do garden work, they would do it. This did not need to be my priority. I went out and bought four more bags of mulch and called a truce with the weeds. They won two gardens, I won four, and we tied on three, if you’re counting. Except, is it a total victory for me if the gate to the back yard can’t open because the mulch is too high beside it? I don’t know. You decide. I do like how that garden bed looks, and I found a spot for the rocks. I couldn’t move them very far, because they are seriously heavy! What was I to do?

My obsession cost me sanity and time I could have spent working on school projects or packing for the trip or many other more timely tasks. I will say that my current version of the trip document, as I call it (more than an itinerary?), is nine pages long, so I don’t think I needed to spend more time there.  I hop from one thing to the next, scrambling around the house and the town doing odd tasks.

I think the part of my brain that moves in straight lines is broken. This has happened to me before. Maybe it happens to me often. You would have to ask R.J. (or my kids) to know for sure. For instance, I am writing a blog right now rather than doing anything on any list. And I just ran outside in my pajamas to take a picture of my best “Victory Garden” for this blog (after I had poured milk on my cereal and the water was boiling for my chai tea).

I am pretty sure our home and gardens will survive while we are gone, in spite of me. I am also pretty sure that the trip will happen, regardless of whether I accomplish everything on every list. We leave tomorrow! It feels so good to say that.

Now let me eat my soggy cereal in peace.