prepping for vacation

I’m wearing my ugly shirt today.

The HighSchoolSenior recently walked across a stage, grabbed a piece of paper, and just like that became TheFreshman.  Her proud family let her choose this summer’s vacation destination, and she decided that she wanted to see if she could get on TMZ TV.  So for a full week, we’ll be in Los Angeles / Hollywood / Malibu / Sherman Oaks / Beverly Hills (swimming pools, movie stars).

Of course, ya can’t just up and go somewhere.  There are certain things that must be done in preparation for a week-long trip.  And you damn near wear yourself out just trying to remember everything.  In fact, special haircut calendars were calculated for Wifey and TheFreshman weeks ago.

After making the reservations months ago, you have to check with the airline, hotel, and rental car to make sure your confirmation number is still something they recognize.  While confirming, you can find out all the arcane rules about baggage size, number of bags, what is and is not a carryon, and which liquids to leave in Florida.  We’ll still have to check in online the day before. 

Then there are the critters.  Sophie is a fat cat.  All she does is eat, sleep, and want outside/inside.  She can sleep on her own, but someone’s gotta do the feeding and the letting out/in.  So the neighbor kids have offered to take care of Sophie for us.  I’m gonna try to convince them to go ahead and grab the newspaper each day too, and pile up the mail.  Hopefully, they don’t get too curious, and start digging through the closets.

Then there’s the packing.  Or rather the pre-packing.  Laundry had to be done at unusual times, just to make sure we had all our choices available.  That’s followed up by the reason for the ugly shirt:

“Don’t wear anything this week that you want to bring to California, cuz I ain’t doing any more laundry.”

Slightly similar to that is the refrigerator checkup.  Ya don’t want any food going bad, so all the leftovers are being cooked this week, which is… Well, let’s just say that they are left over for a reason, ya know?  (just kidding hunny – it’s ALL delicious!)

Along with weird times for housework and odd foods to eat, yard work is thrown a swerve, too.  You gotta mow the grass / trim the hedges / edge the drive / whack the weeds one night after work.  Otherwise the HOA comes a knocking, or you’ll have a hella time come Monday next.

Then there is work to consider.  We are all given off from work for vacation, but why do we feel so guilty piling on the coworkers?  Doesn’t really matter – that’s how it goes.  So ya bust yer tail to make sure it’s all caught up the week before you go, ask your peeps to hundle just the minimum to maintain, and when you get back, you bust yer tail catching it all up again.

By the way – Sticks of Fire may or may not be updated all next week.  We’ll have to see what happens.

I think that’s all for now.  We still have to actually finalize our personal itineraries (hunt down George Clooney (wifey), hunt down David Cook (thefreshman), La Brea Tar Pits! (who else)), decide what to bring, pack the bags, arrange for transport to the airport, arrange for transport from the airport…

We may need a vacation from just getting ready for vacation!