Three. Two. One. Whatever. Ack!

Today is Day Three of my countdown and yes, we fly off three days from now. But, in a lot of ways, today is day two, because we leave home Sunday morning. We have to pick my mom up at the airport and then she's driving our car back but we're staying behind in Reno for the evening as we have an early morning Monday flight. The cost of the gas to drive back and forth and back again, plus having to get up at something like 3:30 am to get to the airport on time - easier and cheaper to just stay the night. So our vacation really starts tomorrow.

Or you could call today Day One as it's the LAST day I have to do anything and everything that has to be done before we leave. Miraculously, I'm actually on the place on my list where I wanted to be by now. Taxes are done - WHEW! Except for those little things that have to be done at the very last minute (make some computer mail changes, make the bed, grab a coffee) I'm down to cleaning the house and packing.

In a fantasy world my house would have been completely clean and vacationlike for my mom's arrival - spotless bathrooms, fresh flowers on the table, meals cooked and stacked in the fridge (actually my mom asked us to let her buy what she wants to eat), new magazines spread appealingly across the coffee table.... The reality of course is that we managed the basics - a clean kitchen floor, clean bathrooms (maybe), fresh sheets on the bed, vacumned rug in the living room, toss out the less than fresh vegetables from the refrigerator bins. Of course this won't come as a surprise to my mother. I'm actually somewhat surprised I managed to declutter a lot of things like the kitchen table, the kitchen counters, the top of the dryer, the living room end tables and coffee table - so she won't have to worry about finding a spot to set down her cup of tea at night, or worry about mysterious crashing sounds at night as the cats skid across a pile and knock it to the floor. So, cleaning, what more of it I'll attempt, is well in hand.

Packing is a completely different creature altogether. This task is a huge tropical storm I'm going to try to organize and suck into two small carry on pieces of luggage. I've got lists, hopefully complete ones. I've got piles started, but sitting all over the house. And the clothing itself is just piled about the bedroom in and atop dressers and hung or tossed in the closet. To pack, I need to ORGANIZE and SORT through virtually my entire wardrobe. I might have to try outfits on as well. Check and re-check weather outlooks. And ultimately, make hard decisions.

Hubby's packing is much less of an EVENT than mine. He tried on a few pairs of pants yesterday for me to yah/nay. I bought him a pack of new socks. A few minutes ago he pulled out his new backpack and with a bit of help from me in selecting t-shirts, he'd pretty much finished his packing in less than ten minutes.

I'll be lucky if I can finish packing by the end of the day. You know what they say - Men are from Mars, Women are from Macy's, Target, Mervyns, Chico's, Shoe Pavillion, Hot Topic, Old Navy, and Ross.