Packing

Damn it.

I haven't packed like this for a while. Most of my trips the past few years have been 2-3 day affairs during the summer. A skirt, pair of shorts, a couple of cute tops, and I'm good to go.

Not this time. First off, there's the size problem. I'm now down 37 pounds (that's a hell of a lot of potatoes). Happy happy joy joy, all that of course, but... nothing I already have fits. I bought a pair of pants at Ross yesterday, specifically for the plane ride. I washed them,and they shrunk. Only in the length. I am not particularly tall, but I have legs just on the taller side of average. That means most of my pants are just 1/2-3/4 of an inch too short. Not short enough to be considered "cropped," just short enough to give me displeasure. I hear some of you, "Who cares? just wear the pants." I care. I am looking good these days, and want to wear clothes that continue to make me look good.

Okay, whatever. I did find three turtle necks at K-Mart of all places. $2.50 each! Yowza. I need turtle necks because it's butt cold in Paris right now. Oh yeah, not Montreal cold, but definitely cold by Santa Barbara standards. It's going to be in the low 50's high 40's most days. Oh yeah, it's supposed to rain every day we're there too. We'll be out and about, walking around, and need to be somewhat bundled up.

My portable umbrella got destroyed somehow at school. I picked it up Tuesday and it was all bent and broken to hell. Sheesh.

We're leaving late this afternoon for LA, then flying out tomorrow morning. My last load of laundry is in the dryer, and I'm still trying to figure out how not to bring too much clothing, but enough so that I'm not unprepared.

Black pants, green pants, jeans, brown pants, plaid dress pants. Already that looks like too many.

Black sensible shoes, brown sensible shoes, black pumps. Should I bring sneakers? would I even wear them? What about a dressy brown pair of shoes?

Blue cashmere, brown cotton, Navy wool, brown cotton stripe, thin brown wool sweaters... again, looks like too much.

blue, white, brown, pink, black, green turtle necks. One long sleeved polo shirt. Plenty. Like a uniform every day.

Pretty dress for the Opera house. One sexy shirt for going out. Yep. I need to figure something out in this department. All my belts are too big. Maybe another skirt? I don't know. That means hose. I know, I know, I don't HAVE to, but when it's 40 degrees outside, one wears hose.

Boots? Should I bring my boots? They're good for going out, not so much for lots of walking.

Then there's the coat, jacket, scarf issue. How much is too much? I have a great big Nanuk of the North down coat which is going, and I'm thinking my brown leather jacket. I have just one scarf right now that's along for the ride.

Must. Bring. Less.

But how?