Leaving on a Jet Plane

Do you think that on the day before I leave on a 2 week trip out of the country I should spend all morning and half the afternoon pruning my rose bushes, pulling grass & weeds, fertilizing my hibiscus, shearing my HUGE mounds of red feather grass, planting flax, and starting a new succulent planting area? All in my bedroom slippers and pajama bottoms? My bags aren’t packed and I’m not ready to go, but I AM leaving on a jet plane tomorrow night. The red-eye flight. I will arrive in Leon, Mexico bright eyed and bushy tailed on Friday morning in the pre-dawn hours. A tall strapping Mexican fellow will be waiting for me, holding a sign with my name on it. And then he’ll grab my suitcases in his strong capeable hands, give me a wink, and whisk me off. Away we’ll go in our breezy van, 100 m.p.h. down the blueish 2-lane highway the rising sun chasing us all the way to San Miguel. He may stop along the way and ask if I wish to stop for some refreshments at a roadside stand (as was the case on my last shuttle ride in Mexico). We will pass many dogs and donkeys on our lovely ride across the Mexican highlands. Then in about an hour we will arrive here to this lovely jewel. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh……… Oh. I have to pack first. There is much packing to be done. I’m going to snap out of this daydream at once and pack. I’m going to pack for all I’m worth and then I will pack some more. Nothing must be forgotten. No underpants unaccounted for, no journals misplaced, not a single pen missed, and oh DO NOT forget the scorpion repellent. Or the antidote. Everything will be packed. Nothing will be left behind except the sad cat posse, their heads hung low, their whiskers still, tails drooping. Finally, photos of what I was doing when I should have been packing. And a last completed photo of the travel journal. Oh…..and mailart from my blue-haired friend whose Fed-Exed package arrived in a happy bundle on my doorstep.