I have packing-block.
It's 11Pm and my two suitcases are lying open on the floor with absolutely nothing in them. Nadda. Zip.
My to-do list for today clearly stated: pack for NYC. I x'd out the whole afternoon. I always need a lot of time to pack because I become suspicious that the blouse and pants and shoes or the skirt and blouse and shoes.....which have worked together just fine till now....aren't right.
I'm not sure I can define "right" but it seems to have something to do with the idea that my clothes will come out of the suitcase and look "wrong" in the place I'm visiting.
Compound this insecurity with the weather forecast. Mostly sunny for the first few days with temperatures in the 70's during the day. Perhaps I could pack for that scenario......except the web site featured a fat purple sun puffing away billowy white clouds next to the forecast. It doesn't look mostly sunny....it looks mostly menacing....with a chance of rain? and what about temperatures in the evening when the sun goes down and all those billowy clouds are left?
And what does 70's mean? Warm enough to forget a jacket but cool enough to wear a sweater?
And then I hate to admit this but I also have..... fancy dress and shoes fear. .....I'm always afraid I will run into someone like Donald Trump or Brad Pitt.... and I'll be asked out to dinner and realize I didn't pack a cocktail dress and appropriate shoes.
Even when my logic debunks the myth that Brad Pitt will take me out to dinner, I feel a creepy anxiety about not having evening wear along. It's as if some big event is just going to spring itself on me....and I'll embarrass myself by going in business casual. So I always pack a fancy dress and heels ....and 99.9% of the time don't wear them.
So my empty suitcases are still empty...and now it's midnight ....and I've completed lost my chance to cross...... Pack for NYC.....off my to-do for today.
Maybe I can handle this tomorrow. I can x-out a couple hours in the morning. Prehaps if I pack the fancy dress and the sweater and the umbrella first.....I can lessen some of those bad-weather-big-event fears....then I can put on my solo fashion show in front of the bedroom mirror to make sure what I thought was right doesn't look like it will be wrong in a puffy purple sun city with billowing clouds.
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