Packed-ish & Pie

Pie first -

While procrastinating before a big trip, there are lots of crazy-person things I like to do while avoiding my suitcase; clean the house, watch a full day's worth of television, landscape the yard, visit with the neighbors for no particularly good reason other than they happen to be within yelling distance of the fence, etc.

For this special trip, however, I decided to bake. Bake under the guise of providing food for hubby who, despite bringing himself successfully through life for 30-something years without my constant supervision, obviously can't be left to his own devices for sustenance for two whole weeks.

I stopped just short of freezing two weeks worth of dinners in color-coded Tupperware, because that would be crazy. Instead I made pie. Because what does a home alone husband need more than pie and the occasional cup of coffee? Precious little, I'd guess.

I ripped the filling from Farmgirl's revised Blueberry Breakfast Bar recipe which calls for peaches to be added to the filling with the blueberries. And since we just had a whole pan of these fab bars, I put the filling in my favorite pie crust and called it good. And since a friend of ours suggested this unexpected meeting of berry and stonefruit during a past dinner outing, I made one for him, too.

My procrastination has reached new heights.


In exchange for the pie, our friends dropped off a tomato the size of a truck tire and five containers of fresh pesto crafted from their own plot of basil.


This may seem random, but it is some of the best pesto I've ever tasted and went merrily with the gnocchi I was making for dinner. You know, as I was preparing my stomach for the delicious onslaught of expertly crafted Italian carbs I plan to take in. During the trip I'd yet to pack for.

Until today!

I believe I've exploited every millimeter of space in my suitcase. There are alarm clocks crammed into shoes, tank tops rolled up and snaked around books, brownie mixes lodged between the rolly-bar handle compartment and wheel-well. It's going swimmingly.

Except for the fact that I have to still pack my toiletries.

You think to yourself, toiletries - what's the biggie? Well, as I often forget until I'm standing in front of my nearly full suitcase with a handled toiletry bag, blow dryer, freezer-size Ziploc bag full of hair products and a half dozen brushes - my toiletries often take up more space in the suitcase than my clothes or even shoes.

Right now, I'm not prepared to do the math that it will require to get everything in there. However, I feel like tomorrow I will be, so I will wait and see if the contents settle or some other mystical process takes place wherein the laws of physics bend just enough to accomodate an overstuffed toiletry bag into my already plump suitcase.

Before you think me too overindulgent, high-maintenance, batshit or a combination of the three, let me tell you that this is a 22" suitcase we're talking about here. Not one of those rolling closets with the floral fabric you see stacked onto a SmarteCarte with 18 other pieces of matching luggage.

As it stands, I appear to be packing light, while the smallish suitcase I'm towing actually weighs a metric ton. I appear as a savvy traveler, while actually I'm busy being a paranoid American unable to separate herself from her shoe collection.

It all works out so nice.