Packing for Two...

It's time to start packing for our marathon vacations. Yes, I said vacations.

The first, we will be heading 3 and 1/2 hours down to Myrtle Beach, SC with my husband's family. We will stay at his family's time share for a few days. Generally, during this time, we take in the outlet shops, the shopping malls, and all the big box stores... oh, and the golf stores and of course-- Bass Pro Shop. I've been told Myrtle Beach has a beach, but we never spend too much time sitting on it's shore.

I've found that there are two types of people in this world... the ones that love Myrtle Beach and the ones that refer to it as "Wal-Mart by the Sea" or in other words, the ones that hate Myrtle Beach. I used to be in the latter category. However, my husband's cousin got married last year (right after a hurricane) down there and we had a fabulous time sitting by the pool and hanging out at this bar called "Fat Harold's."

After a few days of hanging out with his parents, we will come back home to re-pack for Atlantic Beach, NC. My Uncle and Aunt always rent a huge place at Atlantic Beach for a week that can accommodate them & their kids as well as the extended family. This year I think we all are going to try to come down at some point-- even my parent's who generally shy away from big family outings.

And even though I'm excited about the prospect of shopping at the Kate Spade outlet in Myrtle Beach and spending hours by the pool at Atlantic Beach with my whole family, I really hate the idea of packing. Packing makes me nervous. I hate to gather all my stuff, and the really great part of being married, his stuff and stuffing all that stuff into a suitcase. I generally panic that I've forgotten something or that I did not pack enough of something-- like underwear-- you really can't have enough underwear when you are out of town. I'll obsess (quietly in my mind as not to tip off anyone that I'm obsessing) until we arrive at the vacation hotel/house/condo and I have time to go through our things. Just imagine, all the way down to Myrtle Beach, in my mind it sounds like this-- did I pack the toothbrushes? Yes... I think I did- I remember going in the bathroom for them, I just don't remember if I put them in the suitcase--oh well, if not we can just buy more down there. Wait-- did I pack a blanket-- last time it was cold, did I bring a blanket? I almost froze to death... I don't want to freeze to death- dying at Wal-Mart by the Sea would be horrible. Did I pack that stack of underwear I laid on the bed? Oh, please Jesus, please let me have packed that stack of underwear... what about those toothbrushes?

Yet, there are some really good things about married-people packing: 1) You can just bring one really big bag (not including my makeup bag and my huge Cole Hann leather bag). If I use one of our really big rolling suitcase I can fit basically everything we will need. 2) You can share things you normally wouldn't share to create more suitcase space. For example, when I get ready to start packing, I will just bring one type of soap, one shampoo, and one type of shaving cream-- theses are things we both use and can share. This also means that my husband goes around Myrtle Beach smelling like apricots and peaches, but that is okay because we saved space. Saving space = more room for shoes in the suitcase. 3) Well, I don't have 3-- so there are only like 2 good things about married-people packing.

As much fun as we probably will have while on our marathon vacation destinations, we still-- no excuse me, I still have to pack us up, which means I have to start washing clothes now, so we will have some clean underwear. I'd hate to see us going commando at Myrtle Beach.