I try to plan in advance so I know I have everything I need when I go someplace. I learned as a child that if I wait until the last minute I will panic and something will be forgotten or missing. So when I or we have someplace to go, I lay out what is needed in advance - generally the night before, but sometimes even further in advance if there is something else which will be done just before what I am laying out stuff for or if it will take an excessive amount of time to prepare.
I will put items out in one of two places - if it is for me for work, I will put it on my desk - generally this will include my briefcase with assorted papers and such in it (it always has pencils, pens, small ruler, business cards, tiny stapler, Scotch tape, subway cards, extension cord, and printer cables, also some $1 bills in the outer section and tissues). I will add the folders and USB drive for the client the night before and will leave my laptop charging on my desk where it is obvious so I don’t forget it the next day.
Otherwise I will put out what I or we need on the kitchen table. If whatever I need to bring is food related I will leave a reminder to bring it - especially if it needs to be in the refrigerator I will leave a reminder note with the other items. If there are a lot of items I will leave a list of the items needed whether they are on the table or in the refrigerator just to make sure all are taken with me/us.
So, I seem to have it all in hand - yes? Noooo!
Once a year, in June, my embroidery group (local chapter of the Embroiderer’s Guild of America, Inc. to give a good organization a free promo) has a party for its meeting. It is the end of the programing year and we get a chance to sit and discuss ideas for next year, chat, and share some of our work - finished or unfinished (okay, we do this at every meeting - we have “show and tell”, but this is suppose to be one with everyone bringing something and more than one item is encouraged). One of our members has very generously allowed us to use her house for this event, which is not near where we usually meet nor near my house. We each bring a dish of some sort for the party - light refreshment as would be at a tea party.
Now, this year I have the added “fun” of a trip with our RV to our dealer who is located 2 states away for a bit of routine maintenance the day after the party. In addition my husband had planned on staying one or two nights in the general area where the dealer is located as it is an area we like to go to and have not gone since last fall - plus we are paying the tolls to get there anyway and why not have fun also for the money. This was fine with me.
I knew I could deal with both events. The biggest part of getting the RV ready for a short trip such as this is making up the bed (the reason for this will someday be explained). I had planned to do this over the last weekend or yesterday (Tuesday). Packing clothes and snacks and a few other items for only 2 days is easy enough and it did not concern me to do the packing of the items tonight. Along with the idea in the first few paragraphs above, we have what we call “the last minute bag”. This bag is used for items which we need to use the night before or morning that we are leaving on the trip. It is kept in our bedroom and we add the items as they are used and then ready to go. Normally we would also have some refrigerator items to bring out at the last minute, but this trip that is not necessary. I figured that preparing for both events around each other was not a problem.
Then came the weather reports. My husband was concerned about reports of heavy rain where we would be going, as well as here also, on Friday and Saturday. What is the use of going somewhere where one will be outside most of the time - in heavy rain, getting wet and sick? So since last Friday he has been watching every weather report, agonizing over what to do. The bed is not made as we still are not sure what we are doing. I will have to make it up while we are away if we stay.
So, now back to getting ready for the party. Since it is a meeting I needed to get all sorts of paperwork together and my treasurer’s report. I did that yesterday afternoon. I put it in the folder I have for this purpose and brought it down to the kitchen. Normally I use a certain bag for these meetings, but it holds needlework and supplies and was not needed today. I brought down a different bag. I put the folder and some other items - such as the pieces I was bringing for show and tell - in the bag. I also run our errands for the day when I go to a meeting, so I had the outgoing mail and banking stuff so I could get some cash for our trip before we go. Last night I made the food item I was bringing and laid it out nicely on a nice plate, then put the plate into a large plastic container (so it would make the trip safely) and put that in the refrigerator. I remembered to print out the directions given by the woman whose house we are going to - and from google maps as well, just in case. I went there last year, but needed the directions as I did not remember how to get to her house from the main road. On the page with the directions I hand wrote a note - BRING PLATE OF FOOD!!! Everything nicely laid out so that nothing will be forgotten - or so I thought.
I got up in plenty of time to dress and drive to the meeting. I picked up my stuff from the table - and headed out to the car. I got in the car and started driving. I was about half way there and it struck me - I FORGOT THE FOOD!!!
What to do? If I showed up without it, I know that it would be understood, but then the food would end up being thrown out as we are going away (at least for a day) and would not eat it. If I went back to get it I would be late? Dilemma, dilemma, dilemma. I turned the car around, turned on the blue tooth in my cell phone and started calling (hands free) while driving. First, I called my husband to let him know that I would be walking in the door and then walking back out so he would not think someone was breaking in. Then I called the woman whose house I was going to and let her know - she told me to come without it, but I told her that I was halfway home already.
I ran into the house, grabbed it from the refrigerator and ran back out to the car and started back. By the time I got there I was almost an hour late as by the time I started the second trip the traffic had picked up on the roads and the road work had started and was slowing down traffic. (Which road work? - all over - from the cable company working on wires to municipal workers cutting grass along the side of the road to actual work on the road itself.) In my haste I missed the turn to the road to her street, luckily when I turned onto the next road it ran parallel, but then, on the correct road her street is about the 3rd or 4th one, on the road I took instead it was the first and I missed that turn also. I found an empty church parking lot and quickly turned around and made the turn onto her street and drove back to where her house was. Rushing made the trip longer than it should have been - not by much, but still longer and added a few extra minutes to my already very late arrival.
My friends were very nice about my being so late and I apologized no end, and was greatly embarrassed - they all think that I am the most organized person in the world, they only see the result of all my prep work to be organized and not my house.
So what went wrong? Well, I was cheap. Instead of taking a piece of paper and writing the reminder to bring the food on it, I wrote it on the directions. I then picked up the directions without noticing the notation on it. I knew the way to her house on the main roads, so it was not until I looked to see where I would be turning off the main roads that I noticed my notation. If I had written the note on another piece of paper I would have had to move it and would have noticed it and remembered the food.
Other than this the party went very nicely and I managed to make it to all of my errands afterwards, although finishing them a bit later than expected as everything was late due to the party being late.
But now the question you might be wondering - are we going to spend a few days away or just go to the dealer and home? I don’t know. I have packed our clothes for the two days in the RV and assorted snacks we bring with our for the evening as well as rain jackets and some other personal items, and a spare pair of shoes each - for rain. We will go tomorrow to the dealer and then see from there what we decide to do.
Nuts, I forgot to let my sister know our plans. I will have to email her next!
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