Episode #7: Overpacking problems

April 13, 2014 // Comments

I have this tendency to overpack my bags when I travel, and I travel a lot. I went to Jamaica for 2 weeks with a bag just as big as the one I packed to go to Miami for 2 months. But it is just so hard to decide what to take and what to leave.
If I’m going to Miami I need all my summer clothes, short shorts, tank tops, sandals, v-necks, and then what if it gets cold there (random cold fronts for example) then I need some sweaters, or if it rains and I want to go running I need a windbreaker, oh mu gosh I need all of my clothes for running too, under armor, running shoes!

Shoes I have so many shoes!
If I want to play soccer I need my cleats too, and my indoor shoes because I play with guys twice a week, and then regular sneakers to go out in as well. Plus pants, I need jeans and pants right. And I’m if I’m going for Christmas I need my santa hat.
God forbid I go out to a party..i need heels and sexy clothes! And all of that almost always goes over the weight limit (and it doesn’t help that the airlines keep lowering the weight limit too of course). And what about gifts for other people, whenever I go somewhere i have to bring something back, so that always takes up some space, and then when I buy things there…

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This whole packing/unpacking fiasco turned into a real show when I was coming back to Croatia from Miami this summer.
I flew there with one large bag checked in and two carryon’s, and on the night before my flight I realized that all of the stuff I had was not going to fit into these two bags. I went shopping that day and decided not to buy another bag because I’m not really sure why I didn’t, I had hope that I could make everything fit.
So at 11 o’clock at night I start packing and weighing m things…oh, one bag is full (and a hurdle of clothes still on my bed I need to fit somewhere). I put everything neatly and nicely into my carry on but oh… it’s overweight. Damn 13 pounds. The bag itself weights at least 5. Now I have a problem.

My figures out that I’m constantly weighing and getting a bit frustrated, now it’s 12 at night and were not telling my dad anything yet in fear that he will get angry… which he eventually did because by 2 am were stuck at a stalemate.
Can’t fit anything around to make both nags underweight and fit all of my stuff.
So what do we do? What is open at 2 am that has luggage? WALL-MART. The one store my mom has been boycotting for years and we find ourselves there looking for solutions to my overpacking problem.

The thing about Wall-Mart in Miami at night though…is that the whole staff is only Spanish speaking…its like the switch all of the English speakers and the Hispanics get the graveyard shift (maybe a little discriminatory but hey, they are in the US and they speak no English) . So we cant find the luggage section and the logical thing to do is ask, but how do you say luggage in Spansih?
“I cant remember its 3 am…is it Basura? No, that’s trashcan…uhhh…”. My mom and I are looking at one another and we started trying to mime out the use of luggae to this worker *show moms mime* and were just laughing! The guy figures out what were trying to say an points us in the right direction for the “mochillas” (never gonna forget that one again…)

There were no adequate bags in the end and I had to steal my uncles and force him to buy another one for himself before he left back to Jamaica. My bad Uncle Lenn.

By the time all the packing was done it was nearing 4 am and I had a plan to watch the sunrise with my dad the next morning on South Beach, so went to sleep exhausted, woke up early and that was enough to make me sleep on the plane maybe an hour more than usual.

The worst part is though, that 3 weeks alter I went to Berlin and decided alright, last time I had baggage trouble so this time let me take less than I usually would, only what I really need right… and all of a sudden it got really cold in berlin and I ended up wearing the same sweats and the same sweater for 8 days and everyone thought I had no other clothes.
That’s what always happens, when you take too much you don’t need it but when you take too little all of a sudden you really need more.

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