Packing Progress
While I concede that ChatGPT probably could have written a similar list faster, for me thinking THROUGH the list felt like a valuable exercise.
(Maybe it’s just my old Xennial brain cells crying out for the good old days, but I feel like there was some useful priming in creating this list that will make the actual packing process easier/faster than if I had used an AI-generated one).
((Also I feel like AI would not have recommended a puffer jacket for 50s-70s weather but I loooove using mine as a handy compressible blanket on the plane if nothing else!))
We will probably still forget something, but as long as “something” is not:
- medications
- contact lenses
- wallet with ID (which . . . I didn’t put on list but I’ll add now even though this seems too obvious to forget)
. . . then we will probably be fine.
What’s the worst thing you’ve ever forgotten on a trip? I wrote about forgetting contacts recently – that was bad!! My RX is -11.0 (ie severely nearsighted) and so . . . they are necessary and not easy to come by quickly.
Excited for this one:
Seems like it will be a great engaging plane read (lots of people said they devoured in just a few sittings).
Also, I have to note that I liked the last ~50 pages of The Bright Years quite a bit and it brought the book up to a 7.5-8/10 for me. Summer reading is going strong!
7 Comments
Negative 11! Wow! I’m -7.5 so I’m really limited without correction. One time I lost my contact lens the first day of vacation (I wear monthlies). I had my glasses and wore those the rest of the time but it was a little annoying. The worst thing I forgot to pack: shirts. I once brought only one shirt on a 3 day camping trip!
I hadn’t heard of Julie Chan Is Dead, but it’s immediately going on my TBR! Sounds so fun–and definitely a good plane book!
My contacts are -9 so I’m with you there! The right and left are slightly different prescriptions and I once brought all rights and no lefts with me on a vacation. I will never make that mistake again! Besides that snafu, my worst packing error was forgetting the dress that I was planning to wear at a wedding!! It was about a 3 hour drive away and I realized my error 90 minutes in. I ended up stopping at a mall and very quickly buying a new dress because I didn’t have time to drive all the way back home. I also won’t make that mistake again!
I just picked up The Bright Years from the library – I was not anticipating my hold to be ready so soon but perhaps I should make sure to read it before it’s due!
I tend to forget a toothbrush and toothpaste (just ask LV, she got to accompany me to aCVS in Boston). I don’t know why, luckily it is an easy thing to get while traveling.
My husband forgot cufflinks when we went to a wedding and his shirt required them. My mom’s significant other forgot to bring a tie to my brother’s wedding. You can buy both a tie and cufflinks in most places, but they definitely cost more than a toothbrush or toothpaste. Plus you are restricted to whatever the local department store has on hand.
Similar to your experience, except I was culpable. My husband and I went to NZ for a driving holiday and he packed his toiletries including his contact lenses in an old plastic bag. I saw the bag before we left, assumed it was rubbish and threw it out. Needless to say when we got to NZ and he couldn’t find his contact lenses it was a mad panic to find an optometrist, contact his regular to get his prescription and procure the ones I’d unknowingly discarded.
The worst thing I ever forgot was some medication I was on, and I was fortunate enough that my mother-in-law was housesitting for us and she overnighted it to me. After that, I never went on a trip without a packing list again. In fact, I have a template in Word, and I just update it every time I get ready for a trip. Saves me rewriting things like shampoo, toothpaste, trip documents, journal, etc. All things I wouldn’t like to forget!