New Adventure

March 1, 2012

A new adventure is about to begin, this time without a child in tow. Paul and I are taking a real vacation to the intriguing country of China. Friends Judy and Ted Owen discovered this trip last fall and invited us to join them. Much to my surprise, Paul agreed to actually go on a guided tour so I began the planning. Our usual method of travel is to plan and excute the trip on our own thus this is a radical departure. How different it is when someone else is making all the in country arrangements. My primary responsibilities were to make sure we procured the appropriate visa, wrote checks for fees and planned how to actually leave the house for a month.

When you are of a certain age, one of the items for which you must plan ahead is to secure enough medications to cover the time span. To facilitate a smooth trip, having 90 day prescriptions and filling them on the planned time line is essential. Medications in hand, mail held, provisions made for watering indoor plants, bills paid or put on automatic, credit card company informed of itinerary, cash from bank...just a few of the details to check off before departure. Because I subscribe to the "clean nderwear" theory as explained by grandmother i.e. always wear clean underwear in case you are in an accident, I have cleaned the house from top to bottom and washed all dirty clothes. I also sifted through the underwear drawers and discarded the grungy things and bought new bras at Victoria 's Secret. Obviously in retirement, I have way too much time on my hands. Howver, I venture to guess that most women undoubtedly can identify with this scenario.

Today I reviewed everything I had packed a week ago to validate whether I needed to add or subtract. We are allowed 44 pounds in the checked bag and a carry on!