The day has come, and it will be a long one.  I tried to sleep as long as I could.  I stayed up until after 3 am in the hopes of sleeping very late since I won't go to bed again until Tuesday night.  But I didn't make it past 10 am, and that was a stretch.  As the song goes, "My bags are packed, I'm ready to go..."

I managed to cram everything into one suitcase and a backpack.  The airline allows for another suitcase, but I try to make it a point not to bring more than I can carry by myself.  So it's all in one.  Me, my suitcase and a forklift ought to do it!

Shoes are a real problem.  Someone in the suitcase world or in the shoe industry needs to figure that one out.  I either need tennis shoes that can be easily converted to dress shoes and shoes that can change color (spats perhaps?), or I need a suitcase with a clever design to contain shoes without vastly diminishing the clothes I can take to wear with those shoes. 

I'm not Imelda Marcos.  I don't have thousands of pairs of shoes.  But I'm staying more than 5 weeks.  I will be hiking and need trail shoes.  I am wearing those on the plane, since they are the bulkiest.  I need regular tennis shoes.  I am going to be leading worship, so I need dress shoes, and I have nicer slacks that need shoes.  Suitcase manufacturers found a way to incorporate wheels and pull-out handles--they ought to be able to figure out shoes.

So off I go.  I'll write something when I am finally in Stirling...probably about 1 pm (their time) on Tuesday the 27th.  They are five hours ahead of New Hampshire.  Here's hoping for a good in-flight movie!

- posted by Anne Robertson @ 10:58 AM