baggage

I'm not sure how I feel about packing. I like the anticipation it brings, because I'm looking forward to what it is I'm packing for. But I always end up feeling like I'm bringing way too much stuff. I mean, seriously. It's not as if I'm going away to Siberia for the next six weeks, where I'll be cut off from civilization and will have to hire a team of sled dogs just to get an extra roll of toilet paper. I'm going to Chicago. Downtown Chicago. It's not as if it will be difficult to get my hands on anything I might need.

And yet here I sit, surrounded by

• a suitcase of clothes
• a suitcase of bedding, towels, dishes, and other houseware-y type things
• a suitcase of school supplies, movies, games, shoes, exercise clothes, and other odds and ends
• a fiddle
• a electric fiddle
• a bag of organ music and violin music for summer church gigs
• a bag of beach stuff and bike stuff
• a laundry basket containing all the bathroom/toiletries stuff, coffee maker, detergent, and a few other random things
• a reusable Meijer bag stuffed with some food, kleenex, dish soap, hand soap, etc.
• a backpack full of school stuff and soon to contain the laptop on which I am typing
• a pile of hanging clothes
• a few refrigerated food items
• and a printer

Honestly, people. I'm not going to outer space. So why do I need to bring so much stuff?!?