Turns out dear readers, that you really don't care half a hoot about saving money or Goodwill Hunting. Readership is up when I write off the top of my head and tell you really personal secrets rather than spend three days masterfully photoshopping my trip to thrift stores. So right off the bat I'll tell you that I have ADD, OCD and a I have been nursing a painful bladder infection all week. Is that enough? Because there's more, much more, but I'll reserve the right to pepper it in every forthcoming post and keep my readers interested until I'm offered a decent job or I sell out to a sponsor (which ever comes first.)

When I was a kid my parents were hippies. Everybody says their parents were hippies, but I caught my father in bed with not one, but both of my brother's day care teachers. I knew how to get seeds out of pot with my very own game board boxes. A mere 20 years older than me and completely unsuitable for each other, life as a child with these two was a combination of the Electric Kool-Aid Acit Test and Sonny & Cher. I say this because my parents looked exactly like Sonny and Cher and I'm pretty sure the did a LOT of drugs. 

So when I was in the 2nd grade my aunt and uncle showed up in a "smokin'" VW camper van that Jeff Spicoli would have been shy to get into. They mentioned they were going to Florida and someone had the bright idea I should tag along. My parents couldn't have packed my bag fast enough. This was a good idea because my parents probably had some psilocybic orgy-fest planned for the weekend and really... who wouldn't trust their child to a couple of extraordinarily good-looking stoners that were maybe peaking 20 years themselves?

This is why when dear friend M. showed up Tuesday to borrow videos for her trip to the Mecca of Mormon and she innocently asked if Piper wanted to go away for a week I said "sure!" Piper was going with her future husband, H. (remember "Piper and H. Make Crap from Scrap") and that meant she would have a chance to get in touch with her potential Mormon future (remember "September blew monkey chunks?") I also knew that Piper was about a thousand times safer with M. driving blindfolded and drunk while texting than I was on that trip to Florida (its all a blur, but I'm not even sure I made it back to the 2nd grade.)

Getting to the friggin point of this post... my only dilemma was packing. This is because of the afore mentioned ADD and OCD. When packing, I become paralyzed with indecisiveness. If I think I've missed a single thing I get pretty anxious. It's become so bad that I now fantasize about skipping baggage completely for family trips so the thought of packing up Piper in about an hour's time was a huge challenge for me.

This is what I came up with - Ziploc bags! (Not really, I have fancy plastic bags left over from the store.) Piper is so fashionably sophisticated that half of her outfits go over my head. So the control freak in me wanted to know she would have outfits that would appeal to her "Salt Lake City" hosts (and potential, future in-laws.) Denominating her outfits would also insure that she was wearing something clean every day. So Piper and I negotiated seven different outfits, popped them neatly into bags and my anxiety was GONE. Voila!

You may also note the cool Lug bag and the vintage silk scarf for bad hair days. The awesome vintage mini-suitcase was an Xmas gift from M. herself and Pipey uses it for notebooks, crayons and her newest read: The Alchemyst.

I miss that little Peanut, she'll be gone for a whole week but I also hear a new voice around the house; it's the voice inside my head. Holy shit, I can hear myself think again! I am also looking forward to invitations to drink (lots of those) and a manicure on Sunday with Courtney!