Dear packing, you are not my favorite.

So as I prepare to leave for The Gambia on November 3rd I have been forced to encounter one of my arch nemesis, packing. Packing and I have a long and complicated relationship but it basically boils down to the fact that I hate packing and resent having to do it. If I could have any magical powers I would chose to never have to pack again. True story.
Needless to say packing to move to West Africa for two plus years has seriously affected my relationship with packing. So I thought that I would walk you all through my process and then perhaps you would understand why this subject brings me such angst. (Or maybe I'm just overreacting)
It all started at Costco. Courtney and I had quite a lovely day last week exploring the joys of this American phenomenon. Everything in enormous quantities, at low prices, with excessive amounts of packaging. I mean seriously, does my bottle of Claritin-esque allergy medicine really need a 8 1/2 by 11 inch buffer of cardboard around it?? But I digress, so though my Costco trip really was helpful for providing me with lots of necessities that won't be as readily available in Gambia I ended up with an entire "Ling Ling" dumpling box of stuff which I then had to figure out how to fit into my two bag, 80 pound luggage limit.
Next let me introduce you to the "staging area" aka Casey's room. Casey's room is a perfect staging area as it is right next to my room and can be easily accessed at all hours of the day when I have one of my neurotic, packing related panics but is removed from my room so I don't have to constantly be looking at the piles. My relationship with the staging area was all working out well until Casey came home for the weekend and I had to move everything out of his room so he could sleep there of all things! But despite the stress that moving my staging area caused me I was happy to do so because it meant I got to spend time with Casey doing somewhat menial tasks like getting our hair cut, grocery shopping and buying him a wool coat.
But now Casey is gone, I don't have to go to work at the high school anymore and I therefore must confront the packing monster head on. The first attempt at packing did not go so well as Beth came over, I got distracted loading books on tape on my iPod and we both got distracted watching multi-racial Cinderella with Brandy, Whitney Huston, Bernadette Peters, Whoppi Goldberg and Victor Garber.
Yesterday I made attempt number two and it wasn't a complete disaster. I wanted to be organized so I separated the essential and non-essential items. Than I wanted to split things between my two bags so that if one got lost I would have a little of everything in both bags. But it quickly descended into chaos as the idea that it might all fit made me so joyous that I just started throwing everything into bags with no sense of order.
So that's a (not so quick) summary of my relationship with packing. Let me just say that I have been listening to "Graceland" by Paul Simon a lot and I truly believe this CD is keeping me on the edge of sanity. Small victories!