Counting Down . . .

I leave in 5 days for my trip!

I am finally starting to get excited about going, though I am also starting to feel the familiar feeling of "Why on earth do I have so much stuff if I don't need to take it with me on vacation?"

This inevitably happens when I go on vacation.  In the go-through-everything method of packing that I employ, I am always stunned by the amount of stuff I have that I simply don't need.  6 "junk" t-shirts for dirty work.  8 tank tops when I don't even like wearing tank tops.  5 pairs of jeans when I only ever enjoy wearing 3 of them.

These kinds of questions bother me, mainly because the simple solution is "Get rid of the stuff you don't like or want or need," but there's always something that holds me back.  It's amazing the amount of stuff I don't even like but I hold on to and use for some unknown reason.  One explanation might be, given the fact that I do use some of the stuff, that I NEED the items and therefore it would be stupid to get rid of them.  However, the only reason I use them is because they create a need by being there, not because the need is there and they fill it.

I think a better explanation is that there is that primal "store up for the winter" thinking that pervades human actions, which leads people to do strange things like hold on to bedsheets from 1970 "just in case" the current ones get messed up.  Of course, if the current ones get destroyed, new ones will be bought as a replacement before the old ones will be brought out of storage, but these kinds of facts I can never quite convince my brain of.

Of course, even of the stuff that I DO want to take with me when I pack, it seems to be far more than one person should ever have in their possession/desire to drag with them to a new location.  My mother often says that I have anorexia when it comes to possessions, I always have this constant desire to reduce and purge myself of unneeded items.  I hate the idea of being needlessly burdened down with items that aren't really essential to life.



In other news, tonight is my last class for my summer Ethics course.  It's been interested, and made me more confused than ever about the world, but I do feel kind of bad about the course in general.  Due to it being the first time this teacher had ever taught the course in an intensive 6-week, 4-hour-class-twice-a-week style, and his lack of knowing how to structure the time, we missed a lot of material.  Taoism, my favorite Eastern religion, was completely skipped over, as well as Family Ethics, Media Ethics, and a few other Ethical issues, despite the fact that they were listed in the syllabus and the readings were in our textbook.  I would have liked to have gotten a more broad scope of Ethical thoughts and issues, but I suppose it was not to be.  Many people have said that this is common of summer courses, that they are far easier and more relaxed than standard, and part of the issue might also be that I am taking the class at a community college, rather than at a standard 4-year school, the style of which I am now used to after a semester at Cedar Crest College.

In other other news, my bag today has, by far, the most eclectic assortment of things that I think it has ever held, which, for me, is saying something.  It contains, among other things:
My textbook for tonight, along with my binder and notes
Library books and movies from two different libraries
Two pouches of CapriSun which I took from the giant boxes at the break room at work
A piece of pizza
A water bottle
My bill and receipt for tuition for the Fall at Cedar Crest
A box of frozen vegetables
An umbrella

However, as I am writing this list, I realize that I left all my pens and pencils at home, and that if I plan to take notes tonight, I should scavenge for one before it's too late.  I should get on that.