Okay, the dress-as-a-goth party is tonight. Black nail polish, or blood spatter manicure?

Go blood spatter! Choose blood splatter!

Seconding the spatter.

I don't really worry about packing, since I am a list maker, including a grid of the # of days I'll be gone and outfits that will do double-duty plugged into the grid.

You know what would happen if I tried to do that? I'd stress out over making the list. It would have to be perfect, and I wouldn't know how to do it right.

What helps me a lot with packing for trips is to continually remind myself that if I forget anything it will not be the end of the world. I can buy stuff wherever I'm going if I need to (camping and backpacking is different of course, but I am semi-professionally trained for that and it doesn't stress me out).

Packing to move, otoh, I have to go into a zombie trance and and just get everything into boxes somehow without trying to make any sort of decisions about anything - no culling, no trying to make the boxes make logical sense, just boxing up stuff. The last couple of times I moved I paid movers to pack up for me and that was such a relief.

My packing list is legend. There are categories for camping, going north for summer, boys and DH, business trips. I can't survive without lists. Mind like sieve.

I load everything I might think about taking into the washer and then make the decisions as things go from the dryer into the bag. Shoes are where I have trouble. I'm super picky about what shoes I wear with what so I end up taking all kinds of options.

(As I was saying at dinner last night - to go to LA for three days I packed five pairs of shoes and bought two more while I was there. In my defense, I did actually wear most of them.)

Mostly though, after a lifetime of being unprepared and forgetful, I've learned to stop stressing it. If I have my ID, credit card and phone, I can buy or do without anything else I forget.

someone was talking about business cards recently, and there's a groupon from vista print has a "$15 for $60 worth of merch"

I always tell myself, "whatever I forget, they sell it where I'm going." Then I ended up in a downtown hotel with no hair product, and no place within walking distance to buy any except for a local drugstore, which didn't have any of my usual brands. I could have gotten into a taxi and said, "take me to the nearest Target!" but I felt that might end up costing me a lot more than the hair products. From that experience, I now am careful to pack everything I use, and I also check bags, because I ain't hauling it all around on my back again. Nor trying to get it through security!

My usual method of packing is to go about my usual routine, tossing things into my bag as I use them. Then freak out about what clothes and shoes to take with.

why is my cat so good at turning off my computer?

as I was saying for packing I make a list , pack everything and pull out the extra. all drugs go into my purse so they are never out of my site - the only part of packing I get paranoid about .