Zen, packing is always last moment for me too. Of course I pack from lists so it is quick business. You can't pack until the laundry is done, and there is always stuff that you use that gets packed. Smooth travels!
Well, I get that there are lessons to learn by experience, but the problem is that the stakes can be so high sometimes.
Indeed. DH and I were talking about it last night (like there is a night we don't!) and he is more devastated than me. He always thinks it is somehow his fault. I don't let him get away with that one. Anyway, #1 is trying to prove something to us and the world. He doesn't have to conform to our stupid rules. He's perfectly fine and doesn't count material things as success. @@
I just ran into someone he went to school with last week. Once again, the same exchange. They ask how he is, then make some comment about how brilliant he was. I can think of at least 3 former teachers I have encountered out in stores or wherever that have said he was the smartest student they had, also bullheaded. He has a massive issue with authority because he knows so much more than the rest of us lowly beings. I've told him more than once that he doesn't know shit until he figures out that he doesn't know shit.
He hasn't read Game of Thrones yet, so I from time to time call him Jon Snow. I told him where the character comes from. He will actually find it very amusing when he reads the books. He has an excellent sense of humor. Also, he knows nothing.