Tuesday, January 05, 2010

less prep ... less stress


When folks visit they are usually quite vigilant about having a complete array of supplies on hand - their water, their snacks, their hand sanitizer, their allergy meds, their travel t.p., their ibuprofen, their bug spray, etc, etc, etc. They come prepared for every situation.

(Meanwhile Haitians leave home for a 8 hour walk in flip-flops and zero emergency supplies.)

I'm not going to lie - we've had some fun at the expense of visitors that loaded up the camel-back backpack with six gallons of water for a 200 meter walk across the property. Yes. We mocked you Mr. Camelback-for-a -short-walk-guy. But only because it needed to be done.

I am all for prepared ... and we used to do that. We seem to stink at it now. We sort of roll with things and don't plan in advance much (or at all) and that means we are bad at being uber organized or prepared.

Yesterday Paige showed up for a two hour mountain hike and a full day away with only some scrubs and an ipod. No water. No food. No snacks. No water bottle. Her mother reminded her of none of those items. She remembered none of it.

We did a quick 'degaje' and tossed some of the team's leftover breakfast bread in a baggie and rummaged around for a water bottle in a cupboard at the guest house. She was good to go. No Camelback required.

Later that afternoon, I got a text that said, "Mom, I totally killed that mountain."
I assume that is a good thing and not referring to a lack of travel t.p.
;)