I think I like to bury myself in little challenges because they are fun to solve and pleasantly distracting as opposed to the big, scary, messy projects. I am sure this is not unique. Right? Say yes.

I have been obsessed…maybe a bit heavy of a word but at the least, preoccupied with my carrying-all-my-sh*t-system while travelling. Day packs, purses, packing squares, crazy suction bags to shrink up our stuff, waterproof, watertight, water resistant…and so on. I justify it by saying “the boat is such a small space I have to map all this out” and “I don’t want to waste money so I need to get one thing, only the right thing”…both are true…but I’m not sure they truly justify the time I’ve spend thinking about this. It’s weird.

This weekend I pulled the trigger on both day pack (Timbuk2 30L roll-top bag from MEC) and bag / purse (Wet Wax Mini from HoiBo) because I literally got fed up with hearing myself think out loud about this. Also though because these are great bags ;) And I know I burned out my life spouse (Greg) and my work spouse (Liz) with all my postulating. Like seriously get a grip.

On the up side, all of the mapping out and planning is what I do, and do relatively well I might say (cough cough)…Liz and I have made a pretty nice little living on doing that kind of thing (obviously not about friggin’ bags though). For work, this careful thinking-through is necessary to ensure we do the very best for our clients…who, while we love them, often have some pretty crazy expectations (which we are pretty crazy to try and meet). For preparing to move aboard though, I’ve been having a hard time freeing up the mental bandwidth to tackle much more important or complex boat-related challenges. I think it’s a combination of trying to still get paid-work done, and more coming, and keeping our current lives ticking along so things don’t become a sh*t show, aaaaaaaand protecting my head (and heart, barf) from really onboarding what this all means. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy and confident (see previous post)…but I think on some level I know that if I think too deeply about the big challenges ahead…I might freak out and run for the hills.

My new bags are enroute…moving on to the next mini-challenge. Maybe it’s just like eating an elephant.

M