Once again I find myself in that familiar predicament...

How the #$*@#! am I gonna fit all this crap in my car?

And the lesser asked question--how the @(#*! am I going to make it halfway across the country when I can see only out of the left half of my front windshield?

To understand how dire the situation is at this moment, one must understand my thinking.

"It's my industrial strength hairdryer and I CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT."

But, but, but...I might need my wedge heels in DC in addition to my strappy flats because I might need to appear taller or shorter on Capitol Hill depending on the situation!

Ahh, the dilemma that plagues only those who end up being truly prepared in the end. Riiiight.

Lord, how does she get around with all that junk and those rationales, one might ask. My simple answer is "heck, I've done it before!"

Flashback to the end of my junior year at Wellesley...I was living in a single in Shafer (much to my chagrin, but I had little choice when I moved back from NYC) and needed to get home in time for iamnotawerewolf's highschool graduation. The parents and the bro were in the throes of the end of his senior year (competitive drill, commencement dance, yadda yadda yadda), my cousins were all indisposed and I had no reliable men in my life at that point to come to my sad little rescue. Thus, I was left to my own devices.

Moving out of that tiny little dorm room was a week-long process. It ended when I shoved the last pair of shoes and the last psych text under the passenger's seat. And wouldn't you know, I offered a ride home to my friend Moira as well. I said Moira, are you sure you want to ride back with me? And she said, yes indeed, and got into my passenger's seat, put her feet up on the dash (I had my eighth bag of clothing crammed beneath the dash) and stuffed her two large bags in her lap. I cranked up the Indigo Girls, and we sped down the Mass Pike...just like that.

The only view of the road I had was, like I said, out the left side of the front windshield and my driver's side view mirror. The seat was propped forward as far as it could go, which landed my chest about two inches from the steering wheel.

How we made it home alive and without being pulled over, I shall never know. What I do know, is that it took two weeks to unload my car once I got back to Smallbany.

This time around, we will be taking a trip that is more than four times the distance and I have a fair amount more crap.

In the interest of preserving my sanity and the sanity of iamnotawerewolf, I think I'll leave my industrial strength hairdryer in Chi-town until next week, when I return for graduation...