I’m back out on the road tomorrow, headed for Bozeman, MT for two weeks. The highlight of the trip will probably be the 3-day weekend spent alone in a hotel room. Woo. But, hey, at least I’ll have a beautiful view out the window. No, wait, I’m staying at a budget hotel. I’ll probably have a view of the parking lot.

I’ve become very laisse faire about packing for these trips. When I first started traveling, packing was a sort of stressful routine for me. I started early in the afternoon, I laid everything out on the bed before putting it in the suitcase, I agonized over what to take and how to pack it and double-checked to make sure I packed this or that… I really got myself wound up about it.

Now, packing is different. I start around 9 or 10 at night. I keep a vague count in my head of how many socks or undershirts have gone in the bag. Instead of folding neatly, I roll everything (it packs better and wrinkles less). And, like I said, I start later. So invariably something I want to pack — socks, usually, or underwear — isn’t clean, so I end up doing laundry at midnight. And there’s usually a shirt or two that need dry-cleaning, so I just stuff them in the bag to give to the hotel laundry when I check in. I usually put the finishing touches on it as the cab is out front honking in the morning.

And when you’re packing that way, well … you tend to forget things. You maybe end up going shopping for underwear on the weekend where ever you’ve traveled to. That’s happened twice. But I’ve got that covered this time around.

What I really need to remember to pack is all my computer stuff. Like the power supply for my laptop. I had to have my office Fed-Ex it to me last time. I’m still living that one down.

It’s 10:55 now. I’m going to go start the washing machine. Underwear beckons.