How to Pack An Insane Amount of Stuff Into An Insanely Tiny Space

I am concerned about the upcoming road trip to Alaska. And by concerned I mean completely freaking out. I'm not sure how this is going to work.

Dilemma: Five people and their traveling stuff, Sara's possessions, and two cars to fit it all in. Am I wrong to be panicking? I'm currently whittling down my list of things to bring, but it's very difficult with the fact that I'm going to be in Alaska for almost a month.

Here is what I imagine we will look like driving up the Alcan, minus the turbans:


Oh that reminds me, I need to get ropes. Lots and lots of ropes.

The one thing this picture is missing is the snow we will likely encounter. Ok, adding tarps to the list. Lots and lots of tarps.

Studying these expert packers, I see that they have a roof rack. Sara has one and so does Anthony, so that makes me feel quite a bit better. I'm going to hope and pray that it isn't windy in Canada in October.

Actually, the more I study this picture, I'm thinking we could probably fit more people in the car with us.

Well, there's always hitchhikers.

So Close and Yet So Far Away

Today was a great day. I woke up feeling like the place could burn down and it'd actually help me pack. Oh well, I was able to have my apartment contract extended by two days. That means I won't need to find a bridge for my friends who are coming to town on Friday to sleep under.

I worked a bit today, but mostly recovered from our trip to San Diego and my sleeplessness before that. I feel good and very excited to be moving up to Anchorage in four days. I think Amber is worried. She may have been using reverse psychology on me at the airport yesterday, something about me not being able to deal with her not being there and pretty much dying. I will miss her, but she'll be in Anchorage with me until October 26th. Quite convenient because I don't even have to worry about missing her till November.

I also had two friends visit today, which was really nice and took up most of my day. I really am going to miss a few people from this area.

Okay, now it's story time! For those of you who don't know me, I am afraid of flying. I'd like to be able to insert the phrase "terrified to fly" but the truth is that I am still able to force myself onto a plane, so I must not be "terrified", but I am SOOO beyond happy that we're driving the 3,000 miles to Anchorage. Anyhow, I HATE sitting near my mother (love you Mom!) because she has a fantastic little ability to talk about the most inopportune things at the most inappropriate times. I'll give you a for instance.

Earlier this year we were flying to Phoenix. Amber and I are sitting in the row in front of Mom and our friend. As we take off and begin experiencing turbulence (and I've taken my "let's-calm-down-so-I-won't-have-a-heart-attack" pills and they are NOT working, mind you), my wonderful Mother decides she should start relaying all the horrific plane accidents that have taken place in the last few months. I naturally go into a tissy and ask her to stop talking or else I'll have to ask the stewardess to remove her from the aircraft.

Yes, that is my Mother and the best part is that I'm pretty sure she does it on purpose. So it really shouldn't have been surprising when, sitting next to her and a stranger, I had to ask her to stop speaking to me so that I could work through the turbulence. That was the second time on a flight that day that I had to ask her to stop talking about plane tragedies or What-If's as to parts of the plane falling off. This was also after our last pilot must have been learning to land a plane and bounced us down the runway, as well as loosing "an astheic" piece off the wing and asking us to not panic and then making us move planes. But seriously? Don't panic? I'm so happy you found that we were missing something off our plane, but if that fell off, what's next? The left wing? "Hey guys, yea, so the left wing just fell off, and we're in a downward spiral, but please, don't panic, the wing was mostly just for astheic value." I'm pretty sure that would have been good for my fragile demeanor.

Back into the situation at hand, Amber was no where around to save me as she was having an in-depth conversation with a trash metal lover in the row in front of me. Good thing I had that stranger sitting next to us. He distracted Mom and I was able to not throw up or have a heart attack.

This story is basically an extended "Thank you" to our flying buddy who isn't a stranger anymore, Mr. Kevorkian. Even though I did get a kick out of it, I truly am sorry that you're a chemist with that last name and that you have so much difficultly ordering chemicals :)

Why I'm Feeling Anxious Tonight

My sister Sara is moving to Alaska in 6 days. Anchorage to be exact. Today we were flying home from a conference in San Diego, and as we were sitting in the airport, I suddenly started to feel very sorry for her.

I'm actually quite concerned about her survival up there. There are several reasons why I think this move may not be good for her. Let's just skip the unimportant ones and cut to the main one: She is going to miss me terribly.

She is very dependent on me. My opinion is extremely valuable to her, and she actually has a difficult time functioning properly when I'm not around to help her. Here are the things I'm positive she can't do without me: 1) Cook. 2) Have fun. 3) Do her hair. 4) Shop. 5) Drive. 6) Think rationally. You can see why I worry.

I felt compelled to voice these concerns to her in the airport today. As you can imagine, she was silent for some time. Then she laughed really hard in my face. Coping mechanism, that. I really hope she will be okay.

Just Your Average Intro...

Remember being asked in grade school to write an autobiography, maybe 500 words, about who you are, where you've been, and what your future goals are? While my oily, prepubescent classmates scribbled away, delighting in the opportunity to try to stand out from their peers, I wrote three sentences. "My name is Amber Marie Gaines. I am 12 years old and have lived in the Northwest my whole life. My goal for the future is to keep living in the Northwest." Gripping. Compelling. At least D+ worthy.  

One would think, for my lack of ambition and excitement about my past and future, the idea of blogging about myself would horrify me. And yet I find myself convinced that there is such an overabundance of the average in my life that my material is limitless. I will literally never run out of nothing to write about. To add to this, my sister Sara is partnering with me in this blogging adventure, and I feel she will bring a delightful amount of anxiety and compulsion to the project. Perhaps a word from her would now be appropriate....

My name is Sara.  I am moving to Anchorage, Alaska, in six days.  I've lived in the Northwest my whole life and decided to begin a blog because I have many a friend curious if I will be acquiring a dog sled and living in an igloo.  I actually had a couple friends think that driving to Alaska from Oregon is impossible (I'm moving to Alaska, not Hawaii).  To be quite honest, I'm a bit disappointed that that adventure won't be mine to embelish.

I didn't want to do this alone, however, so I mentioned the project to my sister, who asked a few questions and decided it was a fabulous idea.  So here we are, 11:11pm on a Monday, creating our very first blog posts.  Okay, enough explanation.  Here's the guts:

Unlike my sister, I suffer from the "Over-Achiever Complex", meaning my life is super ordinary, bordering at times on completely boring.  I reconcile myself to this fact by stressing out as often as possible, being full of anxiety, completely consumed, perpetually overwhelmed, and borderline obsessive compulsive.  That HAS to make my life much more than mediocre, right?  Unfortunately, the reality is that my life is much like Amber's.  C+ average on my best day.

I'm really not all that sad about this because I'm very much used to it.  I do feel that by embracing this simple truth, I am an expert on being average, mediocre, plain, simple, and non-dramatic.

I want to give you a big, warm "WELCOME" to our blog and I hope you enjoy being included in our marvelously mediocre lives!  Here's to not always being able to see the forest through the trees, to making life a place to feel safe, and to reconciling ourselves to, well, ourselves.   

Let us share our journey with you!