adrenaline is your friend

q. shenaynay

It's intriguing to me how we silly humans will give a task as much time as we have available to perform it... rather than how much time it should realistically require.

Case in point: The Shieldmaiden's packing procedure.

We travel a good bit, and both the girls are admirable packers at this point. Honestly, it's rather astonishing how many days they can live out of a single carry-on size suitcase and yet manage to look reasonably fetching.

But I digress ever-so-slightly. Back to my point.

The Shieldmaiden approaches packing very methodically. Two days prior to departure, she compiles lists in a notebook, planning each day's wardrobe to the detail. The day before, she gathers, launders, irons and mends. That night, she meticulously folds each piece, and then sorts them into stacks according to the day she anticipates wearing them, which she then arranges chronologically in her suitcase, which by this time looks as though it's headed for a Samsonite photo shoot. The suitcase is then placed in the car that night, ready for morning departure.

That's the usual progression.

However, today The Shieldmaiden decided on the spur of the moment to leave with her grandparents to go spend the weekend with them at their farm. At the moment this whim overtook her, la grandparents already had their car loaded, keys in hand, and were all poised to receive their departing hugs. To my utter shock, the dear girl threw method to the wind and had her suitcase packed in under ten minutes -- books, hair stuff, skin stuff, ipod, clothes, hats, sunscreen, you name it. Huh. Fa and I were pretty much awestruck.

Two days of effort compressed into ten minutes. Huh.

I wonder if she could fast-forward through Algebra like that this fall?