(What you are about to read is based on actual, repeated, real-life events. I am not poking fun at anything or anyone other than myself.)
As the days rapidly crawl toward the moment when I and my beautiful sub ButterfliesAndCuffs will be together again I have been reviewing my own personalized pre-flight checks, and have come to the comforting realization that - contrary to what I have been told - I do not have OCD, I merely have OCD tendencies. And there are very important differences.
For instance, like most people I pack exactly 5 times before leaving for a vacation, which I have been able to cut down from 7 by first making a list of everything I need to bring, triple checking it, and staging everything on my bed, clockwise in order of it's appearance on the list. This allows me to make sure that everything goes neatly into my suitcase in the proper sequence, top to bottom, left to right.
Which is a perfectly reasonable tendency.
Obviously all non-clothing items (toiletries, medications, chargers, cold remedies, sanitizer, important documents including my itinerary and the aforementioned itemized list, etc.) go into their own ziplock bags, along with lists of contents so nothing gets overlooked or left out during the 5 packings. Each ziplock bag also includes a copy of my itinerary, just in case any of others somehow get wet or forgotten or lost or damaged. Also, by writing the dates and destinations of my trip on the outside of the ziplock bags I can be certain that they are all brand new and unique to the vacation in question, though it is helpful to practice that a few times before loading all the items inside, just to make sure everything is legible.
You will agree that these are all understandable, sensible tendencies.
Since I always bring by laptop with me everywhere I go my carry-on bag is the perfect size for it (with room to spare for all the chargers, USB cables, my kindle, it's charger, medications, sanitizer, copies of important documents including my itinerary and the aforementioned itemized lists, etc.) And everything is folded up and wound up and packed up so that the whole thing will lie perfectly flat when placed on the floor with the side pocket facing up. It has to be in that position because the pocket holds my itinerary in triplicate and I must maintain quick, easy access just in case I need a copy for something or someone I hadn't anticipated.
I tend to be somewhat more cautious when I will be out of the house for more than a few hours.
I have already reviewed my plan exactly 37 times and have come to the conclusion that the only OCD-ish things about my preparations and pre-trip rituals are the 13 trial runs I do the night before, but everybody does that.
True story. And it will all be more than worth it when at long last she is on her knees before me again.
