The State of the Packing "Adress"

Friends. My fellow Americans. Welcome to my blog! I am honored that you have taken the time out of your oh so busy life to sit down and read what I have to say about my semester abroad in Paris. I was planning on waiting until I actually arrive in Paris to start blogging but the events of the last 24 hours have been far too funny not to blog about.

So, first things first before I can hop on that airplane to Paris, I'm heading to New York to visit my grandparents and uncle, which is going to be a wonderful time. Even before that comes, I must complete the unbelievably annoying task of packing. For the boys, if you want a good laugh, please continue reading. For the girls, I'd appreciate if you kept reading so someone could understand where I'm coming from.

I decided to limit myself to one backpack, one small duffel bag, and one large suitcase which can only be 50 lbs. If I may say so myself, that's PRETTY solid for a California girl heading to Paris for an entire semester (regardless of the fact I plan on buying only GOD knows how much). Some of you may have seen my Facebook status from a few days ago:

Since I decided to go to Paris back at Indiana University (GO HOOSIERS!), I knew I was going to be packing a lot of dresses. My mom, however, did not. After that initial trial run, I let it sit for a few days. Last night, however, the real adventure began. The bag wasn't too much over 50 lbs but of course my mom asked me how many dresses I had, having recently gained some insight into my strange addiction for dresses. So I counted as best I could and came up with 15. Not too bad for four months in Paris! Mom then decided that 15 dresses was far too many, especially since most of them are sleeveless (though I tried to explain to her the cardigan/jacket combination I often rock back at school in Bloomington, Indiana during the cold fall and winter months), and I was asked to remove a few dresses. After much silly fighting and friendly yelling, I removed a few dresses from the suitcase and proceeded to count the dresses yet again. Strangely, there were still 15 dresses in the suitcase...

Some unknown time during this whole process, my brother Jonathan decided to post a little Facebook status of his own:

This isn't exactly 100% accurate yet somewhat of a good representation of what occurred last night. You'll be happy to know that after another round of weighing this morning, my suitcase is now 47 lbs and no (new) dress sacrifices had to be made. More to come as the adventures continue!