Tomorrow afternoon, I’m flying down to Houston. For work. I get back on Monday. This will be ten straight days of work. Apparently, in civilized places like the UK, there are legal limits regarding how many days of work in a row you can actually work. This is not the case stateside. And I guess that’s why we’re working ourselves to death and not taking all the vacation time allotted to us each year, despite the fact that we complain we don’t get as much as the rest of the world. And don’t have any legal right to a vacation either; it’s simply something our employers can deign to give us, if they so desire, but they’re under no obligation whatsoever to do so. But I digress. I have a good amount of vacation time from my company, so that’s not my complaint.

Anyway - Houston. Weekend. Yes. This is a bit of an adjustment as I’ve been wearing my wool and angora coat up here… and loving how it’s 38 degrees (F) in the morning. It wakes me right up. It’s going to be 83 degrees in Houston on Saturday. Taking that into account, packing is confusing the crap out of me. My brain doesn’t accept that as real.

So there’s that, and I don’t fly much domestically. And that’s a bit more of a pain in the ass than flying internationally, IMHO.

Internationally? Of COURSE I’m checking my bag. I don’t need to worry about the 3-ounce rule or what-have-you. It’s going to be checked. Bishpleez! But with this short term domestic flight, I don’t want to go through the nonsense of waiting for my checked bag to roll out. Nope. Carry-on only. Yes. And that brings all those insane TSA limitations. So, I’d better clip my nails tonight so there’s no need to bring a nail clipper. No Leatherman on my keychain. Perfume? I can douse some cotton balls in my perfume and put them in a plastic bag in my suitcase. It’s something. Can I do without makeup? Probably not. So there’s a Ziploc bag for me. Grrrrr.

But I’m bringing my camera. I’ll take some photos. Some will be interesting due to the nature of the event I’m attending; some will be mind-numbingly boring because, well, I don’t think anything in Houston other than restaurants will be open when I am finished with my work day each day. I’m checking that out on the internets, but I also might be too tired to do much else.

We shall see. Right now, I’m tired. So tired. And waiting for my clothes to dry so I can pack.