Too much stuff

After a fantastic vacation where I was too busy to blog, I’m back in Sweden again. Here’s what I’ve been up to since my last post.

On Monday night we came to the conclusion that not only had our luggage needs increased, but the extra bag that we’d packed wasn’t big enough. We had an entire suitcase of Christmas presents and another of ski gear, plus car two bags with mostly car parts, so I guess this shouldn't have been so surprising. The problem was I'd forgotten about a basket of dirty clothes. So at 9 PM we were at the mall shopping for a suitcase. My mom lives near Fashion Valley, and as usual, it was quite deserted (a really bad sign of the times). We liked the new lightweight Delsey bags, but they only had the large size we wanted in magenta and periwinkle. Eek. Luckily the store at South Coast Plaza had them in silver, so off we went. South Coast Plaza is huge. I used to hang out there as a teenager and eventually worked at a bookstore there, but the mall has grown so much that I hardly recognized it. There were two Macy’s buildings visible, so we walked up to one and found the map. We left in dismay: is it possible that this huge building was just for men’s clothes? The other even bigger building was just for women’s clothes? An employee saw our confusion and offered help. We received directions to DRIVE to the correct department. Parking was abundant here, and our mission was soon complete. We got a really nice suitcase for a reasonable price (less than half of the regular price), so my bargain hunting side was quite pleased.

The new suitcase easily enveloped all our excess things, and I got a few hours sleep before the shuttle picked us up. We weighed the new suitcase as we were leaving, and much to my horror it was 12 pounds overweight. I frantically stuffed things in other bags and my carry on. Then I noticed my hand was covered in blood. It was on my face and in my hair. I must have ripped my knuckle open on something. The shuttle driver waited while I found bandaids cleaned up. The upside of this was that a tin of cookies and brownies ended up in my carry on. After hearing what American Airlines charged for food (they didn’t even give free pretzels), this was a really good thing.