Last week I was worried about our upcoming visit to Omaha. We were doing a long weekend (Friday-Monday) and it should have been the smoothest trip ever. For starters we had been planning the trip for awhile so everything in terms of where we were staying and letting people know when we’d be there was done two months in advance. That has never happened before. Usually we only figure out when we’re going a few weeks ahead of time and I’m still letting people know less than a week beforehand, “Hey, we’ll be in town, and want to see you!”
Secondly, we were prepared – as in packed, organized and well-rested. None of this ever seems to happen. No matter what amount of preparation is done, usually something comes up that pushes packing to the background. Usually we have to pack at least half our stuff last minute, and stay up until two in the morning to do so. We usually head out by six. Yeah, not fun. But this time we were on it. We did laundry days in advance, and I packed all of our clothes and had a spreadsheet to make sure we didn’t forget anything. The day before we left I cleaned the house and Roy took care of the dog (bath, teeth, nails – she was not happy). We were in bed before midnight and were heading out a little after eight in the morning. But even better, we were good about going to bed early that week so there was no sleep deficit going into the night before the trip (yes, usually we both have that going on too).
The trip itself was also to be our most low-key to date. Usually I try to pack all of my favorite places into the trip, no matter how brief. Local hangouts, coffee houses and places to eat means a lot going on. But this trip we only had to eat at one place, and do one thing with my family. Two musts over four days… we could handle that (and we did). Going to Nebraska is all about seeing me dearest who still live there and while that is always the case, this time our plans, or lack of, reflected that upfront.