I think leaving home for four plus months is only ever easy if you are a teenager. Once you start working, managing bills, paying taxes (federal, state, property and payroll), and have a life (relationships, friends, properties and appointments) - well it is hard to close that up and take off for long periods of time. Its easier now with online bill pay and not needing to actually be in the place where something needs to get done. Social media helps - people know what you are up to whenever you Poke, Post, Text or Tweet. Which is why i decided to adopt the now almost retro idea of doing a blog. So I can report whats going on with me in one place instead of a little here and there to this friend or that. Also a big thank you to globalization - now there is a A Store You Love in every city of the world where you can get things you may need while traveling. It’s really all about the forethought needed to organize in advance and to consider “what I could possibly need to happen in my life for the next 4+ months that I need to take care of now?” so preparedness is key. How many of us who live in California really have our earthquake emergency kits in place?

The size of my ToDo list was enormous, and, as much as i'd like to, I wont bore you going line by line listing everything I accomplished in the past month. I am happy to report, that after two solid weeks of effort, I managed to cross off every item that was crucial. Yeah me. Oh and that emergency kit? I do have one.

After 13 years of pretty solid travel, one would think I would be a pack master. A weekend in Palm Springs? sure, i got that. A week in NY? easier than Palm Springs because they have excellent stores in case i were to forget something or, less likely, if I were to underpack. But 4.5 months in the Middle East with a Safari on the side? a challenge to say the least. Its not just the clothes and the things i think i will need, but how do you pack for experiences you dont know you will be having? Sand surfing in the desert? What does one wear for that?

I honestly spent more time "Packing" in my mind than in my closet. Besides the time we will be spending in Israel, we needed to pack for the Safari, an Island experience and a few more cosmopolitan/glamourous places (Cape Town, Istanbul, Dubai) where people dress up a bit more than Israel. I generally pack three bags - a suitcase, a makeup bag and a carry- on filled with my digital devices.Packing make-up and devices just takes focus. To pack for a trip of this duration takes a stategy. I considered several. I thought about hiring a stylist to do it - but she wouldnt know how things are fitting these days, so we’d go down that rabbit hole of trying stuff on and self-hatred for eating a few more carbs than usual. I thought about stealing a stategy from a friend - she packs a week in advance and actually lays full outfits on the floor and polaroids them! When you consider she is in the fashion industry it doesnt seem that crazy.

The suitcase stressed me out so much that i developed a new strategy - Committed Layer Strategy. I realized that I dress the same way I used to Date. One Date and I’m committed. So, If i buy something I wear it to death for the first few months then it goes into warrobe rotation. So the Committed part of the Strategy translates to whatever i’m currently into. Layering speaks for itself and being in SF teaches you the need for that. So a steady selection of T-shirts covered by shirts covered by sweaters then scarves and a coat or blazer. Done. The Committed Layer Strategy helps me to avoid the usual pyschological game I tend to play when shopping for clothes. I used to see something on a hanger and think “OMG this would be the perefct dress to wear to Tea with the Queen!” It was the imagined version me that the dress apealed to - where to wear it became more important than if it was right for me. Needless to say the last Tea i had was ages ago and the Queen is not in my address book. Although I did have Dinner once with The Duke and Duchess of Edinburough. I think Prince Andrew and Fergie are as Royal as it gets for me. I added in one chic skirt with multiple top options and I am ready - just in case the Tel Avivian equivalent of Buckingham Palace should call.

Packing things became another matter. My creature comforts. That trapped on a desert island kind of thing? I remember when famous people were posed that question in a magazine and they would list a few albums they would take with them. Apple cleared that issue up. You have a device? you have your record colection with you at all times. So what did i need on my desert island of Tel Aviv? While A calls it "the most exciting city in the world!" my question is - does this city have the things i need to feel at home? Four months is more like living somewhere than visiting somewhere. To be on the safe side i packed my Powdered Green Tea, because I dont know if they have a Japan town is Israel. Do they have luxury bedding there? because in the photos of the apartment we Rented I noticed the sheets look like something from a Motel Six. Floral bedspreads scare me - maybe its all the germs I imagine hiding behind all the happy patterns? I actually investigated shipping my sheets from the US but for the half the price I could probably travel roundtrip to Cairo and buy the highest thread count Egyptian cotton they have and just take them across the border. I would also have to factor in the additional cost of israeli bodyguards to do this, but I will be spending a third of my new Israeli life in bed - so sheets are non-negotiabe.

During all this prep, i put the packing on pause and had a slice of my life moment when Wildcare came to clean our owl boxes. Nature constantly amazes me, and A and I do our best to take care of the wild animals that live with us in Sonoma. November begins the nesting season for the owls, and their boxes need to be cleaned once or twice a year. The boxes are perched 14’ high so it takes a special ladder to get up there and see if we even had owls in residence. Apparently you can judge an owl box by the content of its poop - pellets of compressed mice bones and fur that they keep in their stomach for up to 20 hours then regurgitate. You cant imagine how excited I was to know that the boxes were filled with pellets, feathers and even feathers of baby owls. After Wildcare left I did the thing any normal 7 year old would do, got some tweezers and bamboo appetizer spears and dug through the pellet to find the bones. Here is my treasure…

Did I mention that all of this Preparedness and Packing started after a trip to NewYork, New Orleans and LA? and before the first ever combined Thankgiving and Hannukah event , and an early celebration of my Dads 75th birthday and Christmas? Yep. Timing is everything.