Things are coming along...

Last night I was determined to get at least an outline of the trip planned. After I ate dinner and took a moment to relax, I began compiling all of my information. Luckily, I previously had printed all of my Groupons that I will be using on the trip as well as my pre/post trip Groupons. Shane took Caylie to the pool to swim for a bit and I seized the oppurtunity for quiet and rational thought.

With all of my information there beside me, I began making my two outline lists. The first list had each Groupon with what city it was in. I tried to group them together by location. The second list was a day by day breakdown of the plans. Basically, I wrote down each day that we would be on vacation and left a few spaces in between to write in the plans. This works well for me because the first thing I do on that list is place the definites. Those items that are at a specific date and time that cannot be moved.

This is what it looked like with the bare minimum of information:

Sunday:

Leave, driving at 3 pm

Monday:

Shane: Dr appt 4 pm

Tuesday:

Brooke: Graduation 5 pm

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Melissa: Graduation 5 pm

Friday:

Shane and Danny: Village Pourhouse

Saturday:

Me and Sandy: Manhattan by Sail

Sunday:

Leave, driving at 6 am


Once I had my minor outline, I was able to see which towns we would be in on what days and start "filling in" the activities and meals. I also could clearly see which days I had more freedom and less time restrictions. Being able to place this sheet side-by-side with the first listing of all the Groupons really helps bring everything together. This way you don't have to keep flipping through papers and get frustrated.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) it was around this time that Shane and Caylie got back. After he got Caylie settled, he came downstairs and offered to help me. (He didn't realize I was this far behind on the planning!) Now, you can look at this as a half empty/half full scenario. While I love the fact that my husband was willing to help me, it felt like I couldn't think! I couldn't keep everything straight in my mind while I was sorting it out. I felt so helpless, my ADD had kicked in and my brain was going a thousand different directions.

Finally, after much discussion about each deal, the location and what we would be doing...we were able to get almost all of the items placed on the daily list.

I felt accomplished. My trip now had an outline. I no longer had this feeling of dread and fear of getting lost. So, I took my winnings and left it at that.