Packing List

I started packing yesterday, and continued today. By "started packing" I mean that yesterday, I threw some clothes on the floor. By "continued" I mean that today I picked them up and threw them in a suitcase.

I hate packing. I've hated it since the summer before I went to college, when I packed up my house in DC to move to San Francisco, and then two weeks later packed up my room in San Francisco to go to school. Also, I'm stressing out because I don't know what people wear in Buenos Aires. I know it's summer there, but does that mean jeans or skirts? Is it moody, sweating-to-shivering-in-ten-minutes-flat San Francisco summer, or is it dump-an-ice-bucket-on-my-head DC summer? And I've heard that people there are incredibly cool, which I'm just not.

To keep from forgetting something really obvious, like underwear, I'm keeping a list of what I've packed. So far, the only thing it's really doing is making me feel stupid for the number of shoes I own. it looks something like this:

PACKED:
1 bathing suit
7 cardigans: Okay, this might be kind of a lot of cardigans. Especially since I'm heading into the equivalent of August. But what if they over air-condition everything like they do in DC? And they're all different colors, so it's not like I'm bringing the same thing five times.
4 dresses: At first there were 5 dresses. Then I decided to be sensible. I might reconsider, though.
4 skirts: Three of these skirts are so short I don't like to walk up stairs in them. I'm not sure if I can wear them in Argentina without getting totally harassed. But they don't take up that much room, so it's worth the risk.
4 pairs of jeans
2 pairs of flats: I need to make sure I have enough shoes. The odds that I'm going to find a cute pair of shoes in Argentina in a size 12 are so small I'm just going to round them off to zero. I'm using this as an excuse to bring 10 pairs of shoes. And yes, they're all absolutely necessary.
1 pair of flip-flops
1 pair of boots: These are the most beautiful boots I have ever seen. They're slouchy brown suede, and they come up almost to my knee. They're flat, taper a little at the toes and don't make me look like Ronald McDonald dressed up for a night on the town. They also may be a tiny bit too small, but it's a small price to pay for finally finding boots I don't hate..
8 pairs of underwear: I totally need more underwear than this. It's a laundry limiting factor. Speaking of which, I don't have enough right now because I haven't done my laundry yet this week. Damn.
280 pills: In order for the insurance company to agree to cover the medicine I need, they basically needed the President to file a personal recommendation on my behalf confirming that I am, in fact, going abroad for the next six months. I was pissed. I still am, but it makes a little more sense now that I know the bottle of pills I ended up paying $20 for is worth between two and three times my entire cardigan collection.
1 box of Earl Grey tea: My mom convinced me to bring this. I pointed out to her that they have tea in Argentina, but she argued that the only kind of Earl Grey tea that's worth drinking is Twinings, and what's if they don't have that particular tea in Argentina? I take my tea seriously.
3 going-out tops

Clearly, I still have a lot of work to do. Like, I've packed no fewer than 7 sweaters but no tank tops, t-shirts or bras.

I'm all set if I'm invited to a tea party, though. I can even bring the tea.