Cue the High Powered Brit Pop!

As of today, I have 3 full days before I'll fly out with my sister this Thursday morning for London, but as of last Friday, I'd already entered my high-gear auto-mode! This is not good! Auto-mode shouldn't kick in until, like, late tonight or tomorrow!?!

Let me explain: Typical for me, about 2 to 3 days before some major trip or some big event [EXAMPLES of a "Big Event": The angel boy-O's birthday party or any holiday that requires some preparation, like Christmas Eve or Thanksgiving.], I kind of go into this automatic, super hyper, super excited mode of operation that involves many, many errands, lots and lots of cleaning, and very, very little sleep... The latter mention is the not so good part of auto-mode.

For instance, this last Saturday, I stayed up until 6:30 am, Sunday morning, and when I did finally go to sleep at SIX THIRTY AY EM, I only slept until 10 am, and I did NOT take a nap at any point thereafter, still operating in "auto-mode."

Now to be clear here, my auto-mode is NOT the result of any procrastination on my part, nor does it really ever involve the actually necessary, preparative plans for the relevant trip/event: I usually have everything in mind and ready to go, far, far in advance for the upcoming trip/event. In fact, it's often ridiculous, how "in advance" I can consider some things (to a fault), as I'm very much a in-the-future kind of thinker (to a fault), but what happens is I fill in ALL MY TIME in between my necessary trip/event plans AND THEN SOME, simply because I am just soooo freakin' excited, I can't settle down to go to sleep! ANOTHER IMPORTANT POINT re: Auto-mode: It is NOT something I try to do = I am just that wired outta my mind with excitement! Like this morning at work, my hands were shaking as I typed my follow-up emails, I had so much energy, and I felt like I could run 'round the block a couple dozen times. The very night before any anticipated trip/event? It's not at all uncommon for me to be unable to sleep at all... so I'll be up all night, and start the trip/event on ZERO sleep, and amazingly, I will be totally fine, on top of things, happy and cheery = A-OKAY, PERFECTLY FINE... until it's allll over and that's when I finally crash and sleep for a full day.

So what did I do until 6:30 am? [BE FOREWARNED: You really should skip this next part!]

Some BACKGROUND INFO: Well, my boys (not Otis & Owen, but my honey-man and the angel boy-O) were camping together an hour away, up at Mt. Charleston for the weekend (a lovely minimum 15-20 degrees cooler than the Vegas Valley), so, jazzed about my trip or not, I had to occupy myself in their absence [Reveal: That was just a feeble attempt to justify what I'm about to share].

And soooo, what all did I do? Starting Saturday morning, I went to Home Depot, I went to Target, I went to Kmart, I went to Nordstrom's Rack, and I went to Michael's Arts & Crafts, I tried to arrange a silk flower arrangement for my kitchen pot shelves, I washed all the bedsheets, I washed my honey-man's down pillow, I then went to see a girlfriend visiting from out of state from noon-ish until 7 pm, then I measured and hung a couple picture clusters on our walls, I hung my framed set of tulips from The Met, I re-organized everything under our bed, I fixed the lamp shades of our bedroom side table lamps and set 'em up (since I could finally reach the power outlet on the wall behind the head of our bed), I dusted, I shook and vacuumed rugs, I vacuumed the whole house and stairs (the stairs took forever, having to work in slow-motion w/my hernia), I swept the back patio, I trimmed kitty claws, I trimmed my nails and toes, I washed 2 different loads of bathroom towels (reds vs. the green), I washed my synthetic darks, I washed our cotton darks, I washed all the kitchen towels, rags and cloth dinner napkins, I swept, dust-mopped, and wet-mopped, I took a shower and I tried to go to bed and laid there thinking about more stuff to do (around 1 am), I got up 15 minutes later and trimmed my still-wet hair, I washed and ironed the angel boy-O's new bedroom curtains, I reaffixed the glow-in-the-dark stars that had fallen off the boy-O's bedroom ceiling, I spray-glued protective felt on the back of 16 one-square-ft. cork squares to be mounted on the wall beneath the angel boy-O's loft bed, just above his desk (and I would have nailed them up, had it not been 2 am!), I cleaned all the bathrooms (not a vigorous activity when one regularly uses shower spray and cleans with 'Scrub Free Soap Scum Remover' cleaning agent from Arm & Hammer - LOVE THE STUFF! - If you haven't already, find it, buy it and try it!), I re-caulked the annoying drippy spot at the bottom right corner of our shower door, I emptied all 5 trash cans located throughout the house and washed them all out, I found new homes for the original contents of the 6 Sterilite drawers I'd dumped the day before so my honey-man could use them for his office closet, I tried again to go to bed (around 4 am), but got right back up, and collected enough stuff for another bag of Goodwill donations, I polished 4 pairs of black shoes, including my honey-man's beloved cowboy boots, and I did pack everything for Europe except my toiletries, but only after I first tried on all my planned outfits (Yes, I am a big geek, but I had to plan to a 'T' since I'm only taking a 22" carry-on bag for a 2 week trip!)... and when I realized the kitties had quit trying to follow me around the house and the sun was up, well beyond rising, I made myself go to bed at 6:30 am... and I woke up at 8 am and made myself go back to sleep until I woke at 10 am (whew!).

In earlier years ('earlier' meaning my early to mid-twenties - - ahhh, my 20s ~ good riddance!), my going into auto-mode would ensure I'd be sick by the time I was in the midst of my eagerly anticipated trip/event. I think there was at least a 4 to 5-year span during which I was sick every Christmas, on into New Year's Day, but for the last few years, I've learned to better pace myself and to suppress my auto-mode - - NO, really! I have been far worse than this! But right now, with this trip? Starting into auto-mode 6 days before I leave?!? - - sooooo not good. At this point, however, after Saturday's marathon of errands and cleaning (and more errands done on Sunday with my out-of-towner friend), I'm not sure what more I can do between now and Thursday morning... although I do have another list made already!

As for the title of this post, whenever I find myself in auto-mode, I tend to favor Brit Pop (that's young British rock bands, NOT Britney Spears, although she is a secret indulgence of mine) as my background busy-music .

P.S. The only time I had any caffeine that Saturday into Sunday AM was when my friend and I shared a small 3 cup pot of coffee around 5 pm with the cupcakes we'd bought from the Cupcakery! That was it. Otherwise, the high is all natural!