Thursday Thirteen – Quietly Freaking Out

I am sitting here, quietly freaking out.  Ideally this time next week I will be sleeping soundly after being packed and ready to fly to Sydney for the Aussie Bloggers Conference.  Of course that is in an ideal world and not likely to happen, realistically I will be too nervous to sleep.  Here are some of the many things that need to happen before then, and also the cause for the freaking out.

1. Packing, it should be a simple task, I am only going away for a weekend and traditionally I pack lightly.  Let’s see, what do I need?  I need something to wear to dinner and drinks with some soon to be IRL friends.  I also need something to wear to the conference itself (What does one wear to a conference?  I have never been to a conference before!  Must check out Styling You again)  Then there is the dinner and dance after the conference and then something to wear home the following day.  It doesn’t sound to arduous but after doing a quick recap of my wardrobe, I am limited to 4 pair of shorts but it is probably too cold to wear any of them, a skirt that almost fits a pair of jeans that I can pretend fit if I remember to pack a belt and a few tops that don’t actually fit but are do-able.  I do have a few frocks that are suitable for the dinner and dance, I probably have too many making it difficult to choose.  Do I go for the traditional LBD or something loud and fun?
2. With the lack of clothes that I own that actually fit, I need to go shopping… for clothes.  I HATE shopping for clothes, especially when I need to buy something, or in this case, several somethings.
3. I am really looking forward to the social aspects of the conference but there is one problem, I don’t drink alcohol.  It isn’t that I am against alcohol, in fact this time last year I would have been the first to open a bottle of bubbles or 7 but now the thought of drinking makes me feel unwell.  Now this really isn’t a problem but it is still relatively new to me.  Normally I would have a drink or two (or nine) before going out, something to relax me.   I am happy for other people to drink, in fact I find it amusing but it does make me more of a wall flower than ever.OK I admit it, I am slightly paranoid about the not drinking thing, people looking at me as if there is something wrong with me.
4. I do get a chance to test drive a big night out with drinking – I am off to a Women’s Dinner next week.  Normally it is a fantastic night out and I dance all night long but I don’t dance without drinking so it should make the night a little less dynamic!  The theme is Circus, so it should be interesting anyway.
5. We have a long weekend in Victoria this weekend, normally this would be awesome but I don’t have the luxury of not working on public holidays so when everyone is relaxing in the pj’s Monday morning, I will be in at work from 8am.  I hope my folks are happy with an extra day of looking after the monsters.
6. I may not have a holiday on Monday but I do have tomorrow off work.  Technically I have taken the day off to study but realistically it will be a day of catching up on the domestic stuff that hasn’t been done after working 12 hour days and split shifts this week.  Besides my folks are coming to stay this weekend and they can’t arrive to a total pigsty!
7. Speaking of my folks, they are coming to town so we can all go to see Mary Poppins!  Yippee, fun for everyone!  We are going to a matinee show but no doubt we will still have a late night.
8. It is birthday party season.  One of my best friends is celebrating her birthday this weekend, girl-child has a part tomorrow night (note to self – find a present for a 7 year old ASAP!), we have all been invited to a neighbours son’s party on Sunday and since it is in a play centre the monsters really want to go (again no present).  Oh and I still haven’t celebrated my housemates birthday, it was only 2 or was it 3 weeks ago, we can’t rush these things!
9. Work is really nuts at the moment.  I do 3 very different roles, all reporting to different people that don’t always see eye to eye.  One boss in particular seems to be going out of their way to make my life difficult, a second loads me up with work but only bits and pieces and doesn’t fill me in on the entire picture so I can’t actually complete the tasks efficiently.  Of course the third boss, the awesome one is away at the moment so the ‘temporary boss’ who is also pretty cool needs to be trained so everything has to be double handled.
10. Work networks and systems don’t allow me to sync my phone so I have to remember to be extra organised and manually enter entries in 3 different calendars.  Naturally I am not that organised and I keep missing appointments.
11. I didn’t register the date when I made a medical appointment and so now I will be having very minor surgery next Thursday.  Chances are I will be a little under the weather as a result of the surgery but it shouldn’t be too bad, it wasn’t last time and I am avoiding hospital this time.  It will mean that I will have stitches in my neck and a chunky bandaid that I will need to hide somehow and perhaps restricted head movement.  I am sure that there will be no need to turn my head exploring in another city and being surrounded by all kinds of amazing people.
12. That reminds me, I could use my hair to hid the surgery but at the moment my hair is all kinds of scary.  Kind of a scary black that desperately needs re-rooting so there is a rather large stripe of grey/white regrowth – super Klassee!  I also cut chunks out recently in the attempt to make a fringe.  Now of course I haven’t had a fringe in years and only cut it to attempt to hide the wrinkles that are setting up camp on my forehead and between my eyebrows making me look permanently scowly.  And speaking of eyebrows, I do have two but Oh My God, they are huge fuzzy caterpillars that will need taming too.
13. Did I mention that I am going to the Aussie Bloggers Conference and that I will be meeting people IN REAL LIFE?  That means I have to make friends in person, without a screen to hide behind and I really don’t want to scare anyone!  Bring on the sweaty palms and hyperventilation.

So there you have it, some of the reasons that I am mildly freaking out.  Sure there is heaps on at the moment and overall it will be all kinds of awesome but in the meantime I will panic until I can look back on it all and wonder what all the nervous panic was all about!

If I remember tomorrow I will link this with the Thursday Thirteen meme when it is updated and do a blog hop to see all the random of other participants.  Until then, it is time to sleep and not freak out.