What does prepping look like?

My flight will land in Dublin a week from now. I have less than a week to have everything packed up and ready to go. I am not sure how the time flew, but fly right on by it did. How am I preparing? By reading of course! 

I'm not only reading, I am also stressing over choosing what water bottle to buy and which pens to take for my planner. I am asking myself so many questions and probably driving my mother crazy with them too. Questions like, will my hair bundles get here in time? How much food seasoning should I bring? I bring food/salt seasoning and my favorite hot sauce from my home in Texas to my home university in Washington DC, so there's no way I'm not bringing some to Dublin. Then the most important question, will they have the lotion that works for me in Ireland? It is winter, but I would still hate to have to hide my elbows! My sweet mother tells me to bring the largest bottle of lotion we can find.  However, I am only bringing one large suitcase so we will have to opt for a larger tub of shea butter and a small bottle of lotion. I am 100% sure I will find coconut oil there. 

I have all of my clothes sorted into piles of either "definitely bringing" "maybe if I have space" and "You'll never actually wear this". From there I will fold them and put them in my luggage, any day now I promise.

Let's get back to the idea of reading.

I started off by devouring James Joyce's "Dubliners" in small bite sized portions. I still have some saved up for the airplane ride to Dublin and some saved for bus rides around town. I can already picture myself watching the Irish rain dance on my window with James Joyce's words roaming my empty thoughts.

While reading James Joyce I also decided to add in some re-readings of my favorite paranormal novels that take place in Dublin, or anywhere in Ireland. Often times these books include cool depictions of the city and nice bookstores to add to my "Must Visit" list. Writers have  wonderful way of introducing you to new places before you even step a foot there. 

My little brother knows how much I love mythology and he gave me a book series that incorporates Irish Mythology. I am currently reading that. I am hoping to finish the series while in Dublin so that I can visit the museums and match actual depictions to the ones the author creates. 

With all of this reading I am sure you can understand why my clothes are on the floor and not in luggage.