OH, California, California, California, Ohhhhhh...

Have you ever found preparing for a trip to become so vexing that it almost makes it not worth it to travel? I did say "ALMOST".

I have had the "California" theme song from The O.C. stuck in my head all day. I spent the 2 last days packing and preparing for our trip to Los Angeles. We leave bright and early in the morning, at like 4:00 a.m., and I am too excited to even think about going to bed. Packing turned out to be a little bit of a struggle. I am sort of in-between sizes right now and I just need to have at least one good pair of jeans to take with me on this trip.
A few years ago, when I lived in L.A., I spent a good deal of money on this very hip pair of Lucky Jeans for my mom for Christmas. She was sort of worried about wearing them because they were "low-rise" and a bit longer than other jeans she owned. They looked great on her though, and I was satisfied that I had given her a "great gift!"
Fast-forward to October 2007 when I was 18 weeks prego with Natalie and running out of clothing that fit me. My mom lovingly handed me down the pair of Lucky Jeans I had given her because she no longer wore them.
"Mom, what happened to the hem on these jeans?"
"Oh, they were too long so I cut them off."
I looked at the frayed hem and decided to take them off her hands anyway. No use letting a pair of Lucky Jeans go to waste, but I was a little perturbed she had chopped them up. I think what happened was she got confused about whether it was still in style or not to have cut off jeans with a frayed hemline. And I quote, "I wasn't sure whether it was still the style to wear them that way, so I went ahead and cut them off. I remember you girls used to do that!" (in her defense my mom does generally have GREAT style so I think her brain was telling her that she had ruined these particular pair of pants and she should just get rid of them by passing them onto me!)
These particular pair of jeans are the only pair that fit me well right now. I have been rolling them into capris to hide the fray, or just wearing them promising myself to take them and have them altered. If any of you have noticed the fray and wondered about it, you now know the secret. No, I have not been trying to bring back any outdated fashion trends.
Yesterday, as I packed for this trip, I got the bright idea that I would just hem these jeans myself since I now have my sewing machine out and working. Well, let's just suffice it to say that I apparently don't know how to hem jeans. They certainly don't look like they do when you buy them from the store. I only did one leg because it looked bad enough that I didn't want to waste my time mutilating the second leg. Maybe I will just go the rest of the way and make them into cut-off jean shorts so I can really make sure everyone thinks I am stuck in the 80's. If I wait long enough maybe it will come back into fashion.
Anyway, I guess I am now officially out of jeans! Maybe I will find a special new pair on my trip.

For those of you wondering how my preparation extravaganza finished off:
a. I lost a total of 4 pounds instead of the 8 I was trying for, but hey, why not aim high, right?
b. My acne is gone and my face is starting to glow again.
c. I have a dress to wear to the wedding that I actually feel good in.
d. I bought new make-up and I feel pretty again.
e. My hair is recently highlighted and my teeth are clean and white again.
f. My workouts have dwindled in the last week because of all the preparation I have had to do, but I feel in tremendously better shape already, and can't wait to get back to my routine after vacation!
I also have the plan to dress my kids up so cute that noone really notices me, but just focuses all their attention on them!