Organizational disaster

I learned the hard way that I need to step up my organizational game. 

We travel a lot.  And we're unfortunately not happy with little towns, or family visits.  We love travel to world cities.  And travel of this sort generally involves long distances, crossing massive bodies of water, and skipping across time zones. 

Of course, all of this requires air travel.  In addition to the well-publicized problems of traveling with kids, I've learned of another challenge:  travelling while keeping all of your valuable belongings together.  This is hard enough when you have only yourself to take care of - it's all to easy to leave a camera or cell phone behind when you're distracted.

Having a baby takes it all to a new level.  And sadly my loss today was not monetary (which are the easiest loss to recover from) - it was emotional.  In the flurry of leaving the airplane toting the baby and all our belongings, I lost my journal. I had started it two years ago, had written in it at least three times a week, and hadn't backed it up in any way shape or form. I've filed a lost report for it, but I'm partially convinced these online forms are there for the mental health of loss victims, and don't actually see the light of day.

I have to tell myself to be more organised next time, and to start trying to replace and remember the information it contained.   I keep telling myself that "at least I didn't lose the baby."  But let's face it: losing something of immense personal importance is a bad experience, no matter how you view it.

I simply have to adopt a new strategy: never carry anything you will care if you lose.  Period.  Back it all up, duplicate it, sell it, lock it up.  But never carry it on a plane, and never put it in the seat pocket in front of you.  When the baby starts screaming as you land, you'll forget everything else.