Packing

Although I have traveled a good bit in my life, I have yet to master the art of packing. I blame this partially on the fact that I grew up with 3 sisters. When there are 5 women on a trip, some one always has whatever it is that you need so I never really worried if I had everything I would use. Secondly I blame this on the fact that I am not very organized.
The up side is that I've learned to make do without things, and I am very good at finding things that are lost. However 2 months is a long time to go without my chapstick or Q-tips. And there are somethings that you just can't or shouldn't go without.
I've spent weeks thinking through what I needed and buying things (spending way too much money). But now that it's time to actually pack, I'm staring at stacks of stuff all over my room and looking at my little backpack, wondering - How is this going to work? How am I going to live out of a backpack for 2 months? Do I have enough hand sanitizer and deodorant? Though I guess the latter doesn't really matter since I'll be in Europe (ha ha, just kidding). So now I'm sitting here blogging instead of packing because I'm just not quite sure where to start, and I'm a little afraid it's not all going to fit.
And I haven't even figured out the money situation yet -- how much of each currency will I need? How much cash should I carry? And how much in traveler's checks? Do I get a better exchange rate using my credit card? Is my identity going to get stolen? Ugh, starting to think about that makes me want to go back to packing.
Does anyone remember the Nickelodeon show Hey Dude? Yes, I am dating myself, and it is slightly embarrassing to admit that I used to watch it, but oh well. There was one episode where they had a beauty pageant and the brunette haired girl whose name I can't remember packed a suitcase for her talent. At the time I remember thinking how ridiculous that was, but perhaps I should have paid a little more attention.