Chaos?

This has been our life for the past month:

We have spent most of the last few weeks filling box after box with stuff. Stuff we won't see for three months. It will be packed away in storage where we can't touch it, and that's a rather sobering thought. Joining two households forces you to make choices - what to keep, whose pictures get hung, which toaster is better (I don't kid myself - Hello Kitty is likely going to win that battle). These are all choices that we have decided to postpone until we unload all of this stuff. That is going to be one heck of a moving sale... You may want to fly to Seattle just for that!!



We also need to pack a Toyota Highlander named Sylvia full of the things we need for the next three months. That requires more compromise and more sacrifice than we'll probably have to endure once we actually arrive in the Emerald City. For Alyssa, that means no perfumed soaps, bulging make-up bags, or scented lotions (unless she wants to sleep out under the stars a minimum 200 yards from the tent). And in the wee hours of last night, I came to the depressing realization that my guitar simply won't fit. I could try - hold it aside just in case - but if it doesn't squeeze into Sylvia's cargo space, then what? Not having it on the road I can deal with. Not having it the first month we are in Seattle... Ugh.

This week was also when we had to break up the Landers Street Zoo. Only Ollie the Owl remains in Apt. 3, and I think he's a bit lonely. It's hard to have a presence in your life every time you get home and then suddenly - it's gone. Hooper is bunking at Casa de Sloan for a couple months, and Fiona will be frolicking on the beaches of Salisbury if you would like to visit. Good-byes are tough, but with all due respect to friends and family Wednesday and Thursday were brutal. But now we're on to the good part. Well, if the movers ever get here and can actually get all of this stuff out of Alyssa's apartment we are!

The most common sentiment we've heard from folks about our adventure is "I'm so envious!" In my typically sarcastic fashion, I tell them not to be so jealous, because in six months, we'll be without jobs and burning through our savings, wondering if this was such a smart move after all. Despite reassurances that we are eminently employable, that is probably the scariest part for both of us. We know our networks here, we know a lot of the companies that are good and bad to work for, and we know what a crappy commute in Boston looks like. Wait - did I really just give up a ten-minute walking commute?! I must be losing it... Oh, well.

The itinerary has already changed since last week, and will likely change again before this day is even over. But that's part of the fun, right? As Eric Stoltz quipped in Kicking & Screaming "How do you make God laugh? Make a plan."  God must be doubled over in stitches looking down on us right now.

Next stop - Burlington, Vermont!