Crisis Averted

As incredibly knowledgeable as Simon is about American culture/pop culture/history/politics, I often forget that he is not 'of' this country.  There are subtleties that can be lost on him-and I usually don't recognize this until said subtlety is indeed lost.

Take the below photo.  After 18 months, we finally got around to uploading the first photos from our road trip that started in July 2012.  Anyhoo...after uploading this picture, Simon decided to post the picture on Facebook, and simply comment about where the photo was taken (Faith, NC...yes: Faith), and the occasion (July 4).

July 4th

Hours later, when I was pottering on FB, I noticed this photo was posted on his timeline without any commentary (namely...something about the irony of us posing in front of a Rebel flag on July 4th, it being the wrong flag, oh-look how odd...something.  anything).  And, I had a minor meltdown.  Perhaps I was being a bit too sensitive, but I freaked out realizing that my friends (of many different races) would see this posting of us in front of this flag-and think the worst.  What I observed (mid-meltdown) was that Simon really didn't understand my reaction.  And...this was a learning moment for me.  So, I had to explain the origin of my freak, and ask him to either comment on the photo to provide some context, or untag me.  He gamely did this (phew. crisis averted), but I could tell that there was a bit of surprise (confusion?  something else?) from him in the conversation.

Note to self:  no more pictures in front of Rebel flags....

Aloha, Hey Y'all, and Ainngai

That's 'hello' in Hawaii, the South, and Alaska (Inuit).

I often forget how diverse this country is-which is really sad, when I consider that I drove from North Carolina to Washington State not even 18 months ago.  But...I do.

Simon and I have done a fair amount of travel in the US this year-and explicitly tried to tick off a few states he hasn't been to-Alaska and Hawaii-both of which are fairly convenient to reach from Seattle.  Throw in a trip to the South to go visit family...and we've covered a fair amount of geographic and cultural diversity in this country this year.

I've been to Alaska numerous times, and Hawaii once previously-so I knew what to expect in terms of the topography, people, food, weather...everything. But, I couldn't help but be struck by Simon's reaction as we got stuck into these places this past year (most recently, just last month)-and observe the wonder with which he looks at the US sometimes.  By hopping on a flight for a few hours to go to a different state-it can very much be like travelling to a different country.

Sometimes I think that being married to Simon must be what it's like to have a child-and constantly be forced to look at something thru the the eyes of never seeing or experiencing it before-and I am infinitely thankful for the forcing function.  The list of these firsts hasn't gone down in the past 18 months, only evolved.  I'm sure it will continue to evolve in 2014, and I really look forward to seeing something I've already seen before thru a fresh pair of eyes.

(kicks self for taking US for granted)

Back to the Homeland

After 1 year and (what will be...) 29 days, Simon will return to the mother ship for the first time since departure.

I am incredibly excited for him to be able to go home and see friends and family-and experience the sense of familiar that he will surely feel by being back in London.

I wonder if he's truly prepared however, for what has changed-both in London, and him.  I recall that there was a tipping point for me that made me feel less familiar with the US and more familiar with London-almost a comfort level.  I don't know if this will be the trip for Simon-it is just the first year after all, but it has been a year, so he's probably quite settled in the 'American-ness' of his life already.

This should be interesting.

Happy American Birthday

Happy American Birthday, to my incredible husband. 

One year ago today, you landed in the US, and started a new chapter in your life. I hope you've had as much fun the past year as I have.  It's been a continuous series of firsts, and there are plenty more to be had!

A Season of Firsts

It's safe to say, I now know what it must be like to be the parent of a small child...Since our time back in the US, and presuming it isn't permanent, I am keen to chase as many First Time Experiences as possible-for both Simon & I, though mainly for Simon.

To wit:  This year alone, in no particular order, Simon has:

• Filed his first US tax return
• Attended opening night for the Seattle Mariners (a first for me as well)
• Joined a softball league, and played two games.  Which led to...
• Visiting the emergency room-just this week..Simon fractured a bone in his arm after falling at said Softball game on Sunday.  OK. That one we didn't 'chase.'
• Played a game of kickball.  Only one game, unfortunately-due to the aforementioned arm, he will be playing no more.
• Purchased a house
• Observed just *how many* prescription drug commercials are on TV (it's not legal to do so in the UK)
• Started to  just a *little bit*) enjoy drinking an IPA

...and that's just the big stuff.  We do however, still have a few boxes to tick.  Like:

• Learning how to drive
• ..and with that knowledge, getting a drivers license.  Just in case.
• Visiting Alaska and Hawaii (we'll tick these boxes before the end of the year.  woo!)

What else?   What other first time experiences (parents?  Expats?...) should we be chasing for Simon?

Settled in Seattle

It only took 2.5 months, but I think it's safe to say, we now feel settled in Seattle.  Whew.

I'm really surprised at how long it took-considering we had a place to live, and I'd been thru the process of setting life up here once before-so for example, I knew which mobile provider, cable provider, energy provider...etc..to use.  Plus, we've had the added flexibility of having someone at home during the work week to manage some of the small appointments (Simon starts his new job next week).
It's especially surprising when I reflect back to how long it took to feel settled in London (3 months), and how frustrating and tiring it was dealing with the endless to-do list. It was the exact same feeling here.  This past weekend was literally the first weekend since we arrived in Seattle (August 31st) that I actually felt like I could sit down and relax-and not continue to think about the things that needed to be done...largely, because the list is now done!

Admittedly, it wasn't until 2 weeks ago before our goods from London arrived (we had them packed for shipment in mid-May...don't get me started...), and it wasn't until 10 days ago that the couch & chair that we bought in North Carolina in July arrived (we'd literally been using an air mattress as a 'couch'), and I know that was a large contributor to the feeling.  But even 'stuff' aside, the settling in process has been considerable.

Moving back has been one constant surprise after another.  I guess I should simply add this one to the list too!

Cross Country Trip Pictures

Better late than never, right? Two months and countless nagging requests to Simon after we finished our trip, and all of the photos have now been uploaded and tagged.  Phew.

I was just having a flip thru, because I thought it would be a good idea to post one trip from each state we visited-then I realized that would be difficult for the last half of the trip where we were in 3,4,5...cities per state.  Then I thought I'd post one picture per stop.  And realize that sometimes we didn't take many pictures-and some times we took a hundred (hello, Grand Canyon!).  So...I give up. I'm just going to post the good ones-and try to keep it to under 50 pictures.  Kidding...No, I probably should try to keep it under 50. :)

Feels like this trip was years ago-not months ago.  Especially as I look at the warm climates, sun, tans, and short sleeves that seem to be the constant in each picture.  Sigh.  Oh well. Summer in Seattle is only a mere 9 months away (it rarely gets 'summery' here before July 4...).

Anyhoo, hope y'all  enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I just did.  Blogger isn't being very friendly to the picture upload, so the first pictures are actually the middle of the trip.  When you get to the Gold Cost, OR picture, the photos flip to the first part of the trip starting in Charleston, SC...Sorry for the confusion.  Grr.

Going local in Austin, TX

MEAT-Salt Lick (Austin, TX)

Roswell, NM..in case it isn't obvious

Central square-Santa Fe, NM

Mud bath at Ojo Caliente, NM

Tinkertown -Sandia Park, NM

Albequerque Isotopes

Painted Dessert-Petrified Forrest National Park

The very Grand Canyon

Gazing out over the Grand Canyon 

On the road to Sedona, AZ

Sunset in Sedona, AZ 

Proof that the Monster Chicken lives...

Santa Cruz, CA

How Wine Tasting should be-CA

Chandler Tree-Leggett, CA

Redwood National Forest-Humboldt, CA

Gold Coast, OR

Charleston, SC

Savannah, GA-Birthplace of  Girl Scouts

With old friends (and new) in Hilton Head, SC

Atlanta, GA

Rockin' on the front porch at Jack's house: Lynchburg, TN

Walking in Memphis..Beale Street

I'm going to Graceland!

Stax Recording Studio-Memphis, TN

Lobby of Shack Up Inn-Clarksdale, MS

Back 'yard' at Shack Up Inn

Bonnie C, Simon, Mr. Crawford-Oxford, MS

Cemetary behind Faulkner's 'marriage church'

Walking the tracks in Clarksdale, MS

Nawleans

St Louis Cemetery 1-NOLA

St Louis Cemetery 1-NOLA

Things I Miss About London-Part 2

I can't believe I'm about to say this...

I miss having milk for my tea provided to me in the office.

Yep.  There it is.  I said it.

This Southern American misses having milk for her tea.

Heels!

I mentioned on my blog at some point several years ago that anything greater than a 1-inch heel in London was just a baaad idea. 

Well, times have a-changed being back in the US & driving everywhere (the one upside to driving everywhere...).

In fact, the very wedge shoes I referenced in my blog are currently sitting on my feet at work.

Heels on my feet for the first time in 4.5 years.   It's the small things in life... 

Last Leg of the Trip

Where did the time go?!?!?  I've been back in Seattle for 2 weeks, and it seems like references to our trip-especially the earliest parts-are for a trip that happened years ago, not weeks ago.  Sigh.  I think real life has settled in again.

Before too much more time passes by, I want to get details down for the last leg of the trip.  In some ways, it was my favorite part of the trip, and fortunately, given the proximity of this area to Seattle, comprises the easiest places on the trip to pop back to for a weekend away from Seattle.

Stats since the last update
20 days.  2500 miles.  3 States.  Cities visited: Sedona, AZ; Scottsdale, AZ; Palm Springs, CA; Venice, CA; Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Cruz, CA; San Francisco, CA; Sonoma, CA; Eureka, CA; Gold Beach, OR; Newport, OR; Astoria, OR; Portland, OR.

Highlights...Sedona was a godsend-both the beauty of the scenery, and we stayed in an "AirBNB" type condo that had a kitchen-so, we got to cook!.  All of the Wineries we stopped at along the way were lovely-some better than others...Fess Parker was incredible, and our last winery (sadly, the name currently escapes me), was simple perfection in the setting and experience.  Astoria -and well, any of the Oregon Coast cities-are all hidden gems that I can't wait to return to during weekend trips from Seattle.

Lowlights...really just one...Santa Cruz. The one place on the trip that, hindsight 20/20, I wish we hadn't stayed in.  After booking the hotel, we were unfortunately 'locked in' for 2 days. The town is 'meh', and our hotel was..to be brutally honest (if not a bit kind...) was a shit hole.  Yes, a shit hole.  I've never used that phrase to refer to a hotel before.  Until now.  Santa Cruz is very expensive, but you'd think that for ~$150 a night, you'd get something in which you didn't feel the need to wear socks while walking on the carpet in your room.  Ew.  Oh well..now we know!

So, that's it.  That's the trip-a trip of a lifetime.  All told, we travelled 7700 miles across 13 States and 29 cities.  We started the trip Sunday, July 15 in Charleston, SC, and arrived in Seattle on Friday, August 31.  48 days.  Whew.

It's good to get settled in to Seattle (well, as settled as we can be without our stuff from London yet..), but I could have easily done another 2-3 weeks of the trip.  I start a new job on Monday, but hopefully in another 3-4 years, we'll have the opportunity to take some time off and do the northern route from Seattle to NYC!

I'm sorting thru pictures now.  Once we've been thru-and noted everything-I'll do a pictures post.  Should happen next weekend-it's Simon's task this week to tag the pictures. :)

The First Three Weeks

I’m not really even sure where to begin on this post.  There’s the ‘returning to the US’ part of the post, and the ‘road trip’ part of the post-and both parts almost have nothing to do with each other, but at the same time my observations from each part are most definitely intertwined.  Well, when in doubt, be organized. J

Returning to the US

That’s really what the first 2 weeks of ‘The First Three Weeks’ are about; returning home.  Home.  Wherever that really is.  Some part of the US?  London?  I’m not really sure at this moment, but that’s OK.

Our first week was spent quite literally buying a car.  I sold my car when I moved to London 4 years ago, and as you kind of need a car to do a cross country road trip, that was first on our agenda when we arrived.  The original plan was to buy a Manual transmission, but, one spin around the local mall parking lot with Simon behind the wheel (for the first time in close to 17 years…), and it became pretty apparent that we’d be getting an Automatic transmission!  I’ve never felt such stress in a car in my life, as I sat in the passenger seat as Simon jerkily made a few circles around the lot-and it really stressed him out as well.  There’s so much for him to have to get used to now-different side of the road (if just mentally, as he never really drove in the UK), the logic of the road signage-never mind the actual driving of the car.  Whew.  We’ll get there eventually.  And though, the original plan was that Simon would be doing some of the driving on the trip (er, the long, straight stretches of the road…), the reality is that it’s really not a good idea until he gets more comfortable.  So I’ll do all of the driving, and Simon will navigate.  Then, once we get to Seattle, we’ll get Simon some professional driving lessons.

In the due course of the first week of being back in the US, I took Simon to Faith, North Carolina for his first July 4^th celebration.  

This little town of ~300 people will swell to 30k during the week of July 4^th, and one of my dearest friends has grandparents who live there, so I’ve been to the July 4^th celebrations before-and knew it was the only proper experience Simon could have for his 1^st July 4^th.   Faith did not disappoint, and Simon really seemed to love the small-town experience (complete with BBQ sandwich from the fairgrounds).  Good times.

The Rough Life in Myrtle Beach, SC

Week two of the trip was spent with my Dad and his GF in Myrtle Beach, SC.  Myrtle was the summer location of my childhood vacations, and I thought it would be a hoot to go there with Simon & my Dad.  It was good fun, and it was nice to be in an ocean that was as warm as bathwater-even at 10am!  Simon never understood why I had problems getting in chilly water (ocean or pool), until that trip, but now he gets it.

Other than that, most of our first two weeks was taken up with ‘life admin’ from the move-trying to pay final bills, Simon chasing some probate things for his father’s estate, and planning details for the trip.  My father doesn’t have intertwebs, so it seems like we spent a good 10-15 hours over those two weeks in the local Starbucks on their WiFi!

All of the above aside, I would say there has been a bit of the reverse culture shock that so many people said I’d experience when I returned.  Not much, but I think that’s because what we’re doing now isn’t ‘normal life,’ so I anticipate that once we settle in in Seattle, there will be more observations.  Simon has made quite a few (which I hope he will guest blog about in short order), but for me the biggest thing I’ve noticed-and it’s somewhat tied to the ‘haven’t had a car in 4 years’ bit from above:  Must we be on our mobile phones when driving?!?!?  More times than I can count, the near misses on the roads have been from people on their mobiles.  What gives?  Must common sense be legislated?  Sigh.

Road Trip

6 days.  2600 miles.  5 States.  Cities visited thusfar: Charleston, SC; Savannah, GA; Hilton Head, SC; Atlanta, GA; Bridgeport, AL (just so Simon could tick another State off the list…), and we just arrived in Nasheville, TN.

Our lovely room in the 17hundred 90 Inn

Highlights:  Savannah, GA.  I’m supremely embarrassed that I’ve never been to Savannah before, given how close it is to where I spent most of my life, but the two days in Savannah were perfection.  Loved it.  Simon too.  As in, ‘I’d like to retire here’ kind of loved it.  Great everything.   We stayed in this incredible place called the 17hundred90 Inn, and were so happy to be there, I think we walked around with stupid looks on our faces for 2 straight days!

Rockin' on Jack's front porch

Also, cliche though it may seem...we took the Jack Daniels Distillery tour in Lynchburg, TN, and it was incredible!  Great story, great organization, and the information was enough to be educational and entertaining without belabouring the point.  A Plus.

Lowlights:  Navigation.  I’m not patient enough with Simon/the GPS, and need to get better about this, or we’re going to fight every day-and I don’t want to be that way.  As mentioned earlier, Simon doesn’t yet understand the logic of the road signage, so for him to tell me what he sees on GPS (as we’re not able to dashboard mount the thingy…), is frequently misleading/incorrect, and causes immense frustration for me.  Must. Get. More. Patient.

Final Thoughts....Frustrations with my fellow Americans aside, I'm stunned at how quickly I've slipped back into the US.  When we flew out of London, I quite genuinely thought I'd be bawling my eyes out on the air plane at the prospect of leaving London.  Nope.  Instead, it was more like:  "Come on, come on, come on...can't this plane go any faster!"  I'm really not sure where that came from to be honest.  

The Riverwalk in Savannah, GA

Olympic Park in Atlanta, GA

And Similarly for Simon, the stress of the last 2 months in London with his father's death/estate were really taking it's toll.  We were fortunate enough to find a solicitor to take over probate just weeks before we departed, and now that they're in full action mode, there isn't much that Simon has to worry about (er...other than selling the house).  Nevertheless, the move here-and the trip in particular- was the perfect opportunity to 'draw a line' (Simon's words) from that stress.  I think we both still need another week or so to really come down, and then I think we'll be really ready to embrace this new adventure to the fullest.

The Great American Road Trip

One week from today, we fly out of London back to the US.  Though I am leaving behind a city and country I have come to greatly appreciate, and a job that I love, love, love...I can now say I AM SO FREAKIN' EXCITED to leave and start our road trip!!!

It's been a desire of mine for close to a decade to drive across the country, and about this time last year, I mentioned this to Simon when we started talking about 'how' we would make the move.  We initially decided to be practical and find jobs first, but responses from that effort 6 months ago quite literally made it clear that we would have to be Stateside to properly job-seek.  So, we then thought we'd move, land in NC, visit my dad, and take a week or two to quickly get cross country.  Then you get reminded about how about how short life can be (Simon's dad wasn't even 60 when he passed away 7 weeks ago), and we decided-well, really Simon decided (I was always OK with it...) to take a proper amount of time off (2-3 months), and really make this a trip of a lifetime.

So, about this time next week, we land in Charlotte, NC. We'll spend a week with my dad-car shopping-and then go to the beach with him for 4 days.  We'll return, do some laundry, catch up with a few friends, and then on Sunday, July 15 begin what is currently shaping up to be a 6 week drive across the US!  We estimate that we'll arrive in Seattle around August 30, and I.can't.wait.

We'll potter in the South along the coast for over a week, but then once we hit Atlanta, it's on! :)  Nashville, Memphis, Oxford, NOLA, Houston..that's 2 weeks. Two more weeks gets us thru Texas (Houston, Austin, San Antonio), New Mexico (Santa Fe, Albequerque), and Arizona (Grand Canyon, Sedona, Phoenix).  Then we should hit California at San Diego, and begin 2 weeks pottering along the CA Coast.  We'll then spend the last week in Oregon-before finishing off 2 nights at McMenamins Edgefield in Troutdale (where we got married), then make a last drive to Seattle.

If anyone has any suggested things to see/do/eat/places to stay for under $100 (that hopefully have some "character"), give me a shout-I'd love to know! I'm familiar with everything up to NOLA, and then I've either not been-or it's been soooooo long, that I need a refresher.

Simon is concerned about the heat & humidity of the trip-and up to central CA, it is going to be a challenge for him-er...and a challenge for me. :)  He doesn't deal with heat very well.  So, erm...if anyone has traveled with kids in the heat, I'd love some suggestions as well!  hee hee...

Wish us luck!

...and Breathe

Wow.  What an intense 4 days it's been. I never thought I could be as stressed as I was when I moved FROM the US, and it turns out...I was wrong!

Saturday was chock full with errands, packing, and last minute details to get the flat ready for the check out guy to review (painting, replacing burnt out light bulbs, etc) on Tuesday.  We also had our leaving-do pub crawl in Borough Market, and I accidentally doubled booked myself at a college alumni event for the first pub of the crawl, so I spent most of the alumni event being stressed about missing my own leaving-do.
Sunday, we packed up the rest of our bits in the flat (movers had already taken most things the week before) that we'll use for the next 3 months while travelling. That was an effort in itself: I over estimated the amount of 'stuff' I was keeping-versus packing space, and there was a sizable moment of panic (in truth, an actual panic attack) when I tried to figure out how to deal with it all-what had to be packed immediately, what I would need for the next 2 days, and what I would need on Wednesday morning in the hotel we were moving into
From the packing, we brought all 6 bags to my office to store until we moved until a hotel on Tuesday night (our lease expired 10 days before our flights).  And then we raced home to get ready to go to a friends flat who was hosting us and our pub quiz team for Sunday lunch.  It was a lovely time-it's always great fun with that group, and the food was simply amazing, but around 6pm, my mind started thinking about all the remaining to-do items that had to be done, so we raced back home to continue pottering in the flat.
Monday, the cleaners came to give the flat the contractually required deep clean, and though they did a good job, they kind of broke the oven-and with the impending check out the next day, that caused unnecessary stress.
Tuesday...good ol' Tuesday.  I was up at 4.30am to catch a flight for work, so that left Simon holding the bag to deal with the check out guy-and juggle the cleaners returning 30 minutes before check out to try to fix the oven (which they couldn't...)-and managing to get the last 2 bags of our things out the door, back to work, and then eventually to the hotel
I finally got to the hotel around 11.30pm last night with barely one eye open, I was so tired.  So, after settling in, I finally took a deep breath and relaxed.

That was just me.  While all of this was going on, Simon has been dealing with his last week of work, a last trip to his Dad's house to deal with estate things, and juggling all of the bits from the move that I wasn't around to do (such as the check out inventory).  It all really seemed to pile up on Simon on Monday, and he had a little mini-breakdown after dinner.  He's made the mistake of not just doing the things that *absolutely have to be done* and is instead also trying to do things he *wants done*...and his list is too long.  Simon is trying to wrap up all of the loose ends, and there comes a point when doing what we're doing, where you have to realize that there are loose ends that won't get wrapped up.  Possibly ever.  At least in hindsight from my US to UK move, I did learn that very painful lesson, and am using it this time.

I think it really hit him hard, so Monday night was spent trying to calm him down and tell him that all of the must-do things WILL get done.  I don't like seeing him so stressed, and though I knew this move would be hard on both of us, since I'm worrying about him as well, I do think this move may actually be a bit harder than the US to UK move.  The logistics are no different (generally speaking...), but I have someone other than myself to think about -and that someone has never done this kind of thing before.

The GOOD news however, is that when I got to the hotel last night, it did seem as if Simon were feeling better about everything, as he seemed more relaxed and back to his usual chatty self (he wasn't chatty the days before).  And, this morning when I got up-and throughout today-I've realized that I am now beginning to look forward to the move, instead of dreading all of the things I have to get done before.

I think the hardest part of this life-change is over (God, I hope so!), and for the first time in a long time, I (we) seem to be breathing a bit easier.  Whew.

Oh, and the picture below?  That's 'home sweet home' until July 2.  Good times...

Let the Anger Begin

I had almost (*almost*) forgotten how incredibly frustrating my move here was 4 years ago.  I had almost (but not quite...) forgotten how incredibly angry I felt for the first 3 months I was living in London while trying to establish my life here, and had to deal with the endless bureaucracy.  Almost.

And, then I was reminded today when I had to go to the Post Office and submit our change of address form.    Oh, US Postal Service.  How I sooooo took you for granted when living in the US-and for that, I will forever be sorry.  I sincerely apologize.  I want to thank you for delivering my mail to me (unlike my current post man who is completely incapable), and I want to thank you for not charging me an extortionate amount of money (or, anything for that matter!) when I submit a change of address form when I move.  Mind you, this could possibly explain why you're currently bankrupt, but I don't want to split hairs...

The UK Post Office, in their piss-poor way, thinks it's OK to charge me £250 for 6 months of mail forwarding.  £125 for Simon. £125 for me.  Because we have different.last.names.  Same house.  Same address.  Both moving.  Different last names. And for that we're being penalized.

Given the track record of mail delivery the past 4 years (my magazine subscriptions 'mysteriously' stopped getting delivered....and last week, I took delivery of *all* of my neighbors mail-one of dozens of mis-deliveries...), I get the sincere feeling that submitting the form doesn't really matter-and we're very likely to only receive 10-15% of all of the mail that we'll be due.

Grumble. Grumble.

Life As We Know It

This is it.  The last week of life as we know it.  The movers come on Thursday to begin packing up, and will remove everything on Friday.  At that point, the flat will be barely a quarter full-compared to now.  That will be weird.
We head out Friday for our last long-weekend in Barcelona-well, at least 'last' for a good while.  We get back to London on Monday super late, and have our final leaving-do the following Saturday, June 16.
Tuesday, June 19, we 'check out' of our flat-and check in to a Travelodge in Covent Garden until July 2.

From there, we fly the friendly skies to the US-and by our estimation, will spend about 58 days on the road.  .

By my count, after Wednesday nite, it will be almost 100 days before we sleep in our bed again.  Excited-and not looking forward to bad beds all at the same time. :)

The Return List

One of the first posts I ever made in this blog was called The List, and it was quite literally the list of some of the big-ticket items (sell car, rent condo..) that I had to take care of prior to my move to the UK.  Well, it goes without saying that as we prepare to return to the US, Version 2 of "The List" is in full swing.
I've come a long way from scratching out things on a piece of paper to keeping a full blown spreadsheet with color coded columns:

The Return List

This is but a small fraction of everything that needs to be done, and I haven't quite gone in to full-blown detail ('final utility bills' instead of separate line items for electricity, gas, and water...), but I am nonetheless surprised at how shockingly different The Lists are from one country move to the other.  Yes, there are some similarities, but not as many as I would have expected for the same general experience.

My only hope is we're able to stay on top of everything.  I'm trying hard not to get too stressed over all of it (my mantra: 'it will get done'), and in particular, trying not to let Simon get too stressed, as he's also got his Dad's estate to deal with-he's the executor.  It will happen-goodness knows how bad it was when I came here-but I'm hoping that it won't be as bad, or last for as long.

The glass is always half full, right?