My New Passport Holder

This past Sunday, I purchased a lovely, red leather Lodis passport holder. It looks like this:















Why? Might you ask..Well, one simple answer really: George W. Bush.

Call me paranoid, but when I travel outside of the US these days, and have that *very noticeable* US Passport in my hands as ID, I can't help but feel like a moving target. A moving target for folks who believe that all US Citizens support Bush-though the reality is more like this-if we're a US Citizen travelling outside of the US, we're less likely to support Bush.

So, until what's his name is out of office next year, I will happily tote my US passport around in my snazzy new Lodis Passport Holder.

The List

The List is this piece of paper that I've been keeping at work and use to jot down everything that's been coming to mind that I'll need to do/take care of before I move. Unfortunately, the list keeps growing and not shrinking thanks to the likes of things like this:

Rent Condo (done. whew. Thanks, Jorge!)
Sell Car (not done. but, I've done research to know I'll be selling it to the dealer)
Cancel Gym Membership and Parking
Cancel car insurance (see above: sell car...)
Find Storage (I've thought about it a lot. does that count?!?...)
Go to Dr for full physical exam (let's face it: the UK isn't exactly known for their stellar health care)

And a host of about a dozen or so other items. These are the big ticket items, mind you. I haven't quite worked up the courage to start worrying about the small things like changing my mailing addres on the 16,000 things that I'll have to do that for, or even thinking in great detail about what I *really* want to bring with me to London versus leave in the condo versus put in storage.
I don't have a permanent place yet to live in London. Corp housing for up to 60 days, yes. But nothing beyond that. And it strikes me as really bass-ackwards that I have to already plan on packing up and moving my life to London without knowing one iota about what I'll actually need: will my flat be furnished or not, if it's furnished, will it have *everything*?, if it's not furnished, would my couch even fit?...things like that. No small stuff, if you ask me. And I absolutely hate the thought of deciding to leave my kitchen utensils behind in the US, only to discover that I need them in London-and will now have to go buy new.

It just makes no sense to me. gr.

Welcome to my Blog

I'm not a blogger. I started one earlier this year-a topic I was really passionate about-and after a half dozen posts, it became a chore not a pleasure to write a post. Really lame, I know. I'm hoping this one will be different. It will be for a few good reasons-one, because I won't force myself to post weekly, but will instead post when something of note has happened to me that I want to remember, and that I think others will find interesting.

Oh, and BTW, this "something of note" will likely have to do with the trials and tribulations of being an American Expat in London. After many years of wanting to work and live outside of the US, the perfect opportunity finally landed in my lap a few short months ago-thanks to Amazon.com, the company I work for. Lucky, I know-but still the thought of leaving behind a great city (Seattle) and great friends (in Seattle and elsewhere) is a bit daunting. I'm especially keeping this blog for all the great friends that I'll be leaving behind in the US. This will be my way to at least try to keep them in the day to day of my life, evein if I'm not in the day to day of theirs.

I'll be officially moving over at the end of February, so my posts until then will likely be about the crap I'm going thru to get ready for the move. And then once I make the move, my posts will be about my experience working, living, playing, dating (I don't know whether to look forward to this or fear this...) in London-and especially about ALL OF THE TRAVEL that I'll be doing as well.

I'm so stoked, I could pee. But, I'll hold off on doing that until I finish this post. :)

So, cheers, pip pip, and all that other rot that the Brits use. I'll pick it up quickly enough, I'm sure-this is just practice!