Monday, April 9, 2012

Christmas in May

Ohhhhhhhhhh man the pure excitement has set in!  I wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I'm waiting for Santa and knowing that he is bringing me everything I have asked for my entire life.  Best. Christmas. Ever.  Except that this year its coming in May, when we board the plane to the beautiful, green, lush countryside of the UK and depart from this dirty, dry, unhealthy, ugly, barren, boring, wretched city that is Phoenix. 
We have been cleaning like mad, sorting, purging, preparing for the movers to come.  Typically I dread the packing and moving process, as I have done it so many times.  It usually consists of me packing all of my own crap, bribing a friend to help me load the U-haul, and then further bribing to get them to be my passenger for the however-many-hour trek fueled by gas station snack food and Red Bull. And then unloading at said destination in sweaty, exhausted delirium in order to get the U-haul back in time without incurring further charges.  Not THIS time, U-haul!! You have been good to me, but I am looking forward to buttering up a moving crew with fresh donuts and coffee and sitting back.  Not that this method doesn't come with its minor stressors as well... (please don't break, lose, or pilfer my belongings! Gahhh!!), but it has also been a good lesson in the process of material detachment.  Everything can be replaced (except for my Gram's antique desk - fingers crossed people!!) and the couple of things that can't will be stowed nicely in a serious bubble-wrap cocoon in my checked baggage.  If I mentally prepare for everything to be destroyed upon arrival, I'm sure I will be very pleasantly surprised at everything that is still intact.  Besides, we're going to be living in ENGLAND. 
Its been a crazy process preparing for this move, my nerdy checklist-keeping self has been operating at top speed.  The dogs can tell something is up and have been extra cuddly lately, just to make sure we aren't going to leave them or something.  I must admit the thought crossed our minds for about 1.5 seconds when we found out how much it was going to cost to ship them (almost $3,000!!), but we couldn't live without them, so we will bend over and take the fees.  Still MUCH cheaper than birthing and raising children.  Aside from the worthless lady in the Passport office that screwed up my (and many others') paperwork and then decided to retire without owning up to her mistakes (finally got the new passport last week, visa still in process), everything else has been pretty seamless. 
Our two days in the airport with two giant dog crates full of dog and four giant suitcases is going to be pretty brutal, but my friend Ambien has already stepped up to help with my recovery.  Such a sweet friend, that Ambien. 
Our going away party was lovely, we'll be having a couple more little gatherings before we fly... I will definitely miss some of the folk I have gotten to know in my time here, especially my little Vanessa and her epic kitchen skills.  But hooray for Facebook, Skype and airplanes. 
This last year or so has definitely been a personally challenging period for me in many ways, but it has been balanced by some pretty wonderful things as well.  I'm still working through understanding exactly what the lessons were of this often depressing period, as I know it has to be much more than simply causing me to have a deeper appreciation for my aesthetic environment.  I learned that lesson a long time ago. I definitely think developing more patience and relinquishing control were a large aspect also, but I know that the real lessons never surface until much later down the road.  As of now, I am very ready for this transition into what I'm foreseeing to be the most incredible 4 years of my life thus far.  Living in England for such an extended period of time and being a 30 Euro flight away from pretty much anywhere in Europe - with the love of my life.  Seriously, a childhood fantasy come true.  So ready.

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