Writings By Location| And They're Off... | 1 | 2 | 3 |
SEATTLE, USA — It's been a long and stressful few weeks, but we're finally off and running.
The house is packed, the electronics tested, the bags stuffed to the seams. Over 3800 MP3 files have been ripped and copied to my laptop, the job is officially on hold, and the insurance is paid up. The movers have come and filled every cubic inch of our 10x15 storage bin, while the rest of our furniture, kitchen goods, and stereo equipment has been doled out among our friends. We've said goodbye to our friends in Seattle, given an especially tearful farewell to our cats, cleaned the house, sold the car, and gassed up the other one.
In other words, we're outta here.
All of this took place over the last few weeks, culminating, for the most part, in a period of what felt like no more than an hour. On Friday, September 28th, all the packing, moving, storing, financial concerns, and fighting over Erin trying to throw away all of my stuff finally came to an end, and the stress began to subside at last. In the mid-afternoon, we joined the other five million people leaving the city for the weekend (you'd think after months of planning, we could have timed our departure better), and started driving south in Erin's car toward Eugene, Oregon.
The gut-wrenching feelings of anxiety we were experiencing leading up to the last few days were extraordinary. I had pointed out to Erin, over our last breakfast, that the only other time I felt this way was when I left high school to go to college. It was a whole new way of life, leaving friends and family behind (bear in mind, this was before the days of email), and heading out to experience something completely different and unexpected. Here we were, about to undergo the same transition, except that we can do a better job of keeping in touch via the Internet — although the cats still have problems figuring out how to use the mouse.
