It's All Happening!

Whoa.

So, due to some unexpected circumstances, my sis and I are getting out of our lease a month early. Awesome because it saves us some cash, not awesome because I have to be out of my place in about a week and a half from now. Pooooooooop. Packing has gone into SUPER WARP SPEED MODE. Luckily, the awesome woman I'm moving in with in the interim is totes cool with me moving in early AND I found someone to foster my cat Forte until I move. My new housemate and her daughter have pretty bad allergies and I didn't want to burden them with me, my dog, AND my cat, but I was a little worried for a bit about what I was going to do with her. But, because God is good and He answers prayer (and I have the most amazing people in my life), my boss' mom is going to take my kitty. Forte will be in Heaven and will probably forget all about me. At any rate, all the pieces are falling into place...just much sooner than we were originally planning.

In an attempt to avoid packing all my shiz, then having to go through it all again over the next 7 months before I move international, I'm trying to do as much of the big purge now as I can. Gotta say...it's quite freeing. Everything I touch I have to think, "Will this go with me? Do I want to store it for who knows how long? Or can it go?" A dear friend of mine is having a yard sale to benefit the Northwest Rett Syndrome Foundation in the spring and I now have BOXES of stuff to go towards that. A couple of my young spa ladies are coming over this weekend to take some small furniture and kitchen stuff. We're trying to sell the couches, tv, and Kate's ginormous bed set. Everything is going. It's weird.

As for what I'm keeping, it's not much. Only my bed, desk, and desk chair are going to my new place which I'll then either sell or give away come October. Clothes (paired down after tonight), toiletries/necessities, and a few pictures. I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible. I'll be buying some Rubbermaid-type totes for the stuff I'm storing at Mom and Ray's place; books that I really want to keep or were gifts or have sentimental meaning (the yard sale is getting a snot load of books, too!), my Eeyore collection, art/framed pictures, my memory box, and that's about it.

For many, many years I could move my entire life in my parent's minivan. It's both exciting and scary to be getting back to that place. On one hand, I sort of feel ridiculous. I'll be 30 on the 24th. Shouldn't I be settled? Shouldn't I own matching furniture? Shouldn't I have a full linen closet and a ton of crap in my garage? On the other hand, I'm THRILLED to be free of the stuff. Life isn't about the material things one owns. I'll have no fear of showing up on Hoarders, although my crush on Matt Paxton could lead me to forcibly become a hoarder just so I could get close to him. Mmm. Matt Paxton. Anyway. When I leave for Tortola in October I will have my dog, my cat (or she may wait to come with me on my first trip home if Foster Mama is ok with it), my massage table, and a couple suitcases. That's IT. I'll probably ship a few boxes with some books and mementos ahead of me, but in all likelihood I'll show up on Tortola with whatever I can carry on the plane.

I heard from Toni at Sole' and she's as excited as I am that I'm still planning on coming down. They have a lot of people flake out, so when someone actually follows through - especially someone she REALLY wants - it's a big deal. Hah. She said she just hired someone and it took just over 2 months to get the work permitting paperwork through, so we're going to start my stuff in early July so that I'll be good to go by October. I've been refreshing myself on the process and starting to try to piece together a timeline so that I get all my requirements completed and holy CRAP it's going to come up fast! The other night I was reading the BVI Newbie site (so, so, SO informative...great Facebook page as well) and looking at some pictures of Tortola and I got so excited and emotionally overwhelmed that I started to cry! Ridiculous, I know. Sometimes I still can't believe I'm really doing this. Also, I cried because I wanted to call my dad and talk to him about all these big life changes that I know he'd be really proud of me for. It just fucking sucks that I can't share this with him. Well, I know I can and I do, but you know what I mean. It's just not the same.

This post was my break from packing. However, it's 11:51pm and I have an 8am appointment with my trainer and a very full day of work tomorrow. I think packing is finished for the night. Seeing as Scully is already passed out on the bed, I'd say she agrees.