Stress Management

It’s mighty convenient that this time of upheaval in my life happens to coincide with the seasonal distribution of Abita Strawberry Lager. When the going gets tough, the tough sit down with an ice cold beer that tastes remarkably like strawberry shortcake. It’s so good that I think that rather than timing our home visits for the Christmas holidays, we’re going to plan them for Louisiana’s strawberry season.  In my opinion, the overlapping of crawfish, strawberry, and baseball seasons trumps Christmas for the title of “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year”. But that’s just me. 

In relocation news, things are moving along quickly. Yesterday was mega-productive with us joining Costco, buying several necessities for our shipment, and filing our taxes. The amount of federal taxes we paid last year was more than my entire salary. Can I vent about that for a moment? Yikes!!!!

This morning the dogs got their rabies vaccinations. Next step is to get them treated for tapeworms within 5 days of arriving in the UK and then expedite the paperwork to the USDA for official signatures before loading them onto a plane. That gives me about the next 30 days to try to figure out how the heck to fill out all of their paperwork. You can hire transport companys to handle it all for you, but it costs in the range of $4,500. Worth it? Quite possibly. Every time I look at the forms I get an instant migraine headache, which is only curable with a Strawberry Abita. Lucky for me, I have 3 cases in the fridge, so maybe I can push through the pain and save us 5 grand.

Next week we start meeting with realtors and attend our 2-day Ex-Pat orientation. Then hopefully, we’ll be able to arrange our house hunting trip to Scotland! I actually feel much less overwhelmed now that I’ve been able to cross a few big items off of the to-do list. Of course, Strawberry Abita nightcaps help with the stress management as well.