The Art of Moving

I’m a bit scatter-brained at the moment, probably because my house looks like this.

I feel oddly displaced but at the same time, eerily calm. The movers arrived yesterday and I have to finally accept the fact that I’ve done all that I can; prepared as much as I could have, and now it’s time to stop studying and take the final exam. Just looking at all of our possessions in boxes reiterates the fact that they are simply that, possessions. I can survive in Scotland as long as I have my husband and dogs. Other than that, it's all replaceable, and even then, only a matter of comfort and not survival.

My biggest anxiety is that we didn’t donate more or throw more away. Packing light is my personal strategy of travel, and I prefer to move in the same way. I don’t want to open a single box and find something useless or unloved. Jon and I were both ruthless in going through our closets and drawers to axe anything we didn’t want cluttering up our house in Aberdeen. As it was being boxed up, it was funny to see how the movers' had labeled what was inside the boxes.

Apparently, Jon’s junior high football memorabilia made the cut and will be traveling the world with us. That’s a pretty high honor, a spot that not even my wedding dress achieved.

To get out of the movers way, we spent most of the 93 degree Houston day outside on our patio reading. I finished reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese which I so highly recommend; I cannot even express to you! Go read it- NOW!

I’m about 8 chapters into The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, but within the first 2 paragraphs I could already tell it was going to be a tearjerker. Maybe it’s not such a good book to be reading right now since it narrates the life of a young couple through the eyes of their dog. Already, it has me looking more closely at my pets and wondering how much they really understand and how sensitive they really are.

Yesterday was a great trial run for their travel day since they had to be kept in their travel kennels while the movers were here. There were plenty of loud noises, strange people, and a few times, their kennels even had to be moved around. But I was able to go in every few hours and pat their heads and model some calmness for them to know that it was all okay.

A huge weight is lifted off of our shoulders since their European Union Heath Certificate and animal export flight approval from the USDA was delivered at 9:30 this morning. I admit that I lost a lot of sleep over these papers and I am currently guarding them with my life. I’m at Starbucks right now since our Internet was cut off as of this morning, and the papers are on my lap. Seriously. They will not leave my sight until we hand them over to the pet transport company on Saturday. Now that they've passed the scrutiny of the USDA, they just have to get past Animal Control in London and then they will be home free.

When I left, our house was completely packed up and being loaded into air and sea shipment containers.

I’m sure my neighbors love us right now since we are blocking 3 of their driveways. Oh well, it’s a good thing we’re moving.