Most of you know that David and I have a little over a month left in Hawaii. (Hallelujah!) And, like 95% of the people I've talked to in the last month, you're probably wondering how the packing is going. I really wish people would stop asking me that question for many reasons: 1) The military movers come in and pack everything for you. In fact, they do not want you to pack up anything yourself for inventory and insurance purposes and I'm totally cool with them doing all the heavy work, 2) Because I'm lazy and don't want to do it, and 3) I am insanely talented at deluded myself into thinking that I have lots more time to get everything done. Hence, no packing of any kind has been done.
The most difficult part of the packing process is determining what items we want to keep with us for the two months that we'll be separated from our belongings. (Our stuff will be packed up on May 22nd. It will not arrive in South Korea until July 27th, over a month and a half after we arrive in Korea. Fun times!) I also want to do a complete inventory of everything we own because the military has this really wonderful habit of losing your stuff along the way. I don't have much stuff (most of our poundage comes in the form of books) but I'm rather attached to the stuff I do have. And there are those items (childhood trinkets, journals, and photo albums) that are simply irreplaceable should they be lost.
So, you may be wondering what I've been doing with myself instead of doing all the inventorying and packing and arranging. I would draw your attention back to item number 3. Aside from watching all five seasons of Babylon 5, refinancing our condo so we can rent it out, working, and playing with Suyom (I need to post some photos of her), I haven't really been doing much. But now that I've finally convinced myself that we do not have much time left for such frivolities, here's a list of the fun (and not so fun) things I need to do in the next month.
1) Organize like I've never organized before.
2) Inventory everything we own and take pictures of said items.
3) Clean out the refrigerator and kitchen cupboards, determine what can be shipped and what must be eaten, used or given away before we leave.
4) Scan photos. Back up any files (possibly on an external hard-drive).
5) Go to Kauai. Trip planned for next week, Monday through Thursday. Will write a charming blog post about our many wonderful adventures on the Garden Island.
6) Figure out what to do with Suyom. Take her to the vet for a health inspection.
7) Get appointment with eye doctor and get new pair of glasses since adorable nephew broke my old ones. Which are still functional, just slightly wonky.
8) See other medical professionals as needed.
9) Visit my dentist for the VERY last time. Sing songs of praise.
10) Pack.
11) Make endless number of lists. Like this one.
12) Gather and organize very important documents which must travel with us.
13) Finalize all travel plans and details.
14) Freak out. Just a little.
15) Go to Maui. Trip tentatively planned for second week of May. (Might as well see all the islands before we go!)
16) Go shopping and buy new clothes as I will not be able to find anything my size in Korea, the land of tiny Asian women.
17) Put in forwarding mail address at Post Office. To somewhere....
18) Make minor repairs to our condo including changing light fixtures and outlets, door knobs, painting and deep carpet clean.
19) Find a renter for our condo.
20) Look into Vonage, so we can still call people in America.
21) Say good-bye to friends.
22) Write farewell talk for church, scheduled May 10th. Mother's Day!
23) Remember to call my mom on Mother's Day. And send a card if really ambitious.
Yes, it's becoming all to real to me now. Maybe I should get started on it right now. Or maybe, I'll just keep reading my book and promise to get started tomorrow. Yeah, that'll work.
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"He made the world to be a grassy road before her wandering feet." -- W.B. Yeats
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Welcome to Wandering Feet, the Malone family blog where we share boring stories about what's going on in our boring lives so we don't forget what we did yesterday.
5 comments:
Ummm...I have so seen almost all of Babylon 5. Heh.
Ugh, I hate moving! And I can't imagine trying to deal with that kind of move. I can't believe I'm not going to see you for a couple of years! Sad.
Hehe. I remembered that your Mom watched Bablyon 5. David really liked the show and bought the first season on DVD and insisted that I watch it. Well, it took me a looong time to get into it, but I really loved it, especially seasons 2,3 and 4. It's an extremely well-written and plotted series.
I also can't believe it will be so long between visits. I really don't know if I'll be able to last two years without seeing any family.
This cracked me up. That's so me. The more I have to do the less it feels like I get done sometimes.
It's nice to have movers do stuff (gives you less to do), but be careful, too. On our move I wasn't allowed to touch anything, and I felt like I couldn't say anything or watch what they were doing, and I regret so much doing that. We had thousands of dollars of stuff damaged or broken, mostly because it wasn't packed well. What REALLY got to me because it wasn't fixable was how they packed the books: spine up on all the hardcovers. I know you like books the way I do, so you can understand how frustrating that was. I was so angry when I opened the boxes and discovered books piled on top of others with their spines now squished. Of course that wasn't something I could claim as damaged, because there was technically nothing "wrong" with them, but I didn't appreciate it all the same.
Just realize that while it's wonderful to not have to deal with wrapping every single plate, they also go really fast and no one cares about your stuff the way that you do, so speak up and watch what's going on.
Oh, the other thing was that a lot of stuff simply wasn't packed or wrapped in anything. For example, I have a record player that looks like it's a suitcase or something, and they just stuck in without any sort of protection. Of course it got damaged--not broken, but the outside is a little ripped. Same with my sewing machine case (which is decent, but it's meant for home storage, not for transporting and rough handling by moving people). Thankfully the machine itself was fine.
Sorry to go on and on about this, but I had never experienced moving with movers before, and that's what I really really wish I'd have known. I may be especially particular about my belongings. Could be why I was so bugged when we opened everything. I just was trying to be agreeable and nice and not get in their way, and looking back I am mad at myself for not sticking up for myself a little more and making sure it was all done as I wanted. They're getting paid well to do this, and even when someone else foots the bill you're still the customer.
We ended up with almost three months of our stuff in storage and it felt so wonderful when we actually got our own things back. It's hard to decide what you need for that time (clothes, a few games, hobby stuff...?). No matter what I suspect you'll discover something you wish you had. At the end of it, actually, it was funny to realize how much we could live without. But I sure was happy to get my own kitchen stuff back.
Okay, just one more thing: I think taking pictures of everything is a great idea. We didn't do that, and at the end of our claim period we were trying so hard to remember where everything was at the old house to make sure we had it all. Right at the end we realized that Adrian's golf clubs were missing completely--they hadn't marked it on the inventory sheet and we hadn't double checked all the box numbers. We were talking late at night in bed about golfing and suddenly realized we hadn't seen them when we were working in the garage. Yep, they were gone, so there was about another thousand dollars. And when they did the first delivery they forgot to deliver his Aprilia scooter... though of course that was large enough that we immediately realized it was missing.
Anyway, I'm sure your experience will be smoother than ours but I wanted to share the warnings to make sure it doesn't happen to you... :) Good luck and try to relax! It'll all work out!
Oh my gosh, you'd think I'd have exhausted all I could possibly say. But no.
Anything that is really truly irreplaceable and you absolutely must have you simply have to keep with you. Like, in your suitcase on the plane. And make sure you have all your important documents. I know that sounds obvious, but it's so easy to forget things. We didn't think we'd need our marriage certificate because who would think that you would? but then we actually did need it and only had a photocopy, but luckily it all worked out.
Okay, done. For now. :)
Emily, thank you for all the tips. I will definitely be very vigilant in how they pack my books....I would be terribly upset if they were mangled in any way. David and I kept the original packaging for most of our newer (and more expensive) belongings, so I have a tiny bit of hope that they will remain in tact during the shipment. I need to get cracking on that inventory because I do not want to wake up one day and discover that our golf clubs are missing (not that we own golf clubs....). Luckily, we don't have anything that terribly expensive, but I'm going to err on the side of cautious.
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