We're off!
Everytime we pack for a vacation I wake up that morning and can't believe we've done it.
I thought the move from Europe here was my last big hurrah, that that was all that was left in me, that it was time to settle down and act like normal folks because, well quite frankly, I just don't have it in me any more to keep moving.
I remember the moves all through uni, when I had teen and twenty-something year old guys willing to lug my sofa up four flights up stairs for free pizza and beer. (Thanks Pete, Thanks Mark!) Hiking up a mountain in Alaska with everything we needed for the night on our backs and sweating through cotton in the snow. The skill of packing all you need for a week in Port-au-Prince into a backpack during Peace Corps. (Three pairs of tiny undies, two tiny cotton minidresses, bikini, bugspray, flashlight and a water bottle.) The move into our first home in Connecticut. Damon and my Dad U-hauling it all out to Arizona. Damon, my Dad and I packing it all up again two years later to move to Europe. Selling it all out of the back of a U-haul with a 3 month old baby and a 2 year old. France. Germany. Going away to Italy - or just about anywhere, take afternoon playgroup for example - with newborn twins.
The move here required the to-sell pile, the to send on the container pile, the keep for October at the farm in case it snows but give away before we leave because we don't need cold weather gear in Brisbane pile, the don't need in October but need when we get there so don't put it on the container pile pile, the take it if we have room to save money but we can leave it at the last minute pile (this included bedsheets and the like), the to stay with Wolfy pile, the pile for stuff to give to Anita, for Lori.....and I did it mostly alone while Damon was scanning files into his computer that last morning. Still a sore point.
Then there are the logistics involved in space and place. What fits and what you need to get to when and where. Hotels. Flights. Immediately upon arrival.
I was going to write a book about the international travel with kids. But I don't think I have it in me. Yet.
Lately I've realised that my Aspergers traits - the organisation, the thinking five steps ahead - are what allow me to do all this.
How do I do it, people ask.
Uh yeah. Turns out you were right Dad. I'm not wired like the rest of you. (Turns out you're not either. Big shocker there, right?!)
In any case, we did it. Survived the latest packing job. The house is clean. And tidy. The bags are packed. We have camping and sleeping gear, food, cooking and cleaning gear, clothes, swim gear and rafts, sports equipment, board games and books, my writing and Ryan's sketching.
I could break it down further if you really wanted to see how my mind works. But then you wouldn't be able to sleep at night either!
Shame is that I didn't suddenly aquire a skill - or patience - for techie stuff - when I chose a label to define myself. So that I'm still me. And can't figure out how to get those darn Christmas and New Year's photos downloaded from Picasso onto the blog.
I'm hoping a miracle occurs when we are away camping and that it will all correct itself when I get back.
You maybe got THIS one, God?!
Bigger miracles HAVE occurred in my life.
We're packed and ready to leave, for instance.
And Damon can't find where he put the thyroid medication.
Some things don't change.
Which is good.
Still trucking, still moving, still not giving in!
See you when we get back!
Man. Moving, don't remind me. I've done too much of it in the last 7 years!
ReplyDeleteHave a good vacation :)