The 'to-do-list'
It is one of those moments when one realizes the suitcase is still ten-pounds overweight, the last-minute list has few things crossed off of it: 'Go to Hoboken and change the insurance policy from home-owner to four young computer guys from India are renting our house', 'redirect mail to Australia' which would be fine if the post office actually redirected mail. Since having redirected to our apartment in Harlem from our home in Jersey City 15 days ago we have not received one redirected piece of mail and I am now off to meet up with one of the Indian dudes who is bringing all our non-redirected mail into Manhattan to save a trip to Jersey City - though it does not save us a trip to Hoboken because our insurance company said they will not send our policy or any correspondence to Australia or to China, then that pesky 'last-minute-list' of Narda's (she has been hanging last-minute-lists on doors and walls for the past 11 years, as we always seem to be packing and headed to an airport somewhere): close T-Mobile - we hate that company, return scales to school - probably because we are always over weight, not us, just the baggage - and to think the shipment to China which was like 800 pounds over weight is waiting for a ship that won't sink to drag it over to Dalian, mail packages - that is because we are overweight so we are posting stuff at $58 per 12X12X5 inch box, book town-car for Friday, good golly that is two days away then we are off to JFK, cancel New York Sports Club - which I can't get to today because of this damn last minute list, something about changing something with the airlines, order my vegetarian meals for China Eastern - oh no - they take out the meat and give me an extra serve of sticky yucky white rice, purchase excess luggage from Melbourne to Adelaide... and I just do not want to read on. I just wanted to go to the gym and work on my six-pack-not and biceps and those other saggy 63-year-old bits.
So what does one do when they get overwhelmed by 'yes we are leaving the USA after nine-years, hoping renters in three-houses will behave and pay rent and not party too hard, and all those things we were going to do in NYC and the rest of the USofA and never did and all the people I was going to look up and say hi-bye to and all I did was get nine-years older with yet another to-do-list in front of me? Well what I do in these situations is work on my webpages and blogs and think OK I will give the gym a miss and this list will just get done through some cosmic virtual abstraction.
Just looked in the mirror - something I usually avoid - and saw two grey hairs - oh no! I had planned to wait until after 65 for that… This is what leaving the USofA has done to me.