goodbye sweetheart, well it’s time to go….

okay, so maybe the song goes “good night sweetheart” but i don’t care.
today marks 21 days. and i have so much to do. and i don’t want to do much of it! it’s kind of like senioritis – i just want to be done with the process and over in jerusalem right now!
decided to skip the yardsale…too much planning for too little income. so goodwill it is.
ordered a second suitcase, should be here thursday.
bought BIODEGRADABLE packing peanuts and got free boxes at the Uhaul store.
had my going away party and started my “last suppers” in earnest…hey, coudn’t resist a corny jew/jesus joke, could i??
have dad’s headstone unveiling on the 28th. doubling as the last family visit. efficiency is a beautiful thing, eh?
i’ve got a cat keeper!!! my dear DC has signed on for the task. let’s hope that goes okay.
things to cut off: health insurance, dental insurance, car insurance, cell phone, fingers….no, no. just seeing if you are paying attention.
things to get rid of: car, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, clothes, furniture, everything that won’t fit in my two bags.
i think it’s funny that in the past few weeks i have reconnected with so many people with whom i used to be really close. sort of funny how that works-i hope i’ll keep in touch with them this time around.
i’m feeling pretty excited.

hurry, hurry, now wait…..

My passport is with Neil, the JA shaliach as my visa is being finalized. It’s a good thing no one has ever taken a restraining order out against me…that was one of the forms I had to fill out for the visa!
JA says I’m approved for Ulpan Etzion and that the July 6 flight should be fine, but NBN doesn’t seem to be making any decisions. I am still wary about the JA/NBN merge.
I still haven’t found anyone to take Luna while I’m in ulpan, but my friend Jess has offered to take her if no one else steps up to the plate…..Jess must be part Israeli-only an Israeli would offer to take in a cat to add to her own 3 cats after having not seen the owner in 6 years.
Further proof that Jess is Israeli- after high school we lost touch (mainly due to my adolescent naivete) and the last time we saw or spoke was 6 years ago. And yet, she practically insisted I stay with her while in Boston to collect my dad’s things. And that’s not even the half of it- she schlepped me out to his apartment, helped me more than she can ever imagine practically and emotionally. I’m grateful to reconnect with her before I leave though it makes me sad that it is so close to my leaving.
All the boxing up we did from Dad’s really drove home how much packing I have to do here. Yikes. I don’t even know where to begin. Thankfully, after Memorial Day I’ll be home for a couple solid weeks!!
I still don’t know when I’ll be able to schedule a yard sale to get rid of all the stuff that I’m NOT packing.
Can I just go crawl under the covers now???

Velvet Elvis, Strange Canadians in Memphis and Me in a Sumo Suit

the dreaded packing has begun.
i’ve got a few piles so far: yard sale, give to friends, trash and keep until the next go around.
This is hard. How do you choose what to keep from a full life? I have a Velvet Elvis that was my brother’s in college and was his gift to me when I went to college….one of the few times I can think of when he and I truly got along. But does it really need to make the trek to Israel with me? Probably not. But it can’t go in the yard sale!! No one would understand it!!
Or the tons of pictures from the road trip Em and I took to Memphis and New Orleans? I guess I don’t need hard copies of ALL of them…I can scan and then trash the rest.
Along the same lines, I found a ton of pictures from high school. Those really merit no more than a home on my Facebook page.
But the dozens of frames that are going in the yard sale pile that are filled with pictures of people I no longer see or spend time with. It’s as though there is a chunk of life that is getting thrown away. Or maybe I’m just being too sensitive…those pictures have been in a bin for years now.
This part is hard. This part makes things feel really real. There is a Jewish tradition that you shouldn’t ever prepare a nursery until the baby comes home for fear that something might go wrong. That is sort of what this feels like. But I have the papers, the approvals, the details. It’s time to start packing.
Crazy.