Not Quite a Mid-Life Gap Year

OK, let me just say that on your second to last night in your house before a cross country move that it is REALLY annoying when your remote batteries decide that they are dead and you have no replacements at 11:45pm.  Jeez….

My Yahoo! e-mail account was also hacked this week and someone sent some SPAM e-mails to everyone in my contacts list.

Sometimes I feel tested, but the b*astards will not get me down!  🙂

I’m going to bed with the expectation that ‘tomorrow is another day’ during which I will be burying St. Joseph upside down in the garden (more on that in my next post)!

It is flat out hot here today, 92, humid, and sunny.  I am very fair skinned so have to avoid being out in the sun during the day.  Plus, it can just be too hot to do much of anything sometimes, at least not without sweating profusely.

And where I’m going?  Today looks nice, 72 and sunny, but the forecast is for rain and 60 degree temps for several days.  No worries about my fair skin (!), but somewhat of a similar issue in terms of having restrictions on what you can do during the day!

Nowhere is perfect, though, and when you are in one place the other one has a certain appeal, and vice versa!

I had two realtors here today and now all three have been sent off to work on their market analysis.  They all feel very positive about my house; it is a real cutie, if I say so myself! 🙂  I wonder what I will end up with on the other end, and how long it will take for me to figure all that out.

A guy from the moving company also came to survey the house contents.

The car gets picked up tomorrow, and I washed it today (one of the requirements so they can photograph it for insurance purposes). Per instructions, “Plants, pets, firearms and all hazardous materials are forbidden by law to be transported.” Can you imagine shipping your pet in the car?  Hello Mitt Romney!?

So now I am left with packing my suitcases, my most dreaded task!  After all my sorting and cleaning and depersonalizing you would think that packing suitcases would be a super easy chore!  I just don’t like doing it!  I feel like I won’t be able to make good choices on what to take to cover the next few weeks.  I am sure once I start it won’t be so bad, I just don’t want to start!  Ha!! 🙂

I just used the United States Postal Service’s website to forward my mail.  Yikes!  Somehow that made this thing feel pretty real!   I also hope that it works!  Ha!!!

FYI, there is a $1 charge for the change of address service.

Interestingly, there is a screen where you can select what catalogs you currently get that you would also like forwarded.  I’m surprised they do that, seems expensive/inefficient (explains a lot?)

I remember when I left New York years ago and moved to Memphis that the hardest thing was to give up my license.  Let’s see how long it takes for me to transfer my car’s plates and my driver’s license over to my new location!

My toes are a disgrace and I needed some down time so I am at the salon having a pedicure.  God knows if my toes will ever see the light of day where I am going but at least I feel more prepared and tidied-up!

I planned this last minute, right after one of the realtors left, so I wasn’t thinking very straight and have jeans on (so can’t pull my pant legs up as far as I would like) and didn’t shave my legs today so all in all it is not the best look. 🙂

I liked the realtor that came today.  She seems willing to be a bit assertive on the price, which I like.  I have another realtor coming tomorrow who happens to be the agent that sold the house to the owners before me (Adam, for those of you that remember the homeowner).  I bought the house straight from Adam, it never went on the market. They realtor is excited to get back inside and see how the place looks.

The way that the relo works is that I need at least two realtors to submit a Broker Market Analysis and then I am supposed to put the house on the market at the average of the two.  I have three agents coming all told and will pick the two that I think have done the best assessment.

Tomorrow I also have the moving company coming to do an overall estimate of the move.  Even though I won’t be moving the furniture until later, this step has to be conducted so I figured I might as well get it out of the way.

The car is being picked up on Friday afternoon, between 4pm-6pm.

I am slowly inching forward!  Lord, I hope I am doing the right thing! 🙂 If one more person mentions the weather “out there” I think I’ll have a fit!

That’s how I feel today, inundated!

It seems to have started last Friday, all of a sudden I am getting phone calls and e-mails from all sorts of people concerning my move to the Pacific Northwest (PNW)!  There are all sorts of different people arranging my corporate housing, scheduling the transportation of my car, mortgage brokers calling about pre-qualifying me for loans for home purchase, etc.  Plus, I have loads of documents to read and sign and scan and return regarding all sorts of things ranging from direct deposit forms to relocation reimbursement forms to documents concerning selling my home in N.C.  Lots of stuff!

Plus, my mother’s birthday is coming up and I need to get her something and ship it to Ireland before I leave or God knows when I will get around to that and if it arrives late I will never hear the end of it!

Earlier today I headed over to the outplacement office to print all of the above documents out.  I assume I will be returning there tomorrow to scan and e-mail it all back!

In regards to the car, I was told that I have to take absolutely everything out of it which was a disappointment as I was actually hoping I could put some unbreakable stuff in it as a means of getting some of my things out to the PNW rather than having to pack them in a suitcase.

One good thing, though, is that while I was clearing out the inside of the car a little while ago I found my missing iPod Touch!  I had misplaced it right before Christmas and as I have gone through virtually every inch of this house over the last few months sorting and cleaning, etc., I was convinced that I left it at the hair salon and that someone had gone off with it!  It never showed up on “Find my iPod” so I figured they just threw it away as they couldn’t crack the security code I have on it.  Well, today I found it stuck down tight between the driver’s seat and the center console of the car!  YEAH!!!   I am particularly excited as it has the cutest Paul Frank monkey case that I regretted losing!

Of course, the people at outplacement all wanted to catch up on the status of my move and two of my cousins have called in the last two days wondering if we can do lunch or dinner or something before I go.

It is a bit overwhelming as the days start to run out!  I am good under crisis, though, so am pacing myself out as best I can and telling people that trying to schedule lunch and dinner are just more ‘to-dos’ on my list right now so I can’t deal with that until I have everything else under control.  It may have to wait until one of my return trips when all my stuff is actually moved, etc.

I still need to get a realtor selected and get the house on the market, that’s my priority right now!  Hence, my little drink respite is now over and I must be off!