Progress

With the countdown getting scary, I'm starting to work my lists and wrap up my life. Here's how that's going. 


Packing
So, the plan to use the box recycling place hit some hitches: the visa debit card didn't work, and when I re-placed my order I never got any sort of confirmation. So now I've gone and re-re-placed my order. Actually looks promising, this time? But, since I needed to use my own card, I went the paypal route, which I'm not generally a fan of as it means endless spam. 


Also I'm a week behind ... sortof. I also scheduled my "Drink my Wine" party, and turned it into a girls' night. Honestly, most of the previously scheduled girls' nights have ended up being 3 or 4 people, total. Mine ... looks bigger, so far. Like, 10 people bigger. Everyone get's their own bottle of wine! Or something.


I also checked out Ikea, so I could see what my shelving collection is selling for now, to get a better sense of what to ask when I attempt to sell. ... The entire line has been discontinued. Also, apparently it is all solid pine. So in addition to looking nice and being mid-range expensive, it apparently is decent quality. So now I don't really want to sell it. Or at least not the big bookshelves. So my current thought is to disassemble the three and the table I want to keep, at a minimum, and put them in storage. Yay?


So my current plan is to leave everything as-is until my party, then start packing that weekend. Yes, okay, that Wednesday I leave for Greece (woohoo!), but I want to put the stuff I'm keeping into storage, except probably a few dishes, July 16th or 17th. So ... packing.


Shipping
I suppose that also means I need to firm up my shipping plans. I intend to pack the majority of what I want to bring to Germany and ship it (SLOW ship it!) in advance. I need to find out if a traditional trunk (well. The current version of a traditional trunk, which has wheels) is shippable via UPS or USPS or whether it'd have to go into a box, in which case not much point to have the trunk ... well. Except when it comes to getting the shipped items to my new residence. Then it'd be really, really handy to be able to unbox and roll. Hm. Thoughts.


Augh
I suppose I also need to get on buying my health insurance, setting up my car-custody (for insurance) and reserving my storage space!


Weight
I'm not doing as well as I'd hoped but frankly, between people visiting me, me visiting them, (possibly) herniating a disc in my back debilitating me for 2 weeks, and, of course, general laziness as I fall out of the groove, I'm really not doing too badly. I haven't gained anything, and in the 6 or so weeks my body has done some re-distributing of weight so I actually look pretty okay. It is impossible that I'll reach my initial goal-weight before I leave for Germany. I may, maybe-possibly, lose another 10 by then, but with 2 weeks in Greece in the middle, I rather doubt it. Still. 


I went clothes shopping the Friday of Memorial Day weekend and was quite pleasantly surprised to be back in clothes that are carried in the store now, instead of only online. Even better: I can squeeze into some clothes the next size down, even if I wouldn't yet leave the house in them. That means, to me, that soon (SO SOON) I may be buying that size. That was kindof the reason I went shopping when I did: I don't intend to be in these clothes for long, so 30% off everything, including clearance, makes purchases reasonable even knowing that.


All that, however, obscures the fact: I am officially 3 full sizes smaller than I was this time last year!! Jeans that I couldn't wear last year are now too big! And I can no longer buy anything from Womens Plus - I'm back into Women's proportion-wise, if still at big sizes. Super exciting!


What's Next
I have started my application for the Peace Corps. It sounds like I want to get that completely squared away by the time I leave for Greece. That can be done. And then when I get back I'll need to start my GM application. 


My sister asked me how serious I am about the Peace Corps. It's hard to say, honestly, but I was thinking last night: this is my life. I want it to be a good one, and an interesting one. I want people to talk about me and how neat I am or what I've done is. Sure, going to school in Germany is a start. I want to find myself interesting, and for that to happen, I need to do things that make me think "wow, that's really cool". That would happen with a stint in the Peace Corps. It would also probably happen with GMs ECLP program - it sounds like the projects are fast, intense and informative.


So I guess my ideal would be to do the GE thing for 2 years and then do the Peace Corps? Glad I worked that out!

Wrapping things up

My mind is a disorganized mess, at the moment, which will be reflected in this post. All over the place, is what I'm saying. 


Suddenly it's June and I'm looking at a very limited number of weekends between now and when I leave - 10, to be precise. 


As of yesterday (I bought my plane ticket, finally), I officially have 10 weekends until I leave the country. And since I gave my landlady notice yesterday, with my rent check, I have to move out of my apartment in 9 weekends. 2 of those will be spent in Greece. So all of a sudden I have about 6 weekends to get packed up, organized, and sell or donate what I'm not keeping. Yikes.


Today I bought boxes online. I recently received a $100 Visa debit card in the mail, having apparently won a drawing after taking a survey for my dentist. This is actually fantastic, as it allows me to order boxes online from a company I've never heard of - boxcycle.com, which is a clearing-house facilitating selling used boxes. Which, frankly, is pretty awesome, but I'm not at all sure I would have trusted them with my actual credit card number. This way, I'm just waiting on confirmation from the seller and then I pick up the boxes at the agreed upon time. And then ... it's time to start packing. Because I'm moving. Really, really soon. 


I recently noticed a used-book store, which is super awesome, right next to a used CD store - which is even awesomer. Even if, as I suspect, they're not going to be giving me money for most of my collection ... either of them. I'm unloading my CDs and I'm going to force myself to unload books. Lots of books. And I'm not going to like it one little bit. But ... not having to pack and store them is a valid need. Alas. 


The other day I realized  I can use the space saver bags to flatten the insane amount of throw-pillows I have (that came with my sectional), then stick the bag in the cedar chest and call it good. I'm excited by this solution, and will execute it in the very near future, possibly today. This will help me, when it comes time to move. I think ... I think I"m going to try to move everything I'm not getting rid of on the Sunday I get back from Greece. 


And on top of all that: as of last Friday, my vertical, at work, no longer reports to me. They now report through my boss, theoretically freeing me to concentrate on the various projects I'm supposed to be working on. That I'm totally not working on, but that's a separate issue. 


So, what am I keeping?


The stools in the dining room. The bureau. The plant stand, and probably the pots for plants. All the kitchen gear. The coffee table, the drinks ottoman, probably the sectional - though I'll post it on craigslist, just for fun. The bedroom & dining room carpets, and the runners. The etegere, the bedroom lamps, the cedar chest, the small chests in the bedroom, the knick-knacks and shadow boxes, the art on the walls, towels from the bathroom (mostly). 3 boxes of books. The dinner services.


Undecided: The sunroom carpet, the blue couch.


And ... that's it. Huh. 

Sabotage!

My family has a long history of disastrous drainage issues occurring during holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc - that generally resulted in a plumber and, on more than one occasion, subsequent removal of the downstairs closet ceiling and disassembly of a pipe-joint, with super gross sludge being removed. Until this weekend, I'd assumed the story we'd been told - the pipes weren't installed with the proper grade, so particulates and larger items were settling instead of flowing down hill - was true. Now I know different: it was sabotage! By my siblings!!