Well, it’s finally starting to hit me that this is actually gonna happen. Two weeks from today, I get in my car, hit the road to Las Vegas, and begin a great journey. Holy shit.
My landlord has been showing my apartment to potential new tenants (lucky them, this place rocks! I’m pretty sure I’m the only person in central Seattle paying triple-digit rent in a nice neighborhood…on a lake, and with a free parking spot, to boot).
My bosses are interviewing people to help after my departure and my long to-do list is very, very slowly shrinking. I’ll definitely miss Golazo a little; the paychecks, a lot.
My doctor finally listened to me and recommended an MRI, which confirmed that my back pain isn’t cancer or impending paralysis, but is whatever this means:
Perhaps once I have it translated to English I’ll feel a little bit better about it. ’til then, I’m wearing out my insurance card with massages & chiro visits twice weekly, a dentist appointment soon, new prescription sunglasses, and all sorts of pills and shots with my girl Irene at Costco, who’s helping me make sure that I won’t catch typhoid, yellow fever, malaria, tetanus, meningitis, Hepatitis A or B, influenza, or pneumonia. But not rabies, because it’s a $900 series of shots. Ain’t nobody got time for that!
Things at home are looking spartan and I’m fairly certain that reverse Ikea-ing and optimizing ads for craigslist are things I could do in my sleep. Except that getting sleep is tougher now because I no longer own a comfy bed (#firstworldproblems). A couch, a TV & tv stand, some chairs and a couple of bookshelves are the only remaining things I have to find a new home for, even if it’s Goodwill down the street.
At work, there’s a lot to do, and I want to make sure it’s a smooth transition. But as departure date approaches, it’s increasingly difficult to stay 100% focused (sorry, boss). In hindsight, it probably would have been better to leave more than 16 hours between my last day of work and my first day on the road.
As far as the trip goes, I’m almost ready.
I only need to buy a few things, like a travel towel, an SD card or two, some random things, and an elusive new pair of shoes, which I’ve been trying to get at the adidas employee store for weeks, but they never have my size. Luckily, I get to drive through tax-free Oregon soon and the Timbers sent me this beauty a few days ago:
Still have to figure out my will, buy VPN access, cancel my phone service, update my contact info on a bunch of accounts, perfect some formulas on my spreadsheet, take a class or two on Lynda.com, and keep collecting people’s addresses, but overall, I’m feeling pretty good about where I am at 2 weeks out.
I’m finally going to make it official and invite people to follow a great journey online. Or join me.
It’s definitely bittersweet to leave a place I love, and as I boxed things up the other day and reminisced about the nearly five years I’ve spent in Seattle, I got a little teary. And I’m sure it won’t be the last time I get emotional as I prepare to leave.
But I’m happy. I’m nervous. I’m excited as hell. And I’ll be ready….in two weeks!