19 boxes and a honkin' yard sale

Listen .... Tick, tick, tick goes the clock on the FIFTEEN DAYS I have left here in DC.

The last week has been totally and completely consumed with the purging of the house (only 625 square feet, to be fair), which sorted itself into 13 boxes, suitcases, and storage tubs worthy of export. I've barely eaten, haven't slept much, and haven't really seen a soul. Notable and humorous on the 'taking it with me' list:

• My olive oil dispenser and the hand cheese grating wheel. Ridiculous. This is the olive oil bottle I bought in France when I was there celebrating Almost Legal's 40th bday a few years back. I'll have 70 of my own olive trees yet I'm dragging a french oil dispenser by way of the U.S. (but I LOVE it!) Ridiculous. It's the little things. And this is key to my becoming the renowned Italian chef that I know I will be ...
• The 2-sizes ago jeans. (I know, I know.) But I'm SOOOO sure that the hearty farmgirl lifestyle hiking on my 20 acres will slim me down those nagging 20 lbs and I do look really cute in those (or so I remember?!)
• the artistic photo of the American flag in front of the Capitol that was hanging in my office. Debated about this one -- I don't really have any emotional attachment to the pic itself; it was a gift from a hotel wanting my business (and the hotel where the Ex used to work, no less...) BUT, it's a striking image. And I know I will be homesick and want a daily reminder somewhere of not only my country, but my 'hometown' -- however f***ed up it may be on occasion (*okay, almost always. was trying to be nice.).
• The cast. For those of you playing along at home, this is the now-yellowed version of the cast that was put on my left arm when I broke it in Italy in 1999 when I was there on the last tour. 11 months later, my arm was finally healed. A fascinating saga in and of itself - which I'm convinced was supposed to teach me patience with imperfection (see how well THAT's worked?!?!) I nearly tossed it out, and as I was throwing it into the trash, I read a message written by one of our Italian hosts: La prossima volta, sarai buona fortunata. (Next time, may you have good fortune.) It was a sign (godwink?). I took the cast.

So I've gotta admit, as I'm typing this, I honestly can't think of a whole bunch of other stuff that's in those 19 boxes - 13 from home and 6 from the office. Geez! Admittedly, I got sucked into the 'if I'm already spending $1100 to ship it... why not add this...?' mentality. Did stock up on my favorite products from the CVS, of course.

Notable on the not-taking-it list:

No lamps, no tv, no stereo. Nothing electrical, really (even without the Hz / Volt conversion, I'm already enough of a disaster with red wires/black wires/ yellow wires... Would have been a miserable bomb technician.) Will hopefully get the very few CDs that I own (I say this compared to Blossom who has something in the 'hood of 2000?!?!? -- my lonely 150 or so pale by comparison) -- loaded into the new IPOD this week (if Sartorial SockMan ever brings it in?!?!) Speaking of him, thank goodness someone around here has some international techno-savvy -- got my new Skype account today and it is truly waaaaaaay beyond cool. No kidding. Free computer-to-computer phone (VOIP?!) calling. If you're not a user, sign up now. Bound to be the next hot thing to avoid those obscene $1.00 per minute charges internationally. www.skype.com (I'm a Skyper, he's a Skyper, wouldn't ya like to be a Skyper, too?!?! - playing to the 70's crowd here.) I think I can even buy a subscription to have my office calls forwarded to a skype number for basically nothing, reducing our out of pocket expenses SIGNIFICANTLY. Yup, I'm gettin' the Mom hooked up ASAP. (Chickie is soon to follow, fair warning.) I'm starting a revolution.

But I digress. So my 19 boxes have set sail (on a fateful trip?!?!) across the Atlantic. as of 3 pm this afternoon. Consolidated into a container, 4-6 weeks 'til arrival (if the import gods are in my favor). The rest of the 30 + years of accumulated life detritus are being auctioned off (okay, that's way glam for 'PUT INTO THE FRONT YARD AND SOLD TO ANYONE WHO'S WILLING TO CARRY THEM AWAY'. ) this Saturday. People think I'm nuts for getting rid of it all, but I'm so .... over it. That's okay. Nuts looks good on me.

Life for Sale.