Lasts

It’s really started to hit me in the past few days just how many “lasts” are about to happen. This is my last week of work. And within the course of this week I’ll be making my last perfect bound book. I'll get my last orders from suppliers and talk to friends in other branches. I’ll make my lunch for the last time and I’ll take myself to McDonald’s for breakfast before I get to work for the last time. And then there are the last phone calls with my favourite customers and my last lunch hour spent reading in my spot on the break room couch. I've spent eight and a half years in this office. It's going to be hard to get used to not coming here every day.  

And then there’s all the real life lasts too. I packed my baking stuff on the weekend so my last batch of cookies is long finished and my last cupcakes are decorated. We had our last picnic supper in Glenmore Park and I had my last pedicure with my best friend. I finished off my last invitation job. Thursday is my last band practice and Sunday is my last time in my uniform.

I know that there’s so much good stuff coming in the next year and that all these lasts will be replaced with firsts. And I know I need to remember that most of these things are only temporary lasts. But all through this process it’s been very hard to not focus on what we’ve given up in order to make those good things come true. We both make comments all the time about what we’ll do when we come back and what we’d buy if we weren’t going. I know it will all be worth what we’ve given up but sometimes it’s hard to not let the doubts take over.

This is going to be a tough week.

Wheels to take us north

Another detail fell into place today. We booked ourselves seats on a coach bus to take us from London to Glasgow on September 26th. It's a long trip - 9 hours! But it's the cheapest way we found and there are refreshment stops along the way so we'll be fine. It'll be a good way to see the countryside, or at least the countryside we can see from the highway (excuse me, motorway). And if there's not much to see, then at least it will be a really good way to catch up on sleep. One thing I found rather funny while booking is that they allow us to bring more luggage on the bus than our airline allows us to bring on a trans-Atlantic flight!  

London calling

We now have a home for our first three days in London. I just booked us into a hostel that Brandon found this morning. It looks like a pretty simple place, but breakfast is included, there's free WiFi and it's above a pub which we both think is pretty cool. We don't have a private room here, we have two of six bunk beds in the room and we share the bathroom and showers of course. I'm hoping we'll have the room mostly, if not to ourselves though! It's close to the Victoria tube station which is great for getting around to all the touristy stuff and is only a couple of stops away from where the bus from the airport will drop us. This also makes getting a train to Glasgow, or at least making a connection to wherever it is we'll need to be to catch our train to Glasgow, easy.

A bed for a week

I just booked our first week in the Glasgow hostel. This will be home for us until we find an apartment - pardon me - a flat to rent. It's a private room and we'll have our own bathroom too. We get breakfast every day and there is a full kitchen we can utilize so we'll save a lot of money on food. And we added a hop-on hop-off guided city tour so that we can get our bearings right away.

We're still not sure where we're going to spend our first three nights in London, but there are so many there that I'm not too worried about that yet.

Of roadblocks and potholes

My faithful old Rhonda the Honda is having an issue. It started yesterday when Jenn and I were out and about and Rhonda started making a horrible noise that seemed to be tied to the air conditioning. That was proved wrong when I drove it later in the evening without the air turned on and the noise came back worse than before. Brandon looked it all over, topped up some transmission fluid and all seemed well. I drove it to my eye appointment this morning on the other side of the city and had no issues. But when I tried to leave the parking lot, the noise was back. I got scared and didn't want to drive it so Brandon graciously came to rescue me. We traded vehicles and through eyes that were starting to fill with tears, I drove off to work.

When I finally got there I commented to my mom in an email how much we really don't need this to happen right now. We need to sell that car and get as much out of it that we can. I said that I feel like this is fate putting up a roadblock since everything else has gone so smoothly in the planning of the Scotland adventure. But she replied so beautifully that this is not a roadblock, just a tiny little pothole. Nothing to worry about just yet. 

So, until we know for sure what Rhonda is suffering with, I'm going to try really hard not to worry too much. And I'm leaving this one up to Brandon. When he got to me this morning he just put his arm around me and told me not to worry, that he's got this. Sigh. How am I so lucky to have him?

In other news, there isn't much news to report. We've just been busy packing and waiting. Brandon gave his official notice at work last week so now we're both counting down work days (14 for me, less for him) as well as days till moving out (31), and then days till we fly away (38). We drove the first load of boxes up to my parent's place last Friday and seeing them all there in the truck made me realize we're really quite ahead of the game in that department. This coming weekend we're looking forward to band practices and camping. And after that, it's down to the business of planning a party!

UPDATE: Turns out it was a pothole after all. New front brakes and a little TLC was all it took to make Rhonda happy again. Whew!

UPDATE #2: Rhonda the Honda is back in the shop today. the knocking noise in the back end is back. I traded vehicles with my mom this weekend so they could take it to their mechanic this week and see if he can figure it out. Fingers crossed Rhonda will actually make the noise for the guy and that it won't be a hugely expensive fix. Apparently this pothole is deeper than we thought. And it splashes a little when you drive over it.

The secret is out!

The email notice went out today at work that I am leaving. So now I can talk about it! Now I can be excited and enjoy this part of the process!

But holy crap, now it's real. I went from apprehension in the car this morning, wondering when the email would be sent, to excitement and just plain joy about six minutes after walking into work. I've been answering questions and accepting congratulations all day long. And it feels great!

I've thought of this day for a while now and wondered how it would feel. What would people say and how shocked would they be? I wasn't disappointed - there was plenty of shock. But more importantly, everyone has been so supportive. Everyone has said how happy they are for me and how they wish they'd done something like it. What a day!

In other news, the packing has begun. We're about a dozen boxes in and already the house is starting to look empty. There's a heck of a lot left to go, but it feels like we're off to a good start. It's frustrating though to kind of take our time the way we have to. It would be easier to just go. Pack everything as fast as we can wrap and tape. But we have 42 days left in the house and at least that many meals to cook. So for now, we'll have to stick to the non-essentials.

The organizational system is working well so far. I made a small binder with tabs to match the labels we're putting on the boxes. Everything is colour coded and each box is numbered. Then the contents are recorded in the binder, one page per box. I don't know if it'll help the people who are storing the boxes, but I'm sure going to be happy to have it when it comes time to actually unpack them again!

T-minus 50 days.