Feel Like Moving to Across the World???

I started thinking about the entire moving process – if we had to do it all over again, would I change anything? Hmm…my short answer is YES….but not much. For those of you that haven’t gotten the play by play from me, I’ll try to give the short version of the past three weeks. The movers came on December 16 and they had our entire house packed in one day. For the record, I have a serious appreciation for the moving profession and am certain it would have taken John Paul and I approximately 10 days to do what they did in just 8 hours. The following two days they loaded a truck full of the boxes going to Australia and another for all of the boxes going to storage. The only thing we were responsible for was making a daily call to Brooklyn South to get them pizza for lunch. Just an FYI, at this point in time, our visas were NOT approved - some what concerning considering most of your possessions are on a boat around on their way to the other side of the world. So, as of December 18th we were officially homeless…well, I guess a more accurate description would be possession-less. From there, we decided to give Dylan McKay’s lifestyle a try and checked into the Charlotte Hilton for the next few days. Given that John Paul and I collectively own three properties in Charlotte and we were staying in a hotel was kind of funny…but pretty weird as well. So on December 23, we made one last stop at our home in Huntersville to do one last walk through and to say ‘goodbye house’. Oh, it was also the day after our 1 year anniversary. (Did I hear anyone say, “OHHHHH!!) It’s cute, I know. Anyhow, we continued on as Gypsies and started our two week East Coast Family Visit Extravaganza. It kind of felt like the movie Four Christmases, but it was only three Christmases and more spread out. I guess that’s not too similar then after all. Moving on….we were in Pittsburgh for Christmas, with my family in NC afterwards, and then drove BACK up to PA for New Years Eve. Phew! True to a vagabond lifestyle, we had a cooler packed with beer from our fridge in Huntersville so we could come “bearing gifts” where ever we laid our head! Just in case this sounds remotely amusing to anyone and they are entertaining the idea of taking an extended road trip; I do want to confirm that living out of a car is not fun. Maybe that is a narrow minded perspective given that I would chose an adventure at the Westin vs. bunking up in campers or tents any day of the week….but it does get old packing and unpacking the car with each stop. Oh! Did I forget to mention that the clothes that we packed in our suitcase are the only ones that we will have for about a month and a half to two months??? We had to account for the December climate in Pittsburgh (VERY cold), Charlotte/Winston-Salem/Raleigh (cold), and Melbourne (over 80 degrees). I hope the Australians won’t be disgusted if I wear the 3 summer outfits I packed over and over for a few weeks. Maybe I can convince them that the US has adopted a “uniform policy”; and it is viewed as an environmentally friendly initiative….or I could potentially take a ‘gym class’ approach and wear the same outfit for a week strait instead of rotating the three. Long story short....or maybe long story long....this process has had its perks and its frustrations, but overall I think it all adds to the experience - well let's hope so! :)