Shedding karma

It's been a strange path toward Armenia, so far. And it started so innocently: a form to fill in, an interview, some waiting. Then came an extensive medical exam with documentation on this and that, more waiting, requests for more information, phone calls, emails. And suddenly a couple of weeks ago we were busy with little else. Packing up a home and two lives for storage and getting ready for two years in some cold place is not the simple two-day project I remember from my teens and twenties, when I moved from country to country as a matter of routine. For example, the other day we were running around looking in seven stores before we found a 6mm (metric!) cross-dowel nut. Why? We gave our dining room table to Susan's sister Cindy, but this crucial nut got lost during the move. Then there have been tasks like getting a cover for my laptop replaced because the one the company sent was defective; bringing the pile of wire hangers to the cleaners because we just have to be good recycling people; shredding any papers with SSNs or credit card numbers (health provider statements, credit card bills, various statements and contracts); canceling old inactive credit cards; setting up family with Skype so we can stay in touch; fixing the car so we can sell it with a good conscience; buying little presents for our host families in Armenia; trips to the dump; trips to charitable institutions; 17 for-sale ads on Craigslist; the list goes on and on. Much of the time has gone to getting rid of stuff - what my friend Elliot calls shedding karma. But there hasn't been nearly enough time to say goodbye properly.

Susan has been amazing. I am grateful. She has done most of the packing and more than her share of running around, and not only because I worked until the beginning of this month.

One last word: we're getting there. There's a ton left to do in the next six days, but it will happen. I'm glad we changed our plans and decided to fly to staging in Washington DC a day early, on Tuesday May 25: now we will just have to be ready in time to relax the last day, have breakfast with my godson Charlie, walk past the White House, and not rush until the last minute.