Category — Planning

Friday was my last day at work, at least for a long time. Now I’m officially homeless AND unemployed – and the ironic thing is that I’ve had to work just as hard to achieve this as most people work to avoid it.

Thursday night, the company threw me a fantastic “bon voyage” party (how cool is that?) Thanks to everyone who came out to wish us well - Danielle & I had a blast!

Setting aside the career I’ve had for over 16 years is hitting me harder than selling all the other stuff – even more than selling the house. Maybe it’s because I’ve had this job so much longer than all those other things, or maybe it’s just because this is the last big milestone before we actually leave. Whatever it is, I feel kind of weird today.

Could it be … that I’m finally starting to get … excited?

We’ve known this was coming for a while now: after selling our house at a huge loss & running into other unexpected expenses, we’ve decided to scratch the Europe/Mediterranean portion of our trip. It would’ve been great, but it’s just too expensive right now.

Instead, next March we’ll be going the other direction from South America – across the Pacific to Southeast Asia, with stops in a few tropical islands on the way. (Bummer, huh?) Our money should go much farther in Thailand, Vietnam & Cambodia, plus we’ll get to try some really interesting food! (at least Hannah & I will, anyway)

Check out the “Our Trip” page for more details on our revised itinerary.

I think something is wrong with me – we leave on our adventure in just over 2 weeks, but I’m not excited. I don’t really feel anything, other than annoyed by all the hassles of putting our “real world” life on hold.

As of today, we are officially homeless. All of the stuff we didn’t manage to sell or give away are being stored at Danielle’s parents’ house. It sure seemed like we were getting rid of a lot of stuff during the last several months, but we still had a lot more left than I thought.
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We move out of our house in less than a week.

• We’ve scheduled the disconnect of all utilities.
• We’ve sent change of address notices to everyone we can think of, and gone paperless with all the credit cards & bank accounts.
• We’ve watched most of our furniture get hauled away by craigslist bargain hunters, and filled the space with stacks of boxes.
• We’ve held one last garage sale to get rid of as much of the little things as we can.
• We’ve even sold one of the cars already.

You know, I’m starting to realize that we’re actually going to pull this off!

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Still not ready.

I don’t think I will be ready until the first ship sets sail. I am making progress. Boxes are being packed. Furniture is being Craig’s listed. More lists are being made.

It is a bit harder to extract yourself from the regular life than I thought it would be. When I get bogged down in the details I like to think of things I won’t miss (hey, that means another list!)

Cleaning – Yeah that’s not a tough one.
Laundry – Seriously, it drives me crazy. It never stays done. Isn’t the definition of insanity repeating the same action but expecting a different outcome? Unfortunately we aren’t wearing disposable clothes so yes, it will still have to be done but perhaps the volume and the time spent on it can change.
Meal planning – At least for the first three months I won’t have to figure out What’s For Dinner.
Cooking – I don’t mind cooking but I am a happy to not have to do it for a while.
Chores – So this list seems to have a common theme. I don’t even want to think about what happens when we come back. Hopefully I will have had enough of a break that the regular stuff wont feel like such a beat down chore.

Danielle & I took our first cruise in 1996 – a week in the southern Caribbean aboard Carnival’s Inspiration. We were immediately hooked and have taken over a dozen more since then, but never longer than 8 days at a time, which always seems too short.

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I might have to just start the next few posts with, “I’m not ready.” Because I’m not. And I’m not totally sure how you get really ready for something this big. I’m a pack the night before kind of person but obviously I can’t do that this time. And now the deadline moves up. Our first flight takes off in 48 days (yikes! that isn’t very far) but closing on the house sale is now in 30 days. Nothing like a deadline to push you into action.

I have made some progress with the sorting, reducing, and selling of stuffs but I am not sure what I should be doing next. Time to start making my trusty list.

make list
sell something
pack something
add something else to list just for crossing off

Crap, I’m not ready.

With 51 days to go, I guess it’s finally time to start letting all my coworkers & clients know what’s going on. Earlier this week I was informed that my imminent departure will be on the agenda of the Thursday staff meeting (Although I informed management of my decision months ago, I’ve been under strict orders to keep it quiet until now). Hooray - I can finally stop living a double life!

So, to all my coworkers, clients & friends – welcome!

Before you start pounding me with questions, have a look around this blog, especially the FAQ page. Then sign up for my RSS feed and come along for the ride! And if any of you have some travel tips for me, please share.

Now that I don’t have to pretend this isn’t happening at work everyday, maybe this trip will start to seem more real. If only I can find someone to buy my house & all my stuff. Anyone?

Frankly, yes. Or as much as we can. My goal was not to box it all up for later. I decided to take the time to really decide the need for all my stuffs.

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Marc and I would occasionally have conversations along the lines of:

Marc: What would you do if money were no object?
Me: Why, have you found buried treasure in the yard?
Marc: No.
Me: Then why do you need to know?

I get where he is trying to go with this but it seems like an impossible question to answer. I’m trying to answer the more important questions of, “What’s for dinner?”, “What else do we need from the store?”, and ” Why can’t the laundry just stay done?”

Finally, he asked me a question I could answer:

Marc: Why don’t we take off and live on a cruise ship for a year?
Me: What??? (Did he really just ask that?)
Marc: Think of it as a mini retirement while we are still young.
Me: Are you crazy? (Even I thought this)
Marc: Yes, that’s why you married me.
Me: Can we afford it? (Oh, I am so in)
Marc: I think so.
Me: Would we sell the house? What about work? Homeschool
the kids? What about insurance? What about our stuff?
Marc: Well now you’re just talking logistics.