Need to travel more!

I have a long way to go...I've only been to 3% of the world's countries!



create your own visited country map
or write about it on the open travel guide

Invaluable Friendship

I just returned from a girls' weekend in Chicago with two of my best friends from college. We had an awesome time just hanging out, being silly and reconnecting. We hadn't gotten together, all three of us, for 4-5 years...too long. It was awesome that we could just sort of pick up where we left off and it was like we were all still rooming together or living across the hall from each other. Friends like that don't come along every day.

Am I just seeing things?

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel or am I just seeing things? Lately I've been feeling completely overrun and overwhelmed with details about moving and with work. Yesterday I worked 14 hours - and that has become more the norm than I'd like. There are just not enough hours in the day to get everything done.

Today, however, I felt some of the pressure let off. My clients are finding people to replace me and I start training them next week! At least in one area of my life things are about to get a bit easier. Thank goodness, because I was about to collapse under the weight of everything that has to be done.

My house is officially a disaster

Over the course of the past few weeks my husband has been moving off the ship that he has been stationed on for the last four years. Even though he didn't have much in the way of storage space, it is amazing how much stuff he brought home! Did I mention that we live in a teeny tiny one bedroom apartment? So, there is no place to put all of this stuff. My house is normally pretty clean, at least decently picked up, and now I don't stand a chance. I guess this is the first stage of the disaster that comes before moving. The mess drives me crazy, but somehow I don't see it getting any better before we leave. I'm starting to just want to get moved and settled in Sicily and have this whole transition nonsense done with.

Planning the move

The details of moving are incredibly overwhelming. Add to that the overseas part, not knowing where we are going to live when we get there, flying with the kitty...and the list goes on and on.

I put together a checklist today of the things that I can think of right now, I emailed our sponsor with my questions so that should be a good start. Its hard to look at that list and not get a little be scared. There are just so many unknowns and we only have 3 months to get it all figured out!!!

Although I am thrilled at the thought of living in Europe, the move is bittersweet. First and foremost I will miss my friends & family terribly. As exciting and romantic as living in Europe sounds I know I will have to deal with an extreme bout of homesickness. Going to boarding school was excruciating, going away to college was tough too. Each time the adjustment process was hard. Hopefully it'll be easier this time because at least I will be with my hubbie.


I'm also going to miss San Diego, and California in general. California has always been home to me, even through the relatively short stints that I lived in Florida & Nevada. San Diego is an awesome city - it doesn't surprise me in the least that it is so expensive to live here. The weather is almost always great (except right now it is so humid I'd swear I was in Hawaii or Florida) and there is always something to do. We live in a great neighborhood. Our neighbors are friendly and my best friend in San Diego just happens to live upstairs...pretty cool. There is a great coffee shop just around the corner and several great restaurants in walking distance. You can also find pretty much any ethnicity of food within a 5-10 minute drive. Yep, I'm pretty spoiled here!

It'll be interesting to see where we end up living in Sicily. I have no idea how close to town the military housing will be, how easy the public transportation will be to navigate. I can't wait to find out!

Are we really moving?

It started to hit me about a month ago, but it still doesn't feel quite real. Moving out of California is something I can barely imagine, let alone moving halfway across to the world to another country. I've never been to Sicily, but I can't wait to see what it is like.

Les & I sat down last night and actually started planning....we worked out a list of questions that we need to get answered, and that list is just going to get longer and longer. Every detail brings up a hundred other details that need to be addressed. I think my biggest concern at this point is traveling with our cat, but that will work itself out I suppose - I've heard people do it all the time!