Eight Rolls of Packing Tape

The other day, a friend asked me if I was enjoying my summer off; I tried not to scare her with my maniacal laughter, but it was hard to stifle.  While it’s certainly been productive, the past few weeks have not exactly been relaxing.  Yesterday morning, we completed the latest phase of preparation by shipping 18 boxes to Houston, where they will be loaded onto a container ship bound for the west coast of Africa; ideally, it will arrive around the time school starts.  

The packing itself was quite the challenge.  As I wedged inverted containers of face wash into the gaps around other toiletries, Brian commented that I must have played with shapes a lot as a child.  I have to admit, whether it was cramming in mattress pads to cushion the guitar or making pairs of shoes fit together like a jigsaw puzzle, my powers of spatial reasoning really stepped up to the plate.  My sense of restraint, however, wasn’t as impressive, and I went a bit overboard on the tape.  (Even the UPS guy was a little taken aback.  “Well,” he said, “you really shellacked these, huh?”) 

Emotionally, the packing was difficult, too.  How do you decide which books you’ll want to read over the next two years?  For a pair of English teachers, we figured two boxes of books were allowable, but it was hard to draw the line.  I limited myself to only a couple of already-read books: A River Runs Through It (for when I miss Montana) and Ted Kooser’s Local Wonders (for when I miss the Midwest and seasons).  Speaking of seasons, I also had a hard time not packing my fleece jackets and wool sweaters.  Obviously, I won’t need those near the equator, but it made it hit home that for the first time in my life, I’ll be living somewhere without a fall and winter.  It’s really going to throw me off balance.

Anyway, everything’s shipped except the few items we’ll need until we leave and what we’ll take to Peru.  More importantly, our living room no longer looks like a warehouse (Brian resisted the urge to make a fort).  Now if our visas would just get here, we’d be in business.