Emphasis on the 7

I made it to the first big deadline: the movers!  I've been gathering "stuff" from around the house for the apartment in Hawaii for the last week and I never thought I'd see it all packed up and gone!  Heck, I never thought I'd see the dining room table again!  Picture an average size dining room with an oval table and 6 chairs covered in pots, pans, glasses, silverware, plates, cups, small appliances, storage containers and everything you need to furnish a small house!  You could barely move about the room and when I did I usually knocked stuff over.  What took me almost two weeks to carefully gather took 3 movers 3 hours to wrap, pack and haul away.

Two shippments are now on their way to Hawaii.  One shippment of clothing, books and pillows will go by air and should arrive in Hawaii in 5 to 7 days (emphasis on 7) and the other shipment of household goods, some furniture and more clothes will travel by ship and should arrive in Hawaii in 5 to 7 weeks (emphasis on 7 again)!  Our little PT Cruiser (Elliott) will be picked up tomorrow and transported by truck (ya' know the big semi trucks you see cruising down the road with all the cars in the racks) to California then placed on a ship and scheduled to arrive in Hawaii in 7 to 9 weeks (emphasis on the 9).  I'm going to be very busy in about 7 weeks unpacking and setting up house on a tropical island.

With one big task completed I begin another task: worrying.  Did I take enough?  Did I take too much?  Do I have enough clothes?  Did I take too many shoes?  Did I take my blue purse and did I remember to pack enough towels?  Will I have enough to furnish an apartment?  Will the apartment be overflowing with "stuff?"  How many pairs of flip flops do I need? How many swim suits do I need? And will I really want to burn candles in a tropical paradise?  So this worrying will continue for 7 weeks; or so...

My next big task is packing my 2 suitcases, 1 carry on and back pack for the flight on Saturday.  I worry about stuffing the suitcases so full that they will weigh more than 50 pounds each and cost me even more to check through and I worry about how I will manage basically 4 suitcases when I get where I'm going!  I've always had Brent with me to help with the luggage but not this time.  I figure no matter how I pack Brent will end up at the UPS store or the Post Office shipping me some boxes next week because I won't be able to fit everything in the suitcases!  Thankfully they won't take 7 weeks to get to me!