What did you do this afternoon?

We cashed in a butt load of change at a Coinstar. Then we took our cash and went crazy. We cut off all our hair and saw Pineapple Express. It was so nice to sit and do nothing for a couple hours. And the movie was pretty funny. And we also have lighter, hot-weather hairstyles. (We were both getting a little shaggy.)

The Cupboards Are Bare

The packers came late yesterday, but they came. Our food and clothes are gone. This morning they're going to our storage unit to pick up the rest of our stuff. I have my last dentist appointment this morning. We still have some errands to run and we have to spruce up the apartment a bit. But for the most part we're just waiting around for a few days.

I've been sending this blog link to lots of friends and family members recently so you can follow our journey. Welcome new readers! If you scroll down on the right-hand side a bit you'll see links for subscribing via an RSS feeder or email. Do that so you don't have to bookmark and remember to check the blog. You'll get a handy little reminder when I've posted something. Isn't that easy?

No Sleep 'til Buj

We are back from the land of Springsteen and not a moment too soon. Our train got delayed a little yesterday and I feel like we've been scrambling ever since we stepped off it. Our beloved Subaru is in New Jersey now and we're renting a monster Mercury Grand Marquis. It's like driving around on a sofa. The first time I sat down in it I stretched out my legs and my flip-flops fell off, I was that relaxed and it's that roomy.

The cats had their pre-flight checkup last night and got their microchips. It's been quite a puzzle trying to figure out how to get them on the plane. We're taking them as excess baggage but we're transferring between two different airlines, and those airlines have different requirements for flying pets. (I had typed "pests"; what a Freudian slip.) And the transfer point is a European Union country, so who really knows what's going to happen when we show up there. They don't have rabies, they do have microchips, and on Friday they'll be USDA-approved. That should be good enough for them to travel anywhere.

Momentarily we expect packers to arrive to take our clothes and food. Tomorrow packers go to the storage unit to gather up the rest of our stuff. There's nothing for us to do now but sit and wait.

Kings of the Road

Today we head north to Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York for the last weekend of our farewell tour. We're driving up and leaving our car with Mike's dad, then taking the train home. It's going to be sad, leaving our car behind. It looks sad enough with New Jersey plates instead of California plates. But to not drive it again for two years? Oh, I'll miss our Subaru!

Last night we did some more shopping and made another trip to the storage unit. We were planning to hit Costco but found the majority of our list items at Home Depot. We had to stop at Home Depot to buy a charcoal grill (no propane in Burundi, apparently, plus the movers won't take the tank anyway) and they had all the pest control products we need, too. And let's grab a couple fire-proof document safes while we're there, too.

The drive from Home Depot to the storage unit is about five minutes, seven if you have to stop for lights. As we're driving along I noticed a funny smell in the car, but didn't say anything. It wasn't a bad smell, just a smell I hadn't smelled before in the car. As we were unloading our things we noticed some of the boxes were wet on the bottom. A bottle of pesticide had leaked from its top.

We are both quite proud of ourselves for how calmly we handled the situation. I opened the boxes and pulled out my clothes and fabrics. They hadn't been sitting in the wetness long enough for any damage to happen to the contents, but the boxes were ruined. We had some other boxes with enough room to stuff the clothes and fabrics into. We also have a rubber liner in the trunk of the car so could take it out and rinse it and let it dry while we were up in our storage unit. Crisis averted. (We are certainly not bringing that bottle of pesticide with us now; it can't be trusted. Some landscapers rent parking spaces at the storage unit and we gave the bottle to one of them.)

One of the chores we had to do at Costco was return a case of motor oil that we bought by mistake. But we didn't have the receipt so decided we'd wait until next week. Since we're not taking it to Burundi with us it's a chore that can be put off until after the packers come. So we grabbed some dinner and then came home. Mike grabbed the box from the back... and it was all wet. What? But the pesticide was in the wayback. The motor oil was right behind the passenger seat. Nothing else is wet.

Oil! We opened the box and the bottles were covered with oil. How did that happen? And when? Sigh. It doesn't really matter. We can't return it now. It's not the right kind of oil for our Subaru or our Burundi truck, which is why we were returning it in the first place. The box is all oily so we can't bring it up to our apartment. It's going to New Jersey with us. Someone we know in New Jersey must need a case of oil, or at least have a garage it can live in until it finds a home.

Time to get up and pack for the weekend. I really want this trip to be as uneventful as possible.

The Last Day

It's not the last day we're in the United States, but it's Mike's last day of French class and my last day of work. There's no turning back now! We have to move to Burundi because that's where our jobs are.

I'm going to miss my job. I've been doing it for so many years now it's a daily habit. And a good one. I like my job. And I'm leaving it under such unusual circumstances. I'm not fired or quitting because I'm unhappy. I'm not outgrowing it and moving on to a bigger and better position. I'm not leaving to have kids. When I moved across the country they let me telecommute, so even when I left the city I didn't leave the job.

I'm ending the job now because, I guess, this particular job is an inconvenience for me to keep doing in Burundi. We won't have reliable internet in our house which makes the job impossible to do. Work is an inconvenience. What a crazy notion.

I think I'm going to feel like I'm just on vacation from my job until I wake up in Burundi to my new life. It hasn't quite hit me yet that tomorrow's going to be any different from any other Friday.

Fatigue and Good-byes

We're tired. Again last night we didn't sleep well, but that's just one small part of it.

We're tired of living transitionally. We're tired of waiting to move. We're tired of all our belongings being in storage. Living in D.C. has been fun but we're tired of taking advantage of the fun stuff. Our stomachs are tired of so much restaurant food.

We're tired of dealing with the airlines and the cats. Why is it so hard and why won't customer service actually serve customers?

We're tired of all the errands. We're tired of doctor and dentist and vet appointments. And they're not finished yet. We have something scheduled for nearly every day from now until we leave, either shopping or a visit to some sort of waiting room.

We haven't even started packing yet. That will be a different kind of tired next week.

I'm not tired of saying good-bye though. I still have a little glow leftover from our weekend in Rhode Island. A friend from high school was in D.C. visiting last weekend. Last night we had dinner with my aunt, my cousin, her husband, and their brand-new, two-weeks-old-tomorrow baby girl. The next time I see her she's going to look a lot different. Sometimes the actual travel is a chore and the time that visiting takes away from the moving preparations causes a tinge of anxiety, but actually making that connection with people has become important to me. I don't want to zoom out of town and say good-bye with a mass email. I want to say good-bye in person.

24 Hours on Mefloquine

Mike and I took our first malaria pills yesterday morning after breakfast. Despite all the horror stories we've heard about the side effects, neither of us suffered too much. I had a headache most of the day but there were several factors that could have contributed to it. The most annoying thing for me was that I was exhausted but couldn't fall asleep last night. (OMG anxiety and insomnia!) Finally after one o'clock I dozed off and stayed asleep until about six this morning. This morning Mike said he had the vivid, psychedelic dreams last night and didn't sleep well. (It makes sense: He has some pretty weird dreams to begin with and I rarely remember having any dreams at all.)

We both agree that our side effects haven't impaired our abilities to function normally. After all they hype, I'm relieved it's not so bad. But we'll see what happens next Sunday. Will the side effects continue throughout the week or are they strongest on the day you take the pill? Does the medicine build up over time, causing the side effects to get worse? Is this my anxiety taking over?

The Last September You'll Ever See

The newest, albeit lame, James Bond flick? No. It's what Mike and I were discussing on an early run this morning (which we grudgingly dragged ourselves out of bed for). The heat and humidity have lifted in D.C.--temporarily at least. When we stepped outside I remarked that it kind of felt like September rather than the oppressive August weather we've been having. Mike said "Enjoy it while you can," and it dawned on me that soon we'll be leaving behind seasons as we know them. Instead of spring, summer, winter, and fall, we'll have steady temperatures with dry, less dry, wet, and wetter seasons. (When do I need to plant my pumpkin seeds in order to have jack o'lanterns for Halloween?)

We're still running around shopping like crazy.

This weekend we start our malaria pills, an affair that will last until four weeks after we finally leave Burundi.

Next week we're squeezing in as many "one last visits" with local friends as possible.

We tackled my family last weekend and will tackle Mike's on our last weekend.

Our last week is all scheduled with the cats' vet appointments and our packout dates. (Yesterday I was insane with panic because none of those dates were set yet; today it's all taken care of.)

It's about this time in the moving process that I've learned to turn on autopilot and just read my calendar and do what it tells me without thinking too much. Could it be I'm finally getting used to this?

We consume.

We started buying our consumables in earnest last week. This is our haul from Costco. We made it through toiletries and some kitchen and cleaning stuff before our cart was too heavy to push and it occurred to us we only have one car and can only carry so much stuff home. We have a list and for the most part we stuck to it. Also we have time to do a bit of comparison shopping and buy some of our preferred brands at other stores if Costco doesn't have them. It's all sort of a puzzle. We need X amount of stuff as cheaply and from as few stores as possible, but for some items we're willing to pay a tad more to get a specific brand.

Aside from the toiletries and cleaning products from Costco we also placed a gigantic order with Amazon.com Groceries. They have bulk discounts on, surprisingly, most of the gluten-free foods I eat on a regular basis. My favorite crackers, cookies, and pasta plus some of the Bob's Red Mill baking mixes are available for much cheaper than specifically gluten-free shopping sites. Who knew that something as mainstream as Amazon.com could be such a gluten-free paradise? If you shop smartly and choose only items from Amazon and not outside sellers, you'll get free shipping on all of it, too.

(And while we were at Amazon we couldn't resist adding a few DVDs to our order.)

We'll have a yard with enough room for a garden, so we ordered seeds for some of our favorite vegetables that we might not be able to buy fresh there. As adults, neither of us have lived in a place where we can have gardens (except for a small patch of tomatoes at one place) and we're looking forward to having one. Apparently the soil is very fertile and any plant that likes sun and water will do well.

We also bought gallons of facial products from The Body Shop and I placed an Arbonne order with Vicky for all the sunblock I'll need.

Next we have to focus on the cats. They, also, need two years' worth of their favorite food and litter. Man, that's going to be heavy.

We know that we have to ignore the current economy and think ahead. All this stuff we're buying is an investment. We'll be happy with our preferred brands and favorite foods and life will be a little bit easier. Life will be different enough, and hard at times, without worrying about running out to CVS for deodorant (and CVS, of course, doesn't exist in Bujumbura). If we were to run out to the European grocery store American brands of cereal could cost upwards of $15 a box, so it's in our best financial interest to bring some with us (local brands have little to no quality control). But with all the rational thought behind it, it's still very weird to be shopping for the future like this.

I Have the Fever

Not dance fever or Saturday Night Fever. Yellow fever. Yesterday I got my vaccinations for yellow fever and measles, mumps, and rubella. Within an hour, a measley-looking rash appeared on my arm. That's a common side effect. It's not itchy and it doesn't appear to have spread overnight so I'm not worried, just afraid to show my arm in public.

What did happen overnight? I felt fine when I went to bed. But when the alarm went off at 5:30 to wake me up for a run I ignored it. I told Mike, "I feel hot and achy." We don't have a thermometer, but I suspect the hotness is due to the warmth and humidity outside while the air conditioner isn't turned up enough inside, not an actual fever. The aching is nothing like the arm-impeding aches from the last round of shots, thank goodness. This is more a general flu-like crappiness. These are all regular effects from the vaccination. I'm going to be like this for a couple days, but that's better than turning yellow and dying if I get bit by the wrong mosquito.

So far I've experienced the more mild side effects of all my shots, which I suppose is a good thing, compared to having the moderate or severe side effect. Although, I'm jealous of anyone who doesn't get any side effects at all. It makes me wonder what I should look forward to as the mild side effects of my malaria pills.

Dental Adventure Two

I was so obsessed with the cavities in my last post that I neglected to mention that the dentist referred me to an oral surgeon for an impacted wisdom tooth. I got my consultation this morning and the little sucker has to come out.

In some ways I've been lucky with my dental history. I simply don't have a full set of adult teeth and that's a good thing because my mouth is so small. It's not like they rotted and fell out. When my baby teeth came out, adult teeth never grew in to replace them. I have a small gap on one side but otherwise the missing teeth are unnoticeable.

Three of the missing teeth are wisdom teeth. That was always a good thing because if the teeth aren't there to begin with then they don't have to be surgically extracted. The fourth was actually embedded deep down and sideways, with the chewing surface facing the inside of my mouth. Dentists always told me not to worry about it unless it started to move toward the molar next to it.

Well, it's apparently been doing summersaults. Not only is it nudged up against the molar, the chewing surface now faces the molar. How could that have happened without my noticing? You'd think that so much movement would have been felt. It just seems impossible. I never had any irritation from that corner of my mouth. Whatever. Happen it did.

Since the wisdom tooth is starting to touch the molar it has to come out sooner rather than later. Normally one would have a few months to think about the pain and costs of this surgery. But we're moving to Burundi of course, so less than a week after my last filling is filled I'll be back in the chair getting this tooth out.

Wonderful Advances in Dental Technology

This morning I went to the dentist for the first time in, ahem, approximately 10 years. I really have no excuse other than the usual laziness and fear and procrastination. But I finally realized that I'm probably pushing my dental health luck and I've been afraid that my teeth are all going to fall out the moment I arrive in Burundi, where they don't have wonderful advances in dental technology.

The good news is that the dentist said the damage isn't as bad as it could be after 10 years. I brush every day and floss once or twice a week. Not perfect, but not the worst record. I don't drink soda or fruit juices and I'm getting enough calcium. My major tooth enemy is chocolate.

I have cavities. A good portion of them are from the 20-year-old silver fillings in my teeth that have deteriorated and allowed new cavities to move in. (Note to anyone in their 30s who had silver fillings as a youngster: Get those checked out. Apparently they have a "shelf life" of 10 to 15 years and the dentist was amazed my old ones hadn't completely broken apart.)

I was imagining root canals and giant pliers but all my cavities can be fixed with new and improved resin fillings. The dentist also told me that novocain comes in much smaller, less painful needles than it did 10 years ago and they apply a topical numbing gel before the needle goes in. We'll see how excited I am about novocain's breakthroughs after five appointments within the first two weeks of July. Oh, yeah, I said five within two weeks.

Guess how much our insurance covers? None of it! I actually had to set up a finance plan to pay for all my fillings. So you'd better believe I'm going to keep this investment shiny and new looking. On the way home I stopped off at CVS for an alcohol-free mouthwash and those little flossing sticks that make it easier. The dentist said that after I eat chocolate I should at the very least rinse my mouth if not brush. Chocolate sits on your teeth, not only staining them but also allowing the bad bacteria to gobble up all the sugar.

So a lesson to the kids out there. Go to the dentist. It sucks. But it might not be as bad as you fear.

Vaccination Vacation

I have much to say about our weekend trip to Charlottesville for Mike's reunion. Unfortunately I can't use my arms very successfully right now. I got my first round of vaccinations yesterday!

My doctor's letter arrived in the mail over the weekend and I called the clinic as soon as they opened yesterday morning. They said I could come at 3:00 and I could not be late. I arrived nice and early at 2:45 and sat in the waiting room until 3:45. Usual doctor's office stuff, and I was replaying the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode in my head where Larry is racing a girl down the hall to the dentist's office because it doesn't matter if you have an appointment, what matters is who signs in first.

Finally the same nurse I saw last time called me in. She glanced at my letter for a second, made a little mark on her chart, and put it aside. That's it. No discussion about it, nothing. I'm not sure she even read it, she looked at it for such a short amount of time. Argh. Then she starts going over the list of shots I need. She doesn't like to do more than four or five in one visit and I need at least 8. Some of them are done in three stages. And yellow fever is only given once a week at a specific day and time (and not the day and time I was there). So it was like doing a puzzle, trying to figure out my shot schedule for the next month. Yesterday I got tetanus, typhoid, and the first doses of hep A and hep B -- two shots in each arm. In two weeks I get yellow fever and I think polio. Two weeks after that I go back for second doses of the heps and I pick up my malaria pills. And then, get this, the rest of my shots I get in Burundi! Assuming they are available there!

My arms are aching. Using them a "normal amount" is supposed to relieve the pain, but I feel like I can barely move them. Now that I'm awake I'm trying to lift them over my head every few minutes. (Obviously I couldn't move them in my sleep; in fact, I slept on my sides, probably making them even more achy.) It feels like I did 100 pushups last night.

We Have Reservations

Mike confirmed our flight reservations today. We really are leaving for Burundi soon! The only kind of reservations we have are for the flight though; we're thrilled to be on our way.

This weekend we took the car to New Jersey to get it registered there in Mike's dad's name. He's keeping the car for us while we're in Burundi. We love it too much to sell and storing it would be expensive. Our little car looks so sad with New Jersey plates instead of California plates.

I'm anxiously awaiting the letter from my doctor in San Francisco allowing me to get my vaccinations. She faxed it to me before mailing the original but she sent it through the fax machine upside-down, so I received a blank page. By the time I could call her to ask her about it, she had already mailed it. Not a huge deal, since I wouldn't have been able to get my vaccinations over the weekend anyway, but it would have been nice to preview the letter to make sure it's absolutely correct before she mailed it.

It feels like we're on a farewell tour. I spent that week in Rhode Island with family and hope to get back for a few days; we spent last weekend with Mike's dad and will be going back once more. The next two weekends we're spending with friends. We have a lot of good-byes to say over the next few weeks.

No vaccinations for you!

I had all my childhood immunization records in hand and I cleared my afternoon schedule so I could sit and relax with my jacked up arm. But I was denied my vaccinations yesterday. Because of my gluten-free necessity I have to get a note from "my regular doctor" saying that it's okay for me to be vaccinated.

Let me tell you how many ways this sucks.

I don't have a regular doctor. We've lived in 4 different cities in 4 years. When did I have time to get a regular doctor? I can't go to one of the doctors Mike's employer uses. They have to have my note from an outside doctor.

Vaccinations don't even have gluten in them. I mentioned gluten on the questionnaire they gave me because there's a chance it will be in the malaria pills I'll eventually have to take. I was hoping the nurse would know which pills were gluten-free.

But it's not a question of ingredients to Mike's employer. It's a question of liability. In no way can it be their fault if I have a bad reaction to anything they give me. On one hand, I can understand that. But if this was going to be an issue, I think it should have been brought up during my medical clearance exams (back in November). I mentioned this to the nurse at the immunization clinic, and she said medical clearances are a different department. But they're both medical and they both affect me getting overseas. They are different departments.

So now I'm trying to get a letter. The nurse printed out a list of the immunizations I need (just about everything you can think of; she seemed incredulous that I hadn't had any vaccinations in the last 10 years). I took it to a pharmacist and the only information she could give me was the names of the manufacturers of the malaria pills, so I can call them myself. Not the phone numbers. Just the names for me to look up online myself. (Yeah, she said that. And I was too annoyed to ask, "So every time you need to call Glasko you have to do a Google search first?" I just wanted to get out of there and go home.)

Then I called the doctor in San Francisco who did my medical clearance exam. A receptionist wrote down the long list of vaccines and the 3 different malaria pill options and said she'd talk to the doctor. She remembered me from the 10 visits or so I had to make within one month, so hopefully the doctor will too and will be sympathetic and write this letter for me. The letter has to be specific. It has to list every vaccine and pill and say whether or not I can have it.

But at the end of the day, she's not "my regular doctor." I kept explaining the situation to the nurse at the immunization clinic and she laid a bunch of bologna out about my regular doctor knows what's best for me and it's in my best interest to get the letter written from my doctor. But at the end of the day, all the bureaucracy cares about is that I get any doctor's signature outside of their system so that they're not liable. The doctor's signature is meaningless if I'm the one who's done all the research because I've yet to find a doctor or pharmacist who even knows what celiac's disease is. And you know what? If I have a bad reaction to the vaccines, it's not going to be from gluten.

What would you do?

For the last two days I've been taking an emergency first aid course. Just another perk about moving to East Africa. What do you do when there's a fire, car accident, earthquake, explosion and there's no 911 to call? At the start of the class the instructor gave us a scenario and we all sat dumbfounded, thinking about what to do. She asked if anyone felt overwhelmed and almost all of us raised our hands. At the end of the class the instructor went back to the same scenario and we were all able to triage the situation. I now know how to stabilize a chest flail with my shoe. (I also now know what a chest flail is!) I feel a little like MacGuyver. I hope that at the very least, if faced with a traumatic situation, I've learned not to panic and freeze and if nothing else provide good bedside manner if I can't remember any of the physical patch-ups.

If you witness a car accident, if you see someone faint on the sidewalk, if your kid impales himself with a pen, if your grandma spills boiling water on herself, do you know what to do? It's amazing how learning a few simple tricks can alleviate pain and hopefully save a life. I didn't know an organized way of responding to a scene. Now I do. The instructor pointed out that if there was an explosion in the building we were in in Fairfax County, Virginia, it could take several hours to get all the victims to the hospital. Even in first-world suburban and urban neighborhoods, ambulances take time and the more victims you have, the more ambulances you need. It's easy to take calling 911 for granted when that's what we're trained to do from the time we first learn to use a telephone. But whether you're in Georgetown, D.C., or Georgetown, Guyana, you don't have to sit helplessly.

My course was set-up through Mike's employer but the American Red Cross offers courses for everyone.