May 2022 - Move Update
Hello as I wrap up April in our Seattle to Panama trek! I am a day behind in zipping this off because of migraines - the days I have them don't count, therefore, my brain is still in April!
Miguel has been working a 70% schedule instead of 50%. He had explained to his body that it would only be required to do 50% this year, and then caregiver burnout and long-delayed vacations required that he help fill in staffing gaps at the hospital. As we also had dropped down to one car, the adjustments have been household wide. This coming week is Miguel's last 4-day week, and after that, he goes back to a three-day week alternating with a two-day week. That offers me more flexibility in getting stuff done and out of the house, as well as bringing him into the work roster on the major clean-out required for us to get a move on!
I joined a migraine study as I have had major problems with headaches for the past year. The study requires that I submit an electronic diary each day, and from that, I learned that I lost 22 days of March and 21 days of April to migraines, and then I squished in aura days before the migraines, and hangover days after the migraines. I just started a test medication that reduces the pain of the headaches, but it doesn't change the duration or the other symptoms - that means I can be a nicer person and not hide out as much in the dark, but my brain should not be attempting to rouse dated memories or make decisions requiring critical thinking (no critical functions). As you can imagine, I am not making nearly the progress I had expected when we returned.
BUT! All is not lost. I have found that I have a great skill in sorting paperwork and routing things to recycle even when my other functions are at low tide, so ten years of paperwork from the 26 I have lived here are sorted and mostly routed to become your next grocery bag. I worked with Yuli (now 8 years old) to get some move-in packages created for Vincent House, a low-income apartment building at the Pike Place Market where over 90% of the move-ins come from nearby homeless people and need basics like towels and sheets and dishes to make their new home.
I have been slowly moving through the back room's piles, and I have unearthed the downside of my being a very organized capitalist. I was raised as a "pantry person" who makes sure that there is always backup stock of Ritz, comet cleanser, dish and hand soaps, tuna by the Costco pack, and on and on. I am organized where everything has its place, and there are probably 4 of everything (4 back-ups to the one in use). That means that if everything is not exactly in its place, it doesn't fit in the house. There cannot be 5 extras, because the space is organized for 4 and the 5th one just doesn't fit! No corner is empty. No cupboard has extra space to squeeze in a delightful pudding pot or hot air frier - nothing can be added unless something goes, first.
The capitalist part is that there is apparently unending stuff - if I can get $5 off by buying 5, then we have 5. With only a few months left in this home, I can stop buying all of those former pantry storage items, BUT, I also have to empty out the thousands of nooks and crannies that contain those extras I already have in place.
The over-organized aspect is that I have cupboards that are in layers - the stuff we access most often at the front, and the stuff only I would access at the back. Having lived here for 26 years, there are things in the back that I forgot 25 years ago - or at least 10 years ago!
And when we get to the memory stuff, I just found patterns for clothes I designed in the 70s and 80s; I haven't even owned a sewing machine for 20 years, and I haven't been that size for 30 years! I concentrated on giving away holiday wrapping and cards the past two years - and I found at least enough to get me another 6 or 7 years still in the corners. I have report cards from my childhood. We have photos in albums from my entire life and travels - photos that need to get selectively reduced and then digitized. Whew!
The trick to being organized is to first stop buying so much and then make its storage at my house logical and accessible. I left out the "buy as I need" change and now I feel that I am wading through 26 years of organizational layers - and that is WORK! I do have the chance to do a better job in Panama - and I realize that I will welcome the change.
PHOTOS
Another major reminder for me is that I have been collecting artwork since I was a teenager and our family went to the Bellevue Art Fair and the Kirkland Street Fair and the University Street Fair every year. I have the first large piece of artwork I bought at age 16 in my storage unit - two young girls in a golden and avocado-colored garden with macrame laid into the paint that makes their clothing VERY early 70s in style. My original intent was to build a collection of artwork for every season, and seasonally change out the whole house's walls while storing the other three season's worth in the basement. When I started traveling for a living in 1995, I didn't get home to stay very often, and the idea of changing out the artwork and furniture covers seasonally was more than could reasonably happen. I continued to mark my travels with special artwork purchases, but the artwork hasn't moved around much in the past 25 years. Also, the special Autumn leaves photo I bought in Amish country Pennsylvania, the picture from London painted by a Viet Nam vet with PTSD, and the large Diego Rivera picture I got to mark my wonderful stays in Durango, Mexico - they mean a lot to me, but to most of the world, they may be interesting and large, but mean nothing. So, I am saving photos of my treasures, and moving them on to new lives. I do need to see them move out of our house so that I can feel like progress is being made, but part of the move is my acknowledgment that my artwork collection means wonderful things only to me. Since I first started having apartments at 18, a move didn't feel like a home until my artwork was hung. Now, with this move to Panama, a move without any of my artwork, it feels like I am changing the essence of me - not a bad thing, just a big difference.
I thought I would show you some of my treasures, and if you would like anything, let me know. If not, they are going out into the world naked to find someone else to love them!
I have a lot of artwork to go, but I thought it would be fun to put some on display this way, since the house/gallery will be closing soon!
Thank you for your time and for supporting us through all of the changes required to make this move to Panama. Miguel and I are very excited to get moving, and that is a wonderful motivator every morning.
See you later this month with the May Seattle-to-Panama update!
Mary Bea y Miguel