It is under two weeks now...

Minus 12 days and counting, and things keep falling into place.  We got our passports back with visas!  This was huge in the stress-relief department.  Most people never have to get a visa because a passport is good for travel to most places for up to 90 days.  Getting a passport is easy because you deal with the U.S. government.  Getting an Italian visa is hard because you deal with the Italian government.  To get the visa, you have to give them your U.S. passport because the visa will be attached to it.  Think of it as your passport crossing the event horizon of a black hole.  Since applying in June, I made several calls to the consulate to check on the status.  When I was able to get through, I got no specific information about progress, only that it was in process and they were swamped with applications.  Then, two weeks ago, they were not answering the phone, and the voicemail system was full.  It was not clear how or when we would get back our passports, with or without visas.  But it ended well--I finally got through by calling a different department and getting routed over to visas (they had a phone glitch over there).  Then they actually called me, to get one last piece of documentation, and then called again to let us know that the passports and visas had been sent.  So the opaque system in the end became transparent and the staff were friendly and helpful, proving once again "there's no problem, only solutions."

If I may be permitted to be philosophical, moving (even temporarily) to a foreign country has many indirect benefits.  In the process of a long good-bye, I have never felt so close to so many people.  You don't lose friends, you make more and stronger friends.  It also puts in perspective what our material needs are, and they are a lot less than what we have.  We have donated, recycled, or thrown away so much stuff.  It was stuff that was just here, serving no purpose, taking space in our closets and garage.  It was an albatross around our neck, an anchor dragging us down.  Our move is our opportunity and motivation to lighten up.  We could have done it without moving to Italy, hypothetically, but in reality?

This past week has been a big one for family.  Liz flew in last Thursday night and has been busy seeing old friends and shopping with her mom.  Violet's birthday party was on Saturday, a wonderfully chaotic affair with twenty kids at the Poway Community Pool, and then we had Violet and Andrew over for a much quieter day on Sunday.  Nephew Michael Jahns surprised us with a phone call that he was in town, and he and brother Stevie visited with us on Tuesday.  Stevie is living in Leucadia and working at Jake's in Del Mar--he showed us a video of his new pug puppy Kimo.

So, what is left?   We will have to ship a few things and take the remaining stuff that does not go with the house to a storage unit.  Carmen has to clean out a ton of bathroom and cosmetic things from under the bathroom counter--that might take a week.  Forward the mail.  Then we pack and...arrivederci!

Preparazione - Agosto, Settimana Due

Going far away for a year is exciting and energizing, but the downside is the family and friends we will miss.  A year is no big deal for the adults--you will not have changed much when we get back.  It is the grandkids that we will miss seeing a year of fast changes.  For the record, here are recent photos, of Violet from a weekend visit,  and of Justin and Melissa's girls, taken during Carmen's trip to New York in June:

We did not get any shots of the Portland grandkids when Amy and Scott visited in June, so I lifted two of Scott's photos from his website:

We know that we will love getting regular reports of their adventures while we are away, and lots of photos (not to mention online live video sessions) so we will not be too surprised about how much they have changed when we get back!

Preparazione - Agosto

It is venerdi (Friday), il primo agosto.  32 days until departure.  All major things are taken care of except for packing up our place, and Carmen is making huge progress on that, despite the stress fracture that slows her down.  Slows her down?  Not even!  Here is a short video of her scooting around on her knee scooter:

Clearly I have a bit to learn about how to keep a video in focus.  Please just take this as practice for videos when it really counts--in Italia!  This will be a short one; hope you enjoy the video!