T minus Six Days: What did I miss?

The exciting update since the last post is that I finally got through to the Transfer of Residence helpline: shortly after 5am this morning, I actually got put through to the hold queue. Half an hour later, I was privileged enough to speak to a real live person.

Granted, it was a real live person with a thick accent on a terrible line. But with some effort, he managed to make me understand that my application needed some more supporting documents... namely a different proof of address and the cats' pet passports. He promised me faithfully that if I sent those, he would prioritise my application. I would have felt more confident had he also given me a different set of contact details than I had before, but instead everything got sent to the same address, and if I don't hear back, all I can do is call the same too-busy helpline.

In a week's time, we will be in the UK. Hopefully at my parents' house with the cats. I'm not entirely sure what happens with the cats if I don't have my ToR number, but let us be optimistic. What I do know is that this is our last week here, and things are officially frenetic.

We have the last medical appointments to work through. The last get-togethers with friends. The last sessions of our various hobbies. And somewhere in all those things that we absolutely don't want to miss, we need to fit in the last preparations for the move.

This means the week is packed, and my brain is so crammed full of Things To Know that it has decided to conserve storage space by shutting down most of its lesser functions. I'm now incapable of many day-to-day life tasks, and I certainly have no recollection of why anything's on the to-do list... I just know it needs to be done.

This has all but annihilated my ability to adapt. A few people today had to cancel/reschedule our plans, and I couldn't handle the adjustment. I'm not sure if I freaked out over them or went into a catatonic state, but it definitely wasn't a poised and appropriate reaction. Everybody around me has to be very patient right now.

Luckily for me, most of them are also being completely awesome. As I am overwhelmed by moving minutia, other people have arranged for me to get a break from the madness. The parkour group made sure I crossed off the biggest item left on my Virginia bucket list: hiking Old Rag (see picture below). My reprobate mom friends took over the house of an absent aunt so that the kids and I could have one last pool day (see picture above). Others have reached out on an individual basis for one last get-together...

And that's the sadness amid the joy. This isn't a week where we have time to look forward. The more fun we have with our friends, the more we think about what we're leaving behind. So as much of a celebration of our American life this week is, it's also a week of grieving.

Fortunately, grieving is healthy too. We will have our moments to grieve and then, next week, we'll move on.