Next Stop, Amsterdam

To say last week was a whirlwind is putting it lightly. Moving in general let alone halfway across the world is no joke, let me tell you. For me, the official push to Amsterdam began Wednesday night as I was forced to go to Phoenix for training Monday – Wednesday. I originally hadn’t planned on attending training but I got a nice little nasty-gram that I needed to complete 602 prior to my departure so off to Phoenix! There was definitely nothing else I would have been doing those 3 days though so it’s fine… Poor Bill was probably the biggest loser on me being gone. In my absence he was subject to a “Honey-Do” list and constant texts from me with chores. To his credit, he kept a good attitude and accomplished 95% of what I asked of him.

So Wednesday I get home at about 10 pm and start tearing through the house trying to make up for lost time. Bill, was not about that. He had already spent the full day getting ready and it was time to sleep. After about a half hour I put him out of his misery and agreed to go to bed dreading Thursday. The movers were coming Friday at 9 am so we had a very busy day ahead of us. Thursday I woke up and it was off to the races! Quick work out, packing, dentist appointment, more packing, turn in my US EY computer, lunch with the Fluor team, packing, packing, packing, and dinner with Taylor after which we were supposed to do more packing but red wine and sleep sounded much more appealing. So we sat on the floor of the kitchen drinking out of solo cups. A classy end to the era of my college house.

We woke up early Friday to do some more packing before the movers showed up at 9 am sharp. Man those guys are efficient. It was probably the best money I have ever spent aside from Global Entry – look it up, it will change traveling forever. The movers had our house cleared in under an hour and everything was efficiently tucked away in the moving truck. Bill accompanied the movers to our storage unit so I could – you guessed it – continue packing. I never really realized how much stuff we had until we started this process. With everything we owned we had to ask ourselves, should we take this to Amsterdam, store it, sell it or donate it. It was exhausting. And just when you think you have gone through absolutely everything, you discover a random drawer you forgot to clear out or find that the closet you thought was empty actually has a few more things left in it. Poor Bill probably made 5 trips to Southlake to take stuff to the storage unit. Good thing he loves me.

Anyway, once the movers took everything out of the house life got a lot less stressful from a packing perspective and we moved onto the errand and cleaning phase of our endeavor on Saturday. Another best money I ever spent moment was hiring a maid to clean the house. Natalia cleaned every surface, every drawer, everything. She even discovered more stuff hidden in cabinets we hadn’t checked leading to more storage unit runs for Bill. While she was busy cleaning, I tackled the errands. Returning the cable box, getting Euros, recycling old batteries found in the bottom drawer, so many things. At about 3 pm Saturday though I felt like I could breathe. We were basically done. Now all that was left to do was wait for Monday.

Then it arrived. The day of our departure. The day I have basically been anticipating for over a year. It was a little strange because I wasn’t really feeling nostalgic leaving. I had spent the majority of the last 10 years in Fort Worth but I didn’t really feel that sad leaving. I am not sure why exactly, maybe because I knew I would be back in 3 months for the holidays or that this move itself is only temporary. Regardless, the strongest emotion I was feeling was a sense of readiness. I was ready to get on the plane and go. And that we did. Poor Susan got wrangled into helping us get to the airport. We at first thought we didn’t need luggage carts. How wrong of a decision that was. After about 50 yards of serious struggle bus trying to make it to the terminal, I made us stop and told Bill to go get the carts. After that we looked less comical but we still had an obscene amount of luggage. I could sense people staring and thinking “wow how much stuff to you really need” mostly because I think this every time I see someone with huge stockpiles of luggage. I felt a little better when the couple in front of us also had bags on bags on bags. Turns out they were also moving to Europe. What are the odds.

Fast forward to the actual plane ride, I had attempted to surprise Bill by upgrading us to business class using miles. Bill checked his American App though 2 days before the flight and noticed we were in the front of the plane so my plan was foiled. It did not, however, dampen my flight experience. After a few glass of wine and a movie, it was off to sleep in our fancy lay flat seats and when we woke up we would be nearly to our new home.

So that’s it. That’s where we are now. In our temporary apartment, in our temporary city, ready to really start our adventure. Here we go! We will keep you posted!