Before We Go...

These last few days have dragged out more slowly than the past two months combined! There didn’t seem to be enough to do to fill the day, and then poof! the day would be over and I would start to feel panicked over what I still needed to do. “One less day before we leave!”.

The house is supposed to be spotless when we leave, so that it is clean for us to come home to. But currently, as of the day before we leave, it’s not. There are clothes littered all over the floor, the suitcases are open, and that is only our clothes! The tent and sleeping bags are in a pile in the entranceway, natural history books cover the tables, and my parents are madly trying to finish one last paper.

Another added piece of chaos, is that we’re giving a friend of mine a ride down to San Francisco. She is getting here late today. This last day was supposed to be a day for just packing. However, since I forgot about my orthodontist appointment yesterday, I have one today. And my brother needed to run to the dentist this morning, to get a filling, also unplanned. We are all starting to feel kind of panicked about how much stuff needs to be done before we can leave tomorrow.

Later the same day: now all our clothes are in their suitcases. Each of has a suitcase. I’m still not sure how everything will fit in our Volkswagen diesel Passat. We have so much stuff! All of our camping gear is in the car, and the back is almost full. However, we also have a ski box, which will give us a huge amount of extra room.

Our house sitter has arrived, and Willow is well acclimatized to him, which happened more quickly than I thought it would. Of course, the fact she has been fed non-stop treats might have something to do with it! We are about to take her out for her last walk with us for almost five months. And the worst thing about it is: she knows. Willow was following us around the house, at our each move she would jump up, terrified of being left behind. As soon as she saw the suitcases a couple days ago, she started acting antsy.

Today, after my orthodontist appointment, my brother, father and I stopped by a second hand book store. We got enough books to last us for at least a week. Most of the books I bought were by John Grisham. He is a good author who writes mostly about lawyers solving murders. It is a great way to learn more about lawyers.

Over the summer I have been rearing basil on our front porch. I have been dutifully watering it every single day it hasn’t rained, or I have been away. And as we live in Vancouver, it rains quite often. Anyway, I have watched it grow from little seedlings to big , beautiful, strapping basils. Today, it was harvested, clipped off five cm above the moist, black soil. You could smell it from the street. The smell pervaded our house, drifted down the stairs and out the door.