It’s starting to feel a little more real. Jen’s last night at work is tonight, and this weekend is booked with scattered social gatherings where we’ll be saying Hi and Bye to a lot of people before we take off next week.

There’s this stress that’s been bubbling up lately, too. We keep going over lists of things we need to get done and things we need to bring for our summer out west. Jen has worked through a huge pile of paperwork the last few weeks and is almost at the end, and we’ve been trying to wrap up all the various homeowner type things that we need to do. I think we’ve got it under control but damn, it’s overwhelming at times.

It’s just going to be so surreal when we finally step in that Jeep and start driving across the country. I know it’s nothing permanent, but for a couple of Michiganders who’ve never spent more than two weeks away from home, it’s a pretty big deal. Your mind just keeps going over all the little lists we’ve got until you realize you’re at work and you need to be getting shit done.

That being said, I gotta hand it to the folks at my office, CQL, where everyone has been really supportive. And yes, I am getting shit done, I’m just slightly more distracted than usual. Sorry!

I’m going on year number nine there. That’s longer than my tenure at the pickle farm. It’s gonna be quite a shift working remotely the entire time. Fortunately, for me anyway, it will remove me from a few of my more monotonous tasks (sorry, Sam!), and I’ll be able to get heads down on a few in-depth projects. I’ve been quoting some big projects lately that should be pretty fun to work on, and I’m looking forward to the attention I’ll be able to give them working remotely. I’m a nerd.

We still haven’t heard whether we’ll be able to bring the dog yet, which somehow is the biggest unknown at this time. I guess that’s a good thing. The recruiter said we should find out sometime in the next week or so. She also said we’d find out about our housing and address around next Friday. By then, we’ll already be on the road. That just seems surreal to me. We’re hopping in the car and driving out west to live for three months, and we don’t even know where we’ll be staying until we’ve started that journey. Unreal.