Lists I

Moving forward involves lists. For a long time, we avoided the "moving to Italy" lists because it felt so daunting. If we wrote down everything we needed to do to make this happen by November, we might realize that it can't be done.

Finally, last week, I wrote the following list:

To Research

• car export & insurance
• shipping costs (mail vs other)
• language classes
• online teaching/editing opportunities
• health insurance options
• vaccinations
• infant formula
• arrival to-do list

To Do

• international driving permit
• translations (transcripts, degrees, marriage license, birth certs)
• call honorary consulate (re: translations, visas, codice fiscale)
• email contacts re: job options/suggestions
• process visa

Obviously not a complete list. On accomplishments-in-progress, though, we met with our realtor and spent the weekend rearranging furniture and purging. Lots went to Goodwill. A few items got sold on Craigslist. We need to have the house on the market by next weekend.

If the house doesn't sell, we can't go.

Flight

J just returned from two weeks in Trento, where he met the group he'll be working with for the next three to four years. He feels good about the people, the place, the project. Finally, now, I find I'm able to be excited. I just hung up with a friend in Virginia, who told me I sound more relaxed and happy than I have in a long time. And it's true: this feels good. Late October, the three of us will fly San Francisco to Dublin to Munich, where we will board a train to Trento.

Since my brain is set, it seems, to dwell on the small picture, as I fell into sleep last night I realized October means Halloween. G will spend her first Halloween in Italy. I don't think they have Halloween there. Not American Halloween with babies dressed like strawberries. Maybe I'll dress her like a strawberry anyway, and we can trick or treat door to door in our apartment, like when I was six and had a fever, and my sisters stood behind their bedroom doors and gave me candy when I knocked.