47 days.

i'm on vacation this week from work in an unexpected way. originally my twin brother, jon, and college buddy, chris, were going to head out on a week-long, brewery-focused, cross-country adventure by way of car. that fell through when jon began a new job and was unable to get the time off. this has, as often happens, turned out to be most fortunate. i will be using the week to solidify plans for the move and begin PACKING!

yuck.

but awesome yuck.

i mean, if there's anyone who hates moving more than me, i'd like to meet them. i imagine we could commiserate for hours and it would be entirely depressing. i've literally moved every year of my life for the last 11 years. that's a real fact. more than a decade of perennial relocation.

however, packing for hawaii- shedding my extra weight, lightening my material load- is proving not only cleansing, but way easier than any move i've yet encountered. as i look things over and contemplate if i should pack them, there can be only two piles...

1. yes, this will get worn

2. no, this is far too long-sleeved/long-legged/woolen for 84 degrees

pile 1 will be further reduced to the number of those items i can stuff into my carry-on and checked baggage. pile 2 will be donated/chucked/burned.

and i'm packing for hawaii; so awesome yuck, indeed.

thus far we know that we are flying out of seattle on august 6. we will be joining my family in minneapolis on the weekend of august 1 for my brother mike's birthday; then off to north dakota to visit shannon's family; then across montana, idaho and washington to seattle where we will ship shannon's car, jump on a plane and head pacific-ly to our final destination.

it is possible we will land either in kaua'i or oahu. this will be determined by one (or both!) of us attaining a job in one location or another before arriving. if neither of us can lock in a job, we will settle on honolulu, oahu- the largest city, offering us the greatest possible opportunity of employment.

the rest of my week will entail:

packing up

getting maeby's transport arranged

finalizing shipping the jeep

a trip home to see the fam

arranging returning my leased honda early

applying for jobs

knocking out a place to live upon our arrival

47 days. no problem.

we're moving to hawaii.

shannon and i have more-than-less-spontaneously decided to move to hawaii.

in truth, our desire to move there is a joint similarity we both unearthed in one another pretty early on. shannon has been eyeing hawaii for the last year or so, anticipating packing up and placing herself there at a time most befitting of her nursing career and ambition.

i have had my sights on hawaii since 1993.

age 10.

fifth grade state research paper.

you might remember writing a similar research paper, where, lottery-style, you're allowed to pick one of our fifty-nifties and spend a solid semester carefully "sourcing" as many encyclopedia articles as possible, breaking down your fun facts onto note cards, then arranging those note cards as harmoniously as possible in a sort of outline that you would use to structure your report. i got hawaii, which means i drew #1.

keith bickett drew last, #28, and selected ohio. poor, poor, keith bickett. i've been told he's since become an airplane pilot and reroutes all of his trips around the state of ohio out of spite for his dumb fifth grade luck.

at any rate, shannon and i move in 55 days. neither of us have a job lined up. neither of us know anyone there. neither of us have actually ever been to hawaii. we're doing this by the seat of our pants on the the whims of the too-perfect trade winds everyone keeps talking about.

we've got optimistic ignorance and each other. what could possibly go wrong?