I’m writing this post from the site of an epic battle. Good
vs Evil. Predator vs Prey. The Cat vs The Fuzzy Mouse.
It all started with me getting my home organized for the
pack-out. For me, getting ready for pack-out involves inventorying all of my
household goods (mainly to help me get a handle on everything) and deciding
what can get thrown/sent to Goodwill, what goes into storage, what goes on the
boat, what goes in the air shipment, and what goes in my luggage. To add to the
excitement, everything has to be staged – e.g. all of the stuff for the air
shipment needs to be all together – because when the movers come to pack you
out, they come in like that big thunder storm we had a week ago, and everything
in their path gets swooped up and put into boxes (including garbage, if you’ve
been silly enough to leave any in your house). So I’m going through all of my
stuff. The other day, I pulled down a small box that I haven’t touched since I
got back from Brazil. Inside were the electronic doodads that I expected, but
also inside was my extra stash of fuzzy mice for the kitty. (No sense in giving
the cat more mice when she still had the others!) I didn’t think much of it, but
tonight I put the box on the floor, and a few minutes later, the cat is digging
into the box trying to pull out a mouse. I gave it to her, and this cat, who
hasn’t cared much about her mice for the past year, spent the next half hour (or
more – she’s still going) throwing that mouse all over the apartment.
There isn’t much point to that story, except maybe that
packing out CAN be fun!
So yes, I’m getting ready to move to Tokyo. The move is
imminent now, so procrastination has largely come to an end, although my huge
to-do list is not showing any progress. I was intending to write blog posts
prior to this – about seeing the Hokusai exhibit at the Smithsonian, the
Jakuchu exhibit at the National Gallery of Art, and some of the ancient
Japanese books in the Library of Congress. I went to see the cherry blossoms
down at the Tidal Basin. (This year was the 100th anniversary of
Japan’s gift of cherry trees to the United States.) I saw the final flight of
the Space Shuttle Discovery on its way to its resting place in the
Smithsonian’s Air & Space Museum. And I took my mother to England for her
birthday, and we drove around the Cotswolds and Cornwall. (Tea at the Savoy is AMAZING, and I
adored Blenheim Palace and the town of Bath. There were lots of other things I loved, but those were my favorites. I highly recommend them!!)
