13 days to go
I woke up this morning thinking it was Sunday. The clock said 7:22 and I was about to make coffee when it dawned on me! Memorial Day weekend! It was Monday… Which meant that I was scheduled to meet a landscaper at the house at 8 am.
Me without my morning coffee is a frightening prospect. Also, without a shower? A double whammy of incoherence.
I threw on some clothes, tied up my hair and brushed my teeth. That’s as clean and alert as I was able to make myself for the landscaper, Mr. Tang.
Dave came with me and we drove by several coffee shops before finding one that was open (Starbucks) on the way to the (old) house. At least I had caffeine now.
Mr. Tang showed up more or less on time. We bravely bushwhacked our way through our back yard and worried when he took his time deliberating a quote. But we ended up pleasantly surprised. With a landscaper to clean up the grounds around our house, I checked off another thing off my list. He’ll start work next week.
Another item on my list for today? Get through the Dutch customs application and fill out all the paperwork for our international movers. Dutch, because our shipment will be traveling via the Netherlands.
I don’t know why I thought that my job was done once the movers were lined up and our contract with them signed. But I did. And then they emailed me lots and lots of forms to fill out. It turns out that the customs officials want to know what we’ll be bringing in and that we’re legit.
Which means, in addition to all the names, numbers and addresses, we needed:
- an EIN number from the IRS
- a copy of our mortgage papers from the house we are about to sell in Seattle (proving that we really lived there and it was ours?)
- a copy of our lease agreement in Denmark
- a copy of our visa
- a copy of our passports
- a copy of my husband’s offer letter from his job in Copenhagen
- a signed power of attorney (so that the movers could act on our behalf with the customs officials)
I started with the EIN number and attempted to get one online. The IRS website was down. I then thought of calling them until I remembered it was Memorial Day. In a panic (are these due tomorrow?!) I contacted Mark, our very professional and reliable point of contact at the moving company, Rainier Overseas Movers. He told me that the IRS would not issue the number on a holiday. Not even through their online application. He said I could get it tomorrow.
After gathering the rest of the documents I went shopping for a gift for one of Nani’s teachers. She’s graduating from 8th grade on Friday.
12 days to go
The movers showed up today. They had other people’s stuff on the truck (the containers were left at the port?) and piled our things in with theirs. At one point they seemed to mix the two up. I wasn’t there to witness this, thank god. If someone else ends up with any of my journals, heaven help us all.
Instead of supervising the movers, I used up my Groupon for a facial. It’s called microneedling and now my face looks like its top layer has been peeled off. I’ve been smelling blood all day. I look so scary, I locked myself at our friends’ house and decided not to run any more errands today. Instead, I stayed in and wrote panicky emails to all the people involved with the move. I’m like a move-related Bridezilla right now. Is there a word for that? A Movezilla?
Post-Amerikan 