So I am fully immersed in inventory hell here. All morning I have attempted to complete the inventory sheet that lists all of our belongings and how much they are worth. This is my third time doing this sort of thing. I am wishing that I kept my old inventory sheets but even if I had, we have WAY MORE stuff now that we have two kids. Every room, every dish, every piece of clothing, linnens, all of it has to be inventoried or we risk losing it all if it gets damaged and then we get nothing for it. This is nuts. And why is there no place for children's furniture or my hallways stuff? Am I not supposed to have this sort of thing?

 

There is a Buddhist belief that you should only own 100 things or less; that all you need in life to be happy is 100 things and anything more will make you crazy, depleted, empty, and leave you somehow always wanting more. I am starting to think this is in fact true.

 

Why do they need to know how much lingerie I own? In theory I don't have to say but if I don't and for some reason our things get ruined in transit and I haven't listed the fancy panties and things then I would not get money to replace them. It literally feels like someone is looking in my underwear drawer. I don't like that but I will list them and not be so ridiculous about it. I am not some freak or anything but I do have clothes that I care about. But then you find yourself saying things like Oh my god. Do I really have 35 pairs of shoes? And that is just how many shoes I HAVE...this does not include my children's shoes or my husband's shoes. I am supposed to count all of our clothes together. Do they realize how insane an exercise this is for most women? And they put shoes and boots together. I don't put those things together. I have ummm well I have 7 pairs of boots if I include the Harley Davidison biker boots (I attempted to learn how to ride a motorcycle 5 years ago before children but gave up when I dumped a 500 pound bike during my lessons..why they gave me a short person that bike to try out is beyond me) and my snowboard boots that I got 5 years ago that are now too small because my feet have grown due to pregnancy but I still try to pretend I can suck it up and wear them with thin socks. I thought I was over this? I thought I was getting better at letting things go. Something new comes in and then something old must go out. This is the rule when attempting to keep order in the universe. Unfortunately this is not how my universe works.

 

100 things? Imagine that. What would that look like? For me personally I would have a hard time because admittingly most of my 100 things would consist of shoes, boots, coats, and art supplies and a few cool skirts that I have picked up here in Europe. Great so I would be a deranged lunatic walking around with 10 coats, 15 shoes, 5 skirts and a bunch of art supplies. I guess I have to count my panties too. I wouldn't want to lose those. Sorry guess I am trying to find humor in this. Maybe it is a bit crass but well, how many things of lingerie do you own? And the bigger question is do you want to share that with the movers? Maybe I will just leave that one blank. Oh boy I really have my work cut out for me here and our move date depends on me getting this done like yesterday so we can get out of here. Nothing happens until I finish this. So now I am attempting to turn myself into a robot and not think and just count things. I am not going to sit down and tripple guess myself to death? (Will they believe that our bed costs that much? Yes I have 15 chairs. Oh my. Oh my. Spinning numbers. Wish me luck!).

Not sure if P!nk's song Dear Mr. President gets as much air play as it does here in Germany, but here and especially in Holland, it is played several times a day. You can't go into a store in Holland or turn on the Dutch and German radio stations without hearing it. What do I have to say about it? Well I couldn't say it any better. "Dr. Mr. President. How CAN you sleep at night?" Today Germany uncovered two serious terrorist plots to take down the American air base in Ramstein and the Frankfurt airport. There were something like 40 different locations that they busted for being involved in terrorist plots all over Germany, many in the area where I live. I have a lot of faith in Germany and I have no doubt they are on top of this stuff. When it comes to taking care of things like that, this place does not mess around. Period. But then there is always the people they don't know about. Yesterday 8 terrorists were arrested in Coppenhagen for plotting terrorist activity. The main reason cited for this, and I quote the CNN reporters exact wording here: "hatred against American citizens."

 

I was getting my hair cut in Maastricht (Holland) the other day and as usual my hairdresser wanted to know what I thought about Bush. Of course I didn't hold back on anything. She of course agreed with all I said. That he is a babbling, scary idiot who has zero diplomacy skills. He has destroyed just about everything he and his very scary administration have touched. Any president that follows him has A LOT of work to do but let's face it, could it get much worse? God I hope not!

 

But still we are going back. We are going back because we miss and love our families very very much and I want my children to grow up knowing their cousins and aunts and uncles and well everyone.

 

So Matt got the job in Boston. We are moving back and thank god we can at least go back to a real blue as blue can be blue state. (Except for our govenors...why do we always have these crazy govenors?)

 

And so we have come full cirlce. Seven years ago on October of 2000 we moved to Seattle. When we got there, the stores were decked out in Halloween gear. I knew I was in Seattle when one of the window displays in a hip little clothing store had three pumpkins with these words carved out: Are you scared yet? VOTE! That was the year 2000 when obviously either enough people didn't vote or the wrong sort came out to vote, because my friends that is when our leader in chief was voted into office. Since then wars have been started, people have died, New York City and Washington D.C. were attacked, people were left to die in the worst national disaster we have ever had (Hurricaine Katrina) and oh let's not forget the many many agreegious environmental offenses the administration has unleashed on the world. So yah I am coming full circle. Except this time the world IS in fact a lot scarier. 

 

And so I will say it again: MAKE SURE YOU VOTE! Our citizens and the world are depending on our votes. My Dutch hairdressers have all begged me to please get someone else in office. I fully intend to do my share. Believe me. I am tired of being scared to speak English or admit I am American. I avoid that question most of the time or just expect that someone will want to talk politics because here people aren't afraid to and then I make it clear from the getgo that I DID NOT vote for him. I was a little afraid to walk down the street today with my children talking English. Not that I thought anything would happen but well those plots were plotted here in Germany because of hatred against America and I am sure that many people here in Germany really wish they could have nothing to do with America and its god awful politics. That is the truth. It can be a scary world out there and only we can make it better.

 

So Mr. President, I CAN'T WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE GONE! (and neither can most of the people I have met over here that dare to talk politics). So here we come Boston. (Hope you have room for one more opinionated liberal!)