The Weekly Countdown has Begun

Six weeks.

In six short weeks Jennifer and I will be will be on our way to Shanghai, China, by way of NYC. The dream of living, working, and exploring China for at least a year is becoming reality. My heart is thumping deeply as I write this, knowing that what I've been dreaming of and planning since early 2005 is happening.

Although I really do enjoy the planning stages, for my trip to Spain where me my friend Mark Bishop ran with the bulls in Pamplona I almost could not sleep for the entire week leading up to our flight highlighted with nightmares of being trampled by the beasts, this China trip has taken longer and overall been much better organized and an eerie calm has overtaken me most of the time now.

It would be silly to detail everything that we've accomplished so far in preparation for our move but the last big piece was put into place last week as I solemnly sat down and told the best manager I've ever had, Maureen W., about the opportunity and our decision to move - and she surprised me with her excitement! I can not say enough great things about my company, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and I will miss them terribly. Two weeks notice is in, Jennifer hasn't worked in several months which has been a tremendous help, and we are shopping for airline tickets as I write this. So, no, there is no way we are not going now.

Of course my head is spinning and instead of journaling now I'm blogging, so here's what's happening today, Friday, October 31, Halloween, Tampa, Florida, 2008. In the brief time we have before we leave we have to pack both our homes into storage, give away what we are not taking with us or keeping, and handle the details of my home and Jennifer's home. In two weeks my brother is coming into town for a weekend visit, then the next two weeks have us driving to Atlanta (with a cat, Leo) to visit my Dad (first time for Jennifer which will be nerve-wracking) and brother Tommy, then driving on to Virginia to spend Thanksgiving with my mom and family including flying my two daughters Aubrey and Carley down from New England for the week for a quasi-reunion. After Thanksgiving we will be visiting Jennifer's family in Bonita Springs and then possibly a trip up to Chicago to see her brother, David, and family. Then, finally, home until the 15th of December where we will fly up to NYC to spend a long weekend and then catch the flight to Shanghai. All this traveling will warm us up for moving around lean and light as the few final anchors mooring us to the USA are pulled up and cast aside.

We are planning on blogging the whole trip in detail and I've recently purchased a new Gateway laptop, xtra memory sticks, two external hard drives, a nikon digital camera, a bag for traveling with all this gear, wire-mesh bag for security, and there is still lots more to get. We are hoping to put video on the blog also along with written postings so our friends and family can experience what we are going through too.

It's Halloween tonight and there is a party to attend where we can say goodbye to some of our friends, which will be fun! This weekend we are applying for our international driver's license, shopping for winter clothes (it gets very cold in Shanghai and we've been in Florida for a looong time), and I've got a golf tournament with my buddy Curtis that will provide another great time and more opportunities to say goodbye....

Prost!