Three More Weeks

I sit at my desk watching a cold, steady drizzle. The tree right outside my window is bare and dark and wet. The branches bend and sway in the wind. This is your typical, dreary Southern California winter day. In twenty six days, we move from Los Angeles to Bangkok. There will certainly be rain, but of the warm, tropical downpour type. Trees will be scarcer and chilly days will be nonexistent. So I bask in the California cold.

As our move approaches, my awareness of everyday things heightens. I've begun to absorb all that I can trying to memorize the feel, the sights, and the sounds of this California life I've been living for the past dozen years.

I've gone on many runs outside through the neighborhood in a tshirt and shorts. Running in shorts through my Bangkok neighborhood… not going to happen. Today is our weekly day off from work and productivity. Michael and I are baking challah. I will memorize the smell of yeasty dough rising on the counter, the feel of the warmth from our oven as it bakes, and that taste of fresh bread with butter. Our theoretical apartment in Bangkok (we don't have one yet) won't have an oven and even if it did, due to the heat, we'd be crazy to turn it on.

A lot is about to change. I feel like I'm at the edge of a cliff checking my parachute before I jump, only the jump is just the beginning. Once I land on the ground below, I will be in a whole new world where I do not understand what people are saying, I do not understand why people do what they do, and cars drive on the wrong left side of the street. "It's not wrong, it's just different" will be my mantra.

Yet, every morning, we wake up and we simply take another step toward the edge. Vaccinations, thank you notes, skype calls, and shipping details. Soon we will reach our last day in the U.S. and we'll board plane #1. Then, the next day will be split between plane #1 and plane #2. Then the next day we'll arrive in Thailand.

Then, every morning after that for a long time, we will wake up and simply take the next step, whatever that may be, as we begin to unlock and uncover our new life in Thailand.

But, for now, I sit here bundled up in double socks, sweatpants and sweatshirt watching the rain fall and another day tick by.