No lady of leisure me! Since retiring, the race is on to use my remaining days prior to the Big Move to take care that all is accomplished before I leave the country. My inventory list is nearly complete. I started packing six months ago, and estimated that I would have a dozen boxes -- four each of small, medium, and large. Now I am up to 21 boxes -- 5, 8 and and 8, respectively. So, clearly, my shipping costs will more than cover a good barnacle scraping for the boat carrying the container in which my boxes will travel.
I also purchased an expandable box for packing large TV screens, mirrors, and paintings. I hope four paintings and a couple of flat posters will fit inside for the trip. Make that 22 boxes. The little apartment I found for myself is about 500 square feet. I keep telling myself that there will be room for me there, as well as all the boxes. If the place were in New York City, I'd be drunk with space.
As I write this, there is not yet a lease agreement in place. I have only seen pictures of the one-story building in La Boquita which comprises both my apartment and the home of the American couple who will be my landlords. I was sold by the rear veranda that looks over the Pacific Ocean, where I could see myself with a glass of wine, watching the sun set of an evening.
These days, as I cross off my To Do list items and make new lists, I've been thinking about what I shall miss once I'm settled in Nicaragua. I ditched cable TV a long time ago, so I do not think I'll miss much on the tube. My few addictions in that department are mostly on Comedy Central, and unless I can connect to Hulu, I will truly miss my guilty pleasures in that department. Foods are likely to disappear from my diet. I love salmon, brie, raspberries, and bagels, and will content myself to gorge on those delectables during visits to the States. Of course, Nicaragua has fantastic fresh vegetables and luscious tropical fruits, and I expect to peruse the nightly catch of fish and shrimp sold by the fishermen of La Boquita most mornings, as I shop for the table. There are compensations.
Most of all, I shall miss my boy. Over the past four or five years, I've become accustomed to living without him for long stretches during his college semesters. But there was always a holiday or spring break or summer to look forward to, and that will no longer be the case. I realized today, deep in my gut, that once Gabriel returns from Spain and his semester abroad in a few days, our days together are numbered. We'll go together to Nicaragua next week and make the most of every day. We'll spend June breaking up our household and shipping my boxes, and then? I'll go south and he'll go north to Medford, Massachusetts, where he'll have a new home base with his dad and stepmother, bless 'em.
I shan't feel I'm wholly deserting him, after all. But I expect to feel his absence very keenly.
