So, about moving to Portugal....
Nah I'm playing. It's Mexico.
After the long-ago post on GOALS, the homie Morgan at Ladyfingers Letterpress wrote in to say, “I was really, really hoping you had the Portugal plan here.”
Well, I didn’t. But I might have it now.
Backstory: my BAAW and I have been talking for years about finding a way to do this. (As with all good things in our lives, it was her idea, obvsly.) We talked. And we kept talking. Eventually I talked to my boss. And we kept talking. And eventually we talked to our kids. And to my surprise they were 100% down.
It’s been a long time in the making. But now we’re moving to Mexico for six months, a for-real-for-real DIY sabbatical on the cheap. We fly out tomorrow, New Year’s Eve, with one-way tickets. (Calm down: I can explain.)
Ultimately, if we can do it, anyone can. And it’s of course an incredible privilege to be able to do it.
But OH MY GOD it was wearisome putting everything into place.
I know, I know: the suffering is profound, you’ve never met anyone with such a hard story, how do we carry on with such sorrows.
But indulge me for a second, please? It was a lot, fam! We are moving six people to another country without a trust fund or even a damn job. It hasn’t been exactly seamless, you know?
A partial list of our champagne problems: difficult decisions, leave of absence, passports, place to live, renters for our house, painting and packing, more decisions, getting rid of the endless crap, phones and bills, leases and mortgages, insurance and DMV, decision fatigue, cars and utilities, appliances and repairs, cleaning and cleaning, money and money and money and money….
You get so embedded in, not just your actual life with all its goodnesses, but the tedious logistics of your life, that all the steps to detach from it all are sometimes completely overwhelming. There were, shall we say, moments of doubt.
But now we’re here. And I gotta say that the view from here looks hell of good.
I’ll holler at you once we’re on the other side. Thanks for coming along.
(Paid subscribers, I’m going to start documenting for you exactly how we’re doing it, and how I think you can do it too. Love and gratitude to you!)