Counting down: less than 14 days

It's really happening.

The good news is how much stuff is being shed. I will fly back to Washington with one cat (small), one laptop, and one suitcase (large). The balance (a few small tables, a printer and one settee, summer clothes and kitchen stuff, books, CDs and DVDs) goes into storage here until I get a new home. What's great is that I have the time to shed in stages, so that emotions that may permit keeping something in early shedding change and let me get rid of it in subsequent shedding. For the first and surely only time in my life, my possessions won't run me.

Odd things keep coming to mind: ugly money (olive drab vs. lovely colors). How scary bike-riding will be. Missing 3 October (Leiden's liberation from Spain) and its drunken 3-day chaos here will be a huge relief. Seeing my wonderful D.C. friends and former colleagues. Singing again, assuming that I still have a voice. Being able to get a good job without a work permit and not having to declare my age and be discriminated for it. The vast American shopping market. Living in an enormous country -- space! Missing this tiny country, with its well-organised space. Speaking only English. Not stumbling over Dutch, but missing it, too.

Never before have I shed so many tears; they just keep coming, and I never know when. I keep thinking that there aren't any more, and then more come. Oh, well. I guess it's healthy. It is a grief.

Right: it's 14:11, and I have the afternoon to start packing/shedding books, so must seize the chance.