Oh yeah, that.  Remember back in July when I was cleaning out the garage of 15 years of “stuff”?  These last 2 days we realized that we forgot something…the inside of the house 😱😳. What we thought was going to be a simple “pack up and go” turned into another nightmare of stuff.  We completely spaced the closets.  And drawers.  And nooks.  And crannies.  OMG.  We left the house at 1am Wednesday night, physically exhausted.  Were back at it at 5:30am yesterday.  We finally finished around 8:30 last night.  Holy hell, how did we forget the inside of the house?  Easy.  Out of sight, out of mind.  I post this as a warning to anyone attempting a move of this magnitude, downsizing means reviewing the *entire house* and literally going room by room taking inventory of everything.  That said, here we are!  Move-eve!  We are mentally and physically exhausted, thrilled, happy, sore, and excited!  I told Andy if we don’t either end up divorced or dead after the stress of the last 2 months, we’re probably good for just about anything handed to us.  What a roller coaster this has been.  But the time is nigh!  In 26 hours we’ll be on a plane to our new home.  Today we got to sleep in a bit and rest our minds and backs.  Andy is headed over to the airport now to pick up our minivan which we will load with our 3 big boxes (no more than 50 pounds each, gotta follow those airline regs, lol), the big suitcase, 2 cats, ourselves, and head to Atlanta.  I’m thankful for the Feliway spray, hopefully the cats will not be über stressed on the 4 hour journey.  Onward and upward!

I cannot recommend strongly enough, if you’re moving to St. Maarten, assure that you have someone local in your corner.  On my visit to the island in early September I left deposit money with my landlord.  She was able to visit GEBE on our behalf and arranged to have the water and power on when we arrive.  Because this was being done proactively for us, we do not have the worry of trying to get this done after the fact, leaving us without power or water until it was made official.

In other news, these are our last 4 days in Charlotte.  Tons of last minute items being handled this week, Goodwill runs, ReStore picking up the remaining furniture pieces that didn’t sell, last minute packing…it all adds up in time.  This entire process has been far more stressful than I ever could have imagined as we come down to the wire now.  I know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, but not until October 23, when I return after L4-5 fusion on the 9th 😳😱🤪  Yes, the math is correct.  We arrive on the island September 29 to turn around on October 8 to head back to Charlotte for fusion on the 9th.  I can only laugh at God’s timing of these events.  It’s a good thing my mantra is “make plans, don’t plan results”.

Stay tuned.  I’ll be blogging about how our cats are doing with the trip as we go along.  T- 120 hours!

Importing your four legged friends is possible but takes a lot of planning because there are certain time frames that have to be met.  I’ve enclosed the specific instruction sheet from Sint Maarten and the USDA.  Essentially, you’ll need to have all of the noted shots and tests done in enough time to email to St. Maarten, then onto the USDA by overnight (or hand deliver it if you live near a USDA inspection office), once you get the import certification from St. Maarten.  Make sure your vet is USDA certified so he/she can sign off the USDA import forms (note, this is different from USDA certification).  The USDA certified vet examines your animal and fills out the noted 3 page form for St. Maarten.  Once submitted to St. Maarten you are issued an import certificate which you then send with all the other noted information to the USDA office.  North Carolina’s goes to Albany, NY.  I’m not going to publish the (extraordinarily kind and patient) woman’s email who handles all of this in St. Maarten, but if you are going to import your animals, message me and I will send it to you.  In addition, please don’t hesitate to message me for any questions about importing your pets.  I feel like a pro now, LOL!  I got all of this sent off to the USDA today!! T-11 days to go!  The excitement builds 😍

Don’t plan results.  A mantra I adopted years ago and one that has saved me an enormous amount of frustration and resentment.  The “plan” was the have the final “everything must go” yard sale this weekend as I am out of town visiting our son next weekend.  Of course The Universe had other plans as Hurricane Florence arrived on our doorstep in the early hours this morning.  Ok then, Plan B it is!  We’ve moved the sale to next weekend, whether I’m here or not, lol.  I was initially worried as I thought without any help, several items may walk away if Andy is the only person manning the sale.  Then it occurred to me, we’re donating everything that is left, so really, if something walks, it’s a wash, lol!  No worries 🙂. So, here we are at the wire, we move 2 weeks from today 😳🙃 After my trip the first week of September and into these subsequent days, I am truly getting a dose of what “island time” means.  That circles me around to the mantra I just mentioned 😉. More on that in the days to come, including everything we had to do to get our cats ready to go.  Stay tuned!

A bra on 😱😱. One of the million things I love about island life is the simplicity.  One of the social mores in the US is this concept that nudity is bad, forbidden, or “dirty”.  I could absolutely go to Publix in North Carolina dressed like I do in the islands (no bra) but know with 100% certainty the stares as I perused each aisle would not be covert.  I’m not going to go on a diatribe on my feelings about that.  Rather, I will simply point out that I LOATHE wearing a bra and love the fact that not doing so in the Caribbean is as common place as shorts and flip flops.  It’s not a “thing”. No one notices or cares.  Minds and spirits are open here.  Make that a million and one 👍🏻

Yesterday my friend Liz and I were continuing our quest for furniture.  We stopped in Grand Case to take a few pictures.  We were told there were a few consignment type stores in Hope Estates and were on our way there.  We stopped at a small grocery store after leaving Grand Case and Liz ran in to get us some water.  Outside the grocery were a group of Rastafarians doing what Rastafarians do, smoking and spreading the message of love and hope between themselves. I heard one of them say, “You have to live in the positive, without that, you have nothing.”  I felt as though God was directly speaking to me in that message, as this furniture seeking thing has been frustrating.  So I said to him out the window, “I love your message!  It is so true.”  I then had a brief conversation with them about love and positive energy.  It was exactly what I needed to hear in that moment.

So Liz comes out with the waters and oh no!!  Our battery is dead 😳. Without missing a beat one of the guys jumps down and says, “Open your hood, I can help.”  So the one guy starts working on the battery with the “expert” advice of the 5 others, lol.  Liz and I look at each other, we had no idea if this dude actually knew what he was doing!  So he’s doing all kinds of things to the battery and its cables and Liz says, “This isn’t going to blow up my car is it?”  He’d bang on it for a minute then say, “Try to start it.”  Nothing would happen.  One of the guys laughed and said, “No, he’s a former mechanic, it’s all good!” So while this is going on one of the other guys goes and gets another battery.  After tinkering with it for several minutes they get the second battery and literally, holding it in place connecting the positive and negative terminals say, “Ok, try now.”  It started right up!  No jumper cables needed, who knew??

We were so appreciative, we offered to pay them.  I held out the money and one of the dudes (who we later found out was the trouble maker of the group) grabbed the money and was not going to give it to the guy who had actually done the work.  One of the other guys grabbed his hand, shoved it back in the car and said, “What is wrong with you man?  You don’t take money from women like that.  Give it back.”  He wasn’t going to so the guy holding his arm pried his fingers open and took the money out and handed it back to me.  They were insistent that it was “one love and they were happy to help.”  Liz and I weren’t having it though so we said, “Ok look, at least let us buy you a drink.”  They agreed to that and they all went in and got a beverage.  Cost?  $12.  We gave the remaining funds to the guy who worked on the car and requested he buy another round.  There were hugs all around and lots of “thank you”s.  They kept insisting it was “nothing” and “one love”.

We drove away and just looked at each other and said, “What just happened?”  It was absolutely surreal.  One love, exactly one year after the worst hurricane in its history devastated the island.  THIS is the definition of One Love.  One Island.  What a phenomenal day.

If you decide to purchase a car here, make certain that you obtain the noted sticker on your bill of sale.  Without it, the sale is not valid and you will not be able to transfer the car into your name.  Also, and this is an important detail, make sure that if the car has been inspected that the inspection is post-Irma.  Pre-Irma inspections are no longer valid and the car has to be reinspected, even if the expiration date was 2019 or 2020.  This could add an unexpected cost to your sale if you weren’t aware it needed reinspection.  My car was inspected post-Irma so it will cost me $11 to transfer the inspection to my name and the plate transference is free.  

I’ve been here 24 hours and justthatquick I am learning what is meant by “living here is not the same as visiting here”.  One.  Water.  Water is expensive on the island so those long, leisurely showers I’m used to in the US?  Those days are over.  Here, you learn to shower in stages.  Turn on water. Rinse.  Turn off water.  Soap up.  Turn on water.  Rinse and wet hair.  Turn off water.  Wash hair.  Turn on water.  Rinse.  Done.  Same with brushing teeth.  Washing dishes.  Anything where I was used to just letting the water run, nope.  #notinKansasanymore #completeparadigmshift

In other news, I did buy a car today.  🙂. I went to get it registered in my name but no, it had to be insured first.  No problem.  I go to the insurance company and they have all the paperwork they need but I do not have my driver’s license with me.  Why?  I never travel with my driver’s license when I travel internationally because I have my passport with me.  Heretofore Andy has always driven on the island, I never saw a reason to bring it.  So, FYI, if you buy a car on the island you must present your driver’s license to insure it.  Seems like a no-brainer but I can’t be the only one who leaves their license at home when I travel internationally, so, now you know.  As a side note, because I did drive the car to Philipsburg (without a license, lol) to attempt to register it and a bit more after that, I have now mastered the roundabouts 😁.  I’m also very quickly learning my way around.  Double victories for me today.  I’m grateful that our landlord is letting us keep the car in the garage of our complex until we return.

I did not buy any furniture today.  😐  Tomorrow is another day.  Won’t be the end of the world if I don’t completely furnish the place by 9/29.  I’ll keep searching.

One other exciting thing happened yesterday  but I cannot say yet….that won’t be revealed until after the move 😉😁  Stay tuned!!

There might be a happier sight than this but I don’t know what it is 😊. First round of the move begins in about 10 minutes as I make my way to St. Maarten.  Such an exciting time!  This will be a busy week.  Expect frequent updates 👍🏻

No, not a lion, though he thinks he’s one some days.  My cat is big.  Like almost Maine Coon, big.  He is about 18″ long and weighs about 20 pounds.  Last night I’m reviewing the traveling restrictions for the various airlines and see that all have a 20-pound weight limit to put them in the cabin with us, including the carrier.  Ok Salt, it’s Lean Cuisine Iams for you for the next month!  We are currently booked on American Airlines and I see in their restrictions that they “will not let a pet fly if the local temperature in any leg of the flight is going to be above 85 degrees.”  Yes, this includes in the cabin with its owner.  Um. Really?  I am flabbergasted so I called AA.  I said, “You DO understand that we are flying to St. Maarten, right? Is it ever less than 85 when the planes land mid-afternoon?”  It literally took me going all the way up the chain of command only to hear them say that, that is a rule and “at the gate agent’s discretion whether we are allowed to board with the cat.”  I said, “Can I get a note from my vet stating it’s ok for me to take the cat to St. Maarten even if it’s over 85?”  “No, that only works for cold and even then it’s the gate agent’s call.”  In addition, yes there’s more, AA informs me that the cat must be able to get up and turn around in their carrier.  Salt is a big cat.  He fills the carrier but not so much that he can’t turn around, we’ve tested this and have seen him do it.  After reading reviews online about how anal AA agents are though, this was another risk I was unwilling to take.  It’s not like I can just say to Salt on command, “OK, the agent needs to see you do the hokey pokey in there so turn yourself around!” and actually have him do it.  OMG!  So, long story short, we call Delta and Jet Blue and while they have weight restrictions (easily remedied), neither have the temperature restrictions at the final destination, much less each leg.  While they both also have size restrictions on the carriers neither has this idiotic rule of having to prove the animal can turn around.  So, we find ourselves canceling the AA ticket and rebooking on Delta.  Of course, that is but one of those speed bumps along the way that one must consider.  It may’ve been perfectly fine with AA out of Miami but I am no fan of AA to begin with and MIA tops my “worst airport ever” list so I was unwilling to risk it.  I’ve never dealt with anyone who was pleasant at MIA.  Murphy’s Law says that since we rebooked with Delta we’d have been fine with AA in Miami but there is no price one can put on peace of mind, IMHO.  It’s not like I was going to just leave the cat and say, “See ya!  We’ll be back to get you in January when maybe it’s cooler.”  This new plan also saves us a drive to Miami with 2 cats in tow as well.  Atlanta is only 4 hours from our house, much easier to manage.