In exactly two weeks, I’ll be landing in Rome!! Solo due settimane!

It’s hard to believe what I’ve been planning for so long is finally here. There’s so much to do of course, it’s a bit overwhelming. Here’s a recap of what’s on my mind (no good photos to share this time):

my apartment is nowhere near empty

For the past 7.5 years in NYC, I’ve only ever moved my stuff from one place to another, I’ve never gotten rid of it all. I’m making slow progress on selling and donating my furniture, clothes, house decor, books, and kitchen.

I just started posting thing on Craigslist and so far I’ve sold:

• Dresser $80
• Desk $60 (being picked up tomorrow)
• Side Chair $50 (being picked up tomorrow)
• Oil Paints $40

Obviously not the progress I was looking for! It’s funny how a few tubes of paint sell for almost the same as furniture. It took awhile to take all my stuff out of its storage locations, so I’m making much quicker work of posting now. Almost everything is in one corner of my living room which makes my apartment look like a disaster zone. I might have to do a stoop sale on Saturday to get things out of the apartment.

figuring out what to take in my backpack

Before I went on my January Guatemala trip, I decided to try out a backpack. I already had this plan hatching in my head and wanted to see if I could do the backpack thing. Would it be too heavy? Would I drop it in Lake Atitlan while trying to hop on a lancha in Guatemala? Would I miss the sound of suitcase wheels on cobblestone streets? Turns out, backpacks are awesome. I decided on the Deuter ACT Lite 45+10L backpack, which set me back a pretty penny, but was such a good investment. I could walk through long airport hallways, over land and sea, and my back didn’t hurt from the weight of my luggage. I’m excited to lug it around Europe, but my current challenge is… what do I pack in it? I’m hoping to do a post on what I packed before I leave. Just so I could remember, at one point later in my life, there was a time where everything I owned could be carried on my back. Reading up on other travelers’ packs has been a great way to procrastinate. (It’s so reassuring to know you have the same problems as these other travelers)

getting my to-do list done

I need to do a lot of things before leaving, including, but definitely not limited to:

• Use up my 2016 health benefits since I won’t have real insurance for awhile
  • order contacts
  • work with allergist to figure out how to continue allergy shots abroad
  • refill all prescriptions (those allergies are going to be killer in spring)
• Buy travelers insurance
• Buy a sturdy external hard drive that can withstand travel
  • Send current non-travel friendly external hard drive home with my parents
• Buy better laptop case
• Determine which bag to take as my camera bag
• Buy better walking shoes – I know I waited too late on this one, they won’t be broken in 🙁
• Plan get together with friends before I leave
• Wrap up work!
• Unlock my cellphone at Verizon
• Cancel all my bills:
  • Verizon, National Grid, Coned, Time Warner Cable, Netflix
• Change all my mail to go to my parent’s house
• Ship small box to family in Toronto with clothes for a wedding I’m attending in July (I doubt dirty backpacking clothes will suffice!)
• Tell my landlord where to mail my last month’s rent and security deposit (woo hoo!)
• Make sure everyone has my skype ID: aaboggs @ gmail.com
• Install Whatsapp on my parents’ cellphones

I’m clearly using this post as another way to procrastinate, so I’ll leave it at this. Back to trying to get rid of my stuff!