Portugal Update: … how am I?

Well, I did pull out my WIPs yesterday, and sat on the couch for a couple hours relaxing! That’s good!

I Guess It’s Time to Talk About Me!

TL;DR: I’m … good? I really hesitate to say that! But I’m good!

I know, THREE NEWSLETTERS IN A ROW, but now that I’ve gotten going it’s hard to stop.

We talked about Shane, we talked about the pets, and now I want to talk about me.

Today is the 4th day I’ve waken up in Porto, so I am under no illusions that I’VE DONE IT and that there aren’t a ton of obstacles still in my path - like my boxes are being held by Portuguese customs? - but I feel really good about everything I’ve accomplished so far! I’m feeling confident in the fact that I will continue to figure it out, and I’m so happy to be here!

THE SUN IS OUT for I think the first time I’ve been here! LB and I are loving it!

I’ve wanted to live in Europe from the first moment I visited back in 2005. EVERYTHING that happened in 2020-2021 set me up to make this a reality, and I’ve been really working toward doing it for the last 13 months.

During those 13 months I’ve read countless articles about people moving to Europe and hating it. I’ve been told anecdotes about people moving to Europe “for good” only to come back to America 3 months later because it wasn’t what they thought it would be. I got a lot of wide eyed “OK” responses from people when I told them what I was planning.

You’d be dumb to not ask yourself really hard questions in preparation for a change like this, so I did!

Continuing from my newsletter? Start reading here!

I wasn’t running from anything. I wasn’t trying to solve a problem. I wasn’t trying to fix anything, or myself.

I’m not going through a trauma, or in mourning. I’m not reacting at all, really! This has been, from the beginning, an offensive decision, not a defensive decision.

Almost exactly 4 years ago I got fired from Knit 1, the yarn store I co-owned with someone who I thought was one of my closest friends. Almost exactly 4 years and 2 months ago I was seriously considering buying her out, mainly as a favor to a friend, and locking myself into Chicago for the foreseeable future. While that was happening I was thinking about how I didn’t want to own anything in Chicago because eventually I want to move to Europe! But, I made promises and was positioned to take over and I was not not ok with that.

Luckily, I trusted my gut, and when things got weird I believed in myself, and for the next 4 years I continued to position myself and my businesses to this moment.

It is not lost on me that I spent the actual 4 year anniversary of that firing literally moving to Portugal! Which feels like the ultimate personal middle finger to that entire situation. And I’m really proud of myself for turning that into this!

ALONE is one of my favorite reality TV shows, and something they talk about a lot on that show is “Drop Shock” - the moment when the contestants are dropped on their site, alone, and how they feel paralyzed. In the Uber from the airport I thought that would be a funny reel - always be making content! - mimicking the moments when the helicopter is leaving them alone!

In the months leading up to this I had moments of paralysis. Running into a logistics wall I didn’t know how to get over. Looking at a mound of things I needed to trash/donate/move/sell. Flights cancelled! Being asked questions I had no idea how to answer. Being asked questions I didn’t know how to even google for the answer!

But those moments were just moments. Fleeting! And I always took a deep breath and kept charging forward!

Monday afternoon I called a Lyft, Shane helped me put my bags in the car, we kissed, and I left. I cried the entire 40 minutes to the airport. I cried through security. I cried at the gate - cried to Shane on the phone, and cried to my friends in our group chat. I got my shit together enough so that the biometric camera at boarding could tell who the fuck I was, but then I cried in my seat until the plane took off.

As soon as that plane took off it felt like a switch flipped. I’m still sad to have left my friends, and Laura. My city I spent 22 years in. But I’ve been wanting this for 20 years and now I’m here! I don’t feel drop shock. I don’t feel any shock! I’ve got my creative problem solving hat on and my Midwestern smile! I love hard work and am ready to do it, both to make a home here and to keep being successful in my work. I expect it to be hard, and uncomfortable, and there to be a learning curve, and to make mistakes and to keep getting myself up!

What a wall of text!

So … I’m good!

Daily living room pic

Not a lot has changed unfortunately! I’m flattening my yoga mat and we’ve got a cameo by LB.

I got an email from DHL wanting more documentation about the contents of our boxes and the assurance that I’m not importing Russian steel (ok, guys), and the warning that I’ll owe more money once the boxes are ok’ed, which I was expecting. The 10 page document about how much more money I’ll owe was in Portuguese, but like HERE IS A BLANK CHECK give me my stuff! At this point it’s here and I’d love it to stay here so what do you need from me?!

This morning I got another clarifying email - apparently “invoice” and “consignment” are interchangeable words? They kept asking for an invoice number which I couldn’t find. You give me an invoice and I’ll pay it! I think we got there, though!

Clock is ticking, though - if we don’t have this worked out by the 19th they’ll start charging me storage fees / send my boxes back to the US. I’ve escalated the issue with the moving company I used, so at this point I’m hoping for a Monday delivery?? Maybe?

It’s not a big deal except that I could use another blanket! I’m a little chilly at night!

Next update? I wanted to run through the total cost of this move. Let me rephrase - I do absolutely not want to think about the total cost of this move! But we’ve got to do it.