From 764 square feet to 70 Liters...

11:51 PM 0 Comments

Teryn:
Yikes....we leave in 4 days.

There is something really exhilarating to me about getting rid of stuff. When I was younger I collected everything, and it just made every time we moved around, which was every year or two, so much harder. After I got out of the Backstreet Boys memorabilia collecting phase, I really enjoyed having less and less stuff laying around. I really did some serious life cleansing before I moved into my tent for the summer to raft guide in West Virginia. I left some things with my dad in Ohio, some things with my mom in Arizona, and moved my life into a green duffel bag that would fit me inside of it rather easily. I've maintained a pretty nomadic lifestyle since then...moving from Boone, NC, to Denver, CO, to Aspen, and back to Denver, so I've kept my life belongings down to a minimum. This packing my life into a backpack thing hasn't been super hard for me....but Dan on the other hand, has tons of shit. It's been interesting watching him spend hours each day figuring out what should go where, who should have what, and what he should just get rid of. I've just been pawning off clothes and shoes onto all of my friends. We're moving out of a pretty nice apartment that looks like this:

Into one 70 liter Osprey backpack for Dan, one 65 liter one for me, and the same green duffel bag I used to live out of in WV to split between the both of us. I'm not sure Dan has even put anything in there yet, and its halfway full of my whitewater gear.

I have been a rollercoaster of emotions lately. I had a little too much wine a few days before our going away party and demanded that we cancel it. I guess the stress of moving, and dealing with a lot of people that were supposed to help us flaking out made me feel like fuck it, maybe all we have is each other. I decided to quit being an emotional wreck and let the party continue, and I have to say, I was extremely surprised with the turnout. We started at the bar I work at, Vinue, and made our way to Milwaukee Street Tavern, where we walked into the back room full of a ton of people we love. My mom was on her way up for Arizona and made it just in time to make an appearance at the party. I vaguely remember grabbing a fork, clanking a glass, and giving some sort of emotional 'thank you' speech. From there we ended up at Shotgun Willies and then I think Dr. Proctors? Dan and I both woke up in our clothing from the night before, in separate locations in our house, and were miserable for two days after. Hangovers get SO much worse after 25. Thank you all who made it, we seriously feel so loved.

I'm pretty close to done packing. I purged a ton of clothes yesterday onto my friend Natalie, and between compression bags and my previous backpacking skills, I think most of what I have left will be coming with us. You probably won't hear from us again until we're actually traveling, so stay tuned as we take off Monday. I have serious aviophobia, so between Xanax and wine (don't worry, I won't combine the two) I am hoping to make the journey there without having to be removed from any of the planes for losing it. No promises, though.

So here we are with four days left, and we're on our last few days to say goodbye. I've been squeezing friends with tears in my eyes, because even though some people think we won't be gone that long, I know Dan and I are looking at this as an odyssey. We don't have a return flight home for a reason. I'm so lucky to have someone that fits into my life in every single way, and I absolutely adore him. I can't think of a better person to take off around the world with me.

My phone number will be the same, plus the NZ country code, I've got Whatsapp and Skype, and my email is TerynLunacy@gmail.com.

No excuses for not keeping in touch.

<3 Teryn