An unanticipated fringe benefit of knowing that you’re going to quit your job and move to Australia is the suddenly urgent motivation to get every tooth, limb, organ, and orifice examined before voluntarily stopping your health insurance.  For me, this has translated into enough trips to the dentist to buy Dr. Novocaine that shiny new diamond-encrusted ultrasonic dental excavator he’s had his eye on, along with an agonizing morning today of fasting for my annual blood draw.  It wasn’t so much food that I craved after 14 hours; it was coffee.  My mornings revolve around coffee like the earth around the sun.  To say I know the pain of a heroin addict without their crack might smell of the dramatic, but I have witnesses who can attest to my bloodless expression this morning.  I think doctors should work the morning rush barista shift so that all physicals occur between 5 and 7 am.  That certainly would have helped my day start off better.

While I was working on nursing my impatient addiction, Gina was working off a few Christmas cookie calories at our local gym.  She has decided that Sydney needs to see less of her.  While at the gym, she also made a new friend.  While this could potentially be seen by some as a somewhat empty gesture given our impending relocation, this particular new friend comes with a bonus – randomly enough, she is also moving to Sydney this year.  If Gina can make us Sydney friends before we’ve even stepped foot off the North American continent, imagine what our social lives will be like when we’ve actually touched down in the Southern Hemisphere?!  That’s our hope, anyway, as we think fondly (and sadly) of those we’ll be missing in Seattle and surrounds.  Know that you cannot be replaced but, as a group, will need to be enlarged, or we’ll be ringing you up at the oddest hours to tell you of things that won’t happen until your tomorrow.  And how confusing will that be?  When you stop and think hard about it, we’re doing you a favor, really.