With my very first overseas trip looming ahead, I have carefully crafted a list. Lists are so soothing. Everything looks better and much more accomplishable on a list.

To Do

1. Balance the Pickwickian finances and put our household budget in order after the chaos of moving, getting a job (like the kind where one is paid), changing all our expenses, and buying plane tickets to Serbia.
2. Update our driver’s licenses. Because the last identification paperwork went so smoothly, I just couldn’t wait to try something else!
3. Replace my entire wardrobe. Because one really should do this every six or eight years, you know, so it’s about time anyway and if I do it now I can put it in the “traveling to Serbia” expense category on the budget instead of the “Mrs Pickwick is Rather Frivolous” category, which is usually depleted by the 3rd of each month.
4. Print the church bulletins for Fr P at Staples. To disguise the shopping errand for clothes as a favor and assuage the guilt that I feel anytime I leave the house mostly unaccompanied by small Pickwicks. 
5. Get an oil change. Get a haircut. Get other essential things that I ran out of six months ago in my own house, but will probably Need Very Much in Serbia. These are on the same number because, well, um, WalMart. Anyone else thrilled and disturbed in equal proportions that you can do all this in one place? I considered scheduling an eye appointment and purchasing a bicycle, too, but I didn’t want to overdo it. 
6. Feed everyone everything.  My new menu plan system. It’s working great. Nothing to do with Serbia, really, but I seem to always have to do it.
7. Wash all the clothes we own and then pack them.
8. Clean and organize our entire house. Actually nothing to do with Serbia at all. I just always put this at the end of all my lists. It’s called “domestic optimism.”
9. Fly in a plane. In the air. Over the ocean. Without breaking the 3.4 oz liquids rule for my carry-on luggage. I am actually far more worried about the prospect of accidentally breaking a rule than our plane crashing into the aforementioned ocean. You can’t just pick your anxieties. They sort of choose you. 
10. Think of something to do last. Because otherwise this list would only have nine things, and I would really rather it end on an even number.