Waiting to Exhale

Right now I'm waiting for my shipment of goods to come from Portland, OR to NY. It just left Portland today so those of you who live along I-90, wave as it goes by. In a nutshell, here's the deal:

1. I was living in a 3-bedroom house in Portland, finally decided to buy some new guest beds and bookshelves and put up curtains and really make it homier
2. Within a month I got a job in Japan and had five weeks before my first day of work; I was told my house in Japan would be fully furnished and that I should bring as little as possible with me (this was confirmed many times - "The house is furnished, bring as little as possible!")
3. Brought one box of books, a chair and lots of clothes to Japan
4. Found out that my four-bedroom house in Japan was unfurnished - I had nothing to lay on, sleep on, work on, cook with
5. I bought lots and lots and lots of furniture and stuff over the 3 1/2 years that I lived there without the ability to throw anything away (Do I really need to remind you about the thirteen categories that garbage is sorted into in Japan? Or that you can't discard anything American-made? I seriously wasn't able to get rid of anything the whole time.)

So everything is on the truck (trucks?) right now and is making its way to me in NY. It's not possible to describe how crazy and unsettling the last six months since returning to the States have been, and living without my "stuff" has made it harder. Definitely I've missed my PC the most - WHY WHY WHY didn't I put it on a memory stick before they packed it off? I remembered to put my work PC on a memory stick and that hasn't done me a bit of good - and I'd sell my body for a hit of iTunes right now. (Rachael Yamagata, I miss you. Sniff.) But I have to wait another week and a half until it's scheduled to arrive and then I can to sort and donate and organize to my heart's content. Sigh. I can't wait.