Yeah, yeah, I know I still have a few months before it is truly fair to "panic"... but seriously, I am new to the Army, this will be my first PCS, we have a whole house to move (and sell- whole other reason to panic, but I can't handle thinking about that today), and Swiss won't be here to help me navigate the bullshit, er... red tape... no, ummmmm... let's call it "Army policies". Yeah, that's it.
Anyway, I went over to military.com and looked up PCS checklists... lists help me plan, they are the salve to my panic. UNTIL YOU MAKE ME EIGHT CHECKLISTS*. Seriously, there are 8 of them... for one PCS! And some of them are multiple pages long! That my friends, was no salve, that was salt in the wound. Eight lists in an of themselves were panic inducing. ZOMG! Eight! How the heck am I going to do this and not eff things up terribly, lose all our furniture, fail to acquire on-post housing, and end up living in our tent somewhere behind the Railhead with only Army issue sleeping bags and MREs? Sigh.
I am relatively certain wine, ice cream and the wisdom/help of much more experienced MilSpouses will render this experience much less horrid than it is now playing out in my mind. I also think that if I just let my anal-retentive tendencies run amok it will help immensely... think binder for said checklists, giant calendars (oh wait, already have that), obsessive calling of pertinent players and manic documentation. Yes, yes, I can do this. REALLY! I can!
Right?
Oh Lawd, please say yes!!!
*This was also somewhat reminiscent of Martha Stewart's Wedding Checklist that was 12 pages long... also panic inducing. People, checklists are supposed to make you feel better, not feel like you WILL NEVER GET ALL OF THIS DONE. Just saying.
3 comments:
We are PCSing in a month, I feel your panic lol! I also came across those same checklists, scary. So I chose to pare down the lists, write down the ones I thought to be the MOST important. Some of the things on the list are common sense so I didn't put those down.
& with our case there were some things that I had no control over so there was no way I could put them on a calendar because they were left up in the air(& still are UGH!)
So remember to just do your best & breathe. Knowing the Army it'll all come together right at the last moment, it always does.
Yeah, I saw those checklists too. Terrifying. I don't even make grocery lists that detailed.
We've moved every 8 years, sometimes every 2. And that was prior to being in the Army. I'm getting ready to move --but it's a lot more complicated now that the market is for shit, and I have to decide whether to rent or sell this house.
Anyway, we won't move until that time, but in this summer I'll start looking for houses out in Savannah. I'm thinking condo near the historic downtown, where (when we move) I can rent it out to either tourists as a vacation house or to grad students from SCAD.
The checklists I make are usually no more then a page - IF THAT - and I completely ignore any that tell me I need eight pages of stuff to do or follow.
Though I have to say I am impressed at how little stress I have when we move. The years in the military have turned me into a "you can't control others, so just do what you can" kind of person (to a point). All the moving we've done is planned by me and so far, so good. :)
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