➤➤ Click here to stream Episode № 112 Still in Spokane
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Episode № 112 Still in Spokane
Welcome back! Lady Jupiter Podcast is the audio accompaniment to LadyJupiter.com a lifestyle blog where I write about my family’s military life, our home life, and other tiny details that I just like to share.
I’m happy that you’re here with me.
In this episode I’ll share an update on our life as affected by the U.S. military, then continue with a blog update, and wrap up with something domestic.
Today in our military-affected lives I have nothing significant to update.
Since last episode, Kid Jupiter and I were in a holding pattern. We were enjoying a slice of the Pacific Northwest as best we could. Each day we waited for word that his passport had arrived, and every two or three days we got a ride to Safeway to buy just a little bit more food. Buying groceries for a picky eater is tricky on it’s own. The trickiness is compounded by not knowing how soon we need to leave Spokane…so that was nice.
Mister Jupiter changed our plane tickets again… and again. Then finally we got word that Kid Jupiter’s passport had finally arrived…IN ARKANSAS. Exactly where we said to NOT SEND it. We were able to release it to a friend who mailed it to us in Washington.
So close!
The silver lining here is that we finally knew what day the passport would arrive in Spokane, and we could plan around that. Within hours I reserved my next rental car, Mister Jupiter reserved my hotel for one night, and confirmed plane tickets for Kid Jupiter and me.
The only downside was that I assumed that I needed to sign for the passport as I’ve needed to sign for other overnighted documents. I wanted to go buy some AirTags for the luggage, but I didn’t buy any out of fear of missing the delivery. I had also ran out of my instant coffee that day…so after picking up my rental car, and high fiving my wonderful host – Kid Jupiter and I grabbed some drive thru coffee on the way back to the house where we would stay put until I had his passport in hand.
The funny thing about moving and traveling a lot is that you get exposed to all sorts of regional favorites that aren’t available everywhere. For example, I know that America Runs on Dunkin, but I didn’t grow up with it, so I don’t have any loyalty to that brand. Several of my cousins love Dutch Brothers – I’m sure it’s great, I just haven’t been near one when they’re open and I’m thirsty. But the day that I opted for drive through coffee on the way back to the house? Well, I voted to go to the nearest coffee shop to Fairchild Air Force Base.
The sign on the street clearly states “Lingerie Coffee” and “Ladies $1 off” but it didn’t click until I got closer that this was an establishment where the baristas don’t wear much clothes. That’s a regional specialty that wasn’t an option anywhere I have lived so far. So…I took my baby boy to a drive-thru coffee shop with a scantily clad barista, and he was an absolute gentleman. The barista and I talked about my anticipated delivery, and she had one that day too – a couch from Costco. I hope her furniture was well-received. And for the record the coffee actually was really good. And if you’re curious, she wasn’t wearing lingerie, just a highcut one-piece swimsuit.
I spent the next hour packing the suitcases – this time employing my plan of nesting the carry on cases within the larger cases. This worked out really well; one nested carryon had our kitchen and bathroom essentials as planned, the other nested carryon had our clothes and shoes. I already shipped out things that we used over the past few weeks like Kid Jupiter’s air mattress, his blankets and most plush toys – plus a few of my dresses, most shoes, and a few toiletries that I wasn’t sure if I could buy again.
Once things were packed in the suitcases, I paced the house for a few hours. I was too anxious to relax in any way, so I stopped trying and just stayed on my feet and moving.
FedEx FINALLY arrived around 4pm, about five hours later than I wanted, but nothing I could do about that. And the driver didn’t need a signature…so we could have bought AirTags and actually enjoyed Spokane instead of Kid Jupiter watching me pace the house for a few hours. Oh well, I guess it was a good day to save a little money – especially when gas is over $5 a gallon.
Whew! I’ll be back next episode with the big reveal.
For today’s LadyJupiter.com update…the site is still up and running.
And lastly something domestic.
Before we started living out of suitcases, I read a listical that was full of packing tips from frequent fliers – the kind of people that need to pack for six months using a small carry-on. To be fair, I don’t recall the source, so I can’t even tell you the entire list, but I can tell you the two things that stuck with me. One tip was to pack the lightweight version of anything. The lighter compact umbrella, the lighter pair of shoes, the nylon shopping bag instead of canvas. The other tip was to use compression bags for puffy things like the one jacket you know you’ll need.
I did try to pack the lighter thing when I flew out to Vegas last June, and I think that worked well. I wasn’t carrying my luggage very often, but it was zero issue taking the stairs, or using overhead compartments. Later in our PCS journey I started to rely on compression bags – especially when I NEEDED to move suitcases like Russian nesting dolls. The bulky essentials were a fact of life; no changing the electric kettle to be lighter or smaller. Shipping out every excess textile and toy was a big gain for space, then compressing our remaining clothes was easy. Once compressed, our belongings were easier to sort and move around as needed. In the beginning of our travels it was easy for each person to have one or two compression bags. Towards the end I was only using three with Kid Jupiter. One bag had our soft jackets, one bag had our dirty clothes, and the last bag some washcloths and hand towels that I use daily.
For the record, I did try to find that list so you can read it too, but I couldn’t find the exact article. I think that those two tips stuck with me because the remaining tips were either irrelevant to our PCS, or they were things that we were already doing, like washing our clothes frequently, and only bringing the things that we really do use daily…or otherwise trying to avoid overpacking.
And that’s it for today’s episode. Show notes and transcript are available anytime; swing by LadyJupiter.com/podcast. 📌Ladyjupiter.com/Podcast
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I will talk to you when I can record next.
—Bye for now!
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