Aaaaaaaaaaaand the Power of the Internet Suddenly Astonishes Me (Or, WE ARE FINALLY MOVING!)

So, two weeks ago I was having one of my worst days to date and, after three people asked me that dreaded "So when are you actually moving?" question within a few hours of one another, I felt like just running away and hiding from the world.  So I took to my blog and just let it all out in one big "I give up, everyone stop asking me questions about this, please" post. 
And then I sat at my desk at work crying silently and thinking that I was totally going to do something like this when someone else asked me about it:

But then something completely unexpected and amazing happened: 
A friend I made from the pregnancy message boards I joined back in January 2009 sent me a message that changed everything.  She and her partner had purchased a vacation house in a town called Marysville, WA this year, and she offered to let us use the house for an insanely reasonable amount of rent while we continued our search for gainful employment!! 

For those of you not obsessively studying Washington's map like I have been, the marker is where Marysville is.

So far our main stumbling blocks in making the move was the fact that 1- We were still putting California addresses on our resumes and apparently Washingtonians hate Californians, and 2 - No one was going to rent to us when we didn't have jobs. 

So for this friend of mine - who I have yet to meet in real life! - to make this insanely generous offer this to us knowing all of this information already... it just made everything fall into place.  It took the pressure off of us to find housing immediately and gives us a few months to get our job situation in order before we have to find a permanent place to live. (And also made me basically eat my words in that day's blog, since it was the fact that I *did* tell everyone online how frustrated I was and how hopeless I was feeling that prompted her and her partner to make this offer to us!)  And I'd be lying if I said I didn't immediately start happy-sobbing the moment I read her message and had to run outside so I didn't freak out my co-workers. This woman and her partner are seriously changing our lives for the better SO MUCH and I don't think I'll ever be able to thank them enough! 


Adding the Washington address to our resumes has already helped Andrew get three job interviews up there (one of which is actually in Marysville) in one week and he should be hearing back on them any day now.  Plus he has a supervisor who loves him from his current store about to transfer to that same Marysville Costco so she can help put in a good word for him once he's up there.  :) 

So, here is the Actual Plan:  

Our moving Upack-pod-thingy gets delivered on Sept. 10th, we spend 2-3 days packing it up, and then we GO!  We're not terribly sure yet if we are driving both cars up there or if we're only taking one and then having Sadie and I fly up after a few days spent back at my parents' house, but we should be figuring that out in the next few days.  

The Upack thing got reserved yesterday.  My tw0-week-notice was just handed in at work this morning.  

IT'S OFFICIAL: WE ARE FINALLY MOVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  YEEEE-HAW!!!

Bobbing in the Waves

Yesterday my little family went to the beach together for the first time in months.  In trying to escape the high temperatures we drove to a beach south of us a bit and Andrew and I were able to take turns bobbing around in the water while the other watched the kidlet.  

While I was bobbing around, I started to remember a game I used to play with my friends when I was a kid: Over or Under.  It was a simple concept: before a wave reached us we all had to shout "Over" or "Under."  And then we had to follow whichever way through the wave that we had called out - diving under it or bobbing over it - or risk being penalized by a seaweed necklace.  Unless, of course, you were smacked in the face by a wave and came up with a red enough face that your friends felt the water had punished you enough and took pity on you...

Of course, me being eternally lost in thought about our moving issues, I started thinking about how life is a lot like that game.  Most of the time you can predict which way through a wave of change is best and you can go that direction feeling sure of yourself and your choices.  But sometimes you make the wrong prediction - like thinking that you think getting a job out of state is going to be fairly easy when it's not- and when you're trying to  bob your way over a wave it suddenly comes crashing down on you.  And you know that the instant you come out of the waves your friends will call you out on your inability to bob over the wave and throw some seaweed around your shoulders as a symbol of your failure to predict the future.  

Thankfully my friends these days are adults.  Adults who may see us sputtering for breaths between waves and might even take pity on us and say, "Dude, do you want to go boogie board instead?" as they hand us a board. 

The point to this random ramble is this:  I'm trying to remember that no matter how bad we have been at planning for our future after reacting to this wave of change, we will eventually come out on the other side of the wave.  And as of a few hours after I posted my last blog post, an amazing person has showed up next to us with a boogie board. 
(Yes, this is cryptic on purpose.  No, I won't explain further until we have a concrete plan...)  


But the important thing is:  We have hope again! 

Oh Goody, Square One Again.

Sometimes life is damned disappointing.  

No, I didn't get the job.

And you know what makes it worse?  Realizing that telling everyone about what was going on in your life was a dumb, dumb idea. 
Because now everyone knows your personal dramas and asks you about them regularly. 

Social media is such a double-edged sword like that.  


When all this drama with our housing situation started I thought it was prudent to tell my friends and family "Hey, we might not be here for much longer, keep us in your thoughts/prayers/meditations because we really need to move ASAP."

But now it feels like I've been publishing our failures for the world to see.  And I'm honestly kicking myself for it.

In some part of my mind I figured Well, the fastest way to tell everyone stuff you want them to know is probably just to post about it on Facebook.  Or them blog about it and post THAT on Facebook.  But then you get people who don't see your posts that often - they may see that you said you were moving at the end of July and then when you see them in August and you are sitting in the same damned spot you were unhappy to be in back in June and they always ask something that feels like nails on your internal chalk board:

"Have you heard back about that job yet?"  or  "So when are you guys actually moving?"  

  And I realize that everyone asking these questions means well and is genuinely curious about what is happening with our move, but when you are returning them the same answers you did two months ago - two months ago when you were convinced that a Costco job transfer to another state would be an easy thing to get done - it's just.... depressing.

The whole situation is beyond frustrating and I feel like I'm sinking into a giant pit of despair.  Not because I didn't get one job, mind you, but because neither Andrew or I can get any traction on what to DO now.  If we move out of state without either of us being employed we will 1- Probably have a hard time finding someone willing to rent to us, and 2- Potentially be setting ourselves up for complete financial devastation.  As miserable as I am, I would feel even worse if we moved up there without jobs and didn't account for the fact that the economy sucks right now and we might totally screw ourselves over if we do make that move.

Plus Fall semester starts for me on the 22nd and that makes me panic even more because the number of classes I'm registered for could vary between 1-3 depending on what my job situation is like in the next month.   So there's that awesome added stress.

So in regards to keeping everyone updated any time Andrew or I get an interview:  I give up.  
I can't expect people to want to actually want to follow a play-by-play of my whining about the same problem over and over again.  And I know now that I need to play my cards closer to my chest with this because there's nothing like trying to explain to everyone that you failed to make you feel the sting of your ineptitude even more.     

You'll hear once we have an official move date and a job lined up.  Until then, just please keep sending good thoughts/prayers/vibes our way when you remember to.  Because we need them more than ever.