September 1: Job offer.
September 3-6: Home in Dallas for Labor Day.
September 7-10: LA.
September 10-13: Dallas.
September 14-21: Mexico vacation.
September 22-30: LA.
October 1-3: Dallas.
October 4-10: Istanbul.
October 11 – 16: Dallas, finally packing!
Today and from now on: LA.
What a ride! Now, just to get David out here. Then we’re all set to start the next chapter properly. And I’ll update properly too. Phew!
I will share more information with you. The job info in and of itself I will limit – what I will say is that while back in the spring it seemed I might move to Seattle with my current job, it became clear that I was feeling a bit ready to move on to something else by the time summer came around. My peers and directors were all incredibly supportive and wonderful as I applied for a different internal position and got it.
But obviously this particular one will be taking us to LA; more specifically Redondo Beach. Southern CA was somewhere we have, in fact, discussed in the past but before I considered a job CHANGE it was crossed off as unfeasible as I already had a peer doing my job in that area, and they certainly weren’t going to have two of us. But I was urged to look at this other position, and seems we were all in agreement that it was a good fit, because I no sooner inquired than I was flown for an interview and ta-da: here we are, considering our timeline and what we will be keeping and what not.
Now that it is happening, of course I’m struck with some amount of wistfulness about leaving (which is not unusual for me when about to make a big move) - we truly love this house, and it is going to be sad to leave it. However, each time I think of that, I’m going to look at the photo above.
But it is all happening pretty quick, so we’re planning sales and parties and visits as quick as p0ssible. If you are a Dallas friend – or even just a reader who I have never met, but maybe found me randomly online, and you happen to be in Dallas – I’ll be sending out the bat signal on our schedule pretty soon. It’s going to be a crazy few weeks, as I will have to go back and forth and balance the old and new job a bit for a while, and David will probably do most of the wrap up, but however the next 2 months shake out we definitely will be there permanently in November. Of course we’ll be back often – families and friends are here - and I suspect we’ll have more visitors than we ever did in Dallas, and I hope that will include you. I’m going to make a nice cozy guest room up JUST FOR YOU, you know.
We have a lot of stuff we love, which will come with us, and a lot of other stuff we like a lot but probably won’t make the cut. So if you’ve been to our lovely home and remember something you liked – furniture or books, mainly, some art supplies and random items – feel free to ask me about it. I’ll also be purging shoes and clothes, and since I’ve gone up and down in sizes quite a bit during my time in Big D you may want to have a peek one way or another.
I’m glad this happened right before a holiday weekend… I needed the extra days to just process everything. And luckily we’ll be on vacation shortly, so I can reset the brain as completely as possible before life changes in massive ways.
Since it is a Friday, and generally even in busy season that’s the one day we’re allowed to “get off early” at 5:30pm, I had a grand vision of unplugging for a night; ridding my face of the cold blue glow of the monitor. During August, we’re working pretty much 9 to eleventy o’clock, seven days a week, so forcing myself to disconnect for just a few hours is no small thing. Visions of a bath and book danced in my head.
But then, alas, things always happen right when you don’t want them to, of course, so I dealt with a student transfer emergency call until about 8pm, all stilted German and English, then I figured OH FUCK IT, might as well just update ye olde blog and look at Flickr and generally just find myself, once again, your digital friend.
Big deadline is next Wednesday, so I might as well just roll with being physically attached to the laptop, and take my break after that, when we go to Mexico. AHHHH MEXICO. SOON I WILL BE IN YOU:
And then, oh, you betcha, I’m going to unplug.
I didn’t mean to just drop the song project; it is fun, and I’ll finish it. But this week I have a work trip in Seattle, so I’ve not really been on the computer. That’s been nice; I prefer the face to face PR type stuff, so I feel a bit more energized for work generally when I get back tomorrow.
It’s been a lucky trip weather-wise; gorgeous blue skies and in the 60s. I had to interview someone up in Bellingham, so I took a jaunt to Vancouver as well. And now college friend Jen and I are having a relaxing heathen Easter Sunday, involving naked spas, bottomless coffee mugs, family brunch, and, later, sneakers and beer. It’s been a great day.
So, before I embark on any new ideas, I should probably talk about Egypt a bit, what with it being such an amazing journey in and of itself, and then everything that happened thereafter.
We had an amazing time. Two weeks is not enough at all. We flew into Cairo the day before the wedding of my dear Nora, so we were only really able to do some wandering and get our jet lag under control. That night, I attended a henna party with all the ladies and David went to the bellydancing club with the groom and friends.
The wedding party itself was wonderful, at Al Azhar park: amazing food, lovely view. Quite romantic. There may have been much hand-holding, if not making out. Apparently, making out is frowned upon in this part of the world.
It was pretty special to spend this holiday with Nora and family in her birth country. It also gave me new insight into my friend and her brother, both of whom I’ve known so long, and yet felt like I only just truly understood by visiting where they grew up. It was even more special that Grady and Siobhan and Alicia were there too – a Wellesley years reuinion in an exotic location. And others in the group who I had only met in passing before, or not at all, became more acquainted and, dare I say, new friends?
In Cairo we went to New Year’s in Maadi, at a friend’s house. The next day we all flew to Luxor where we all went on the 4 day cruise down the Nile together, ending in Aswan. We stayed at a small Nubian guesthouse called Ana Kato (highly recommended) and relaxed and ate well and went on a camel ride.
We visited the temples along the route – after studying them so many years ago I was beside myself, of course, and I have more photos than you can imagine on Flickr.
The group dispersed after Aswan, and David and I went back to Cairo for our final three days. We stayed near Tahrir Square, and went to the pyramids and Egyptian Museum and ate more falafel than we thought was possible for less money than we ever expected, and wrapped up with a visit to Ibn Tulun and a rooftop drink.
I want to go back, and go to the White Desert, and Sharm, and Alexandria, and a billion other places. Two weeks just scratched the surface. I was very sad to leave. In part because it took me several days to adjust to the chaos of Cairo. I am so used to traveling in places where I retain control, that to feel like I had none was a very hard lesson the first couple days. Once I was able to do that, however, the place opened up like a gift.
People have asked if we sensed anything was going to happen, referring to the revolution. I can’t say that exactly, though our Egyptian friends were very clear about their dissatisfaction with the government and the status quo. And it was certainly clear something NEEDED to happen – the gap between haves and have nots, just like the US, was painfully apparent, and city services seemed to be nil. There was trash everywhere. You can’t eat fresh vegetables and fruits because there is no internal food regulation on cleanliness and pesticides (but there is for export!).
There was a bombing in Alexandra while we were there, in a Coptic church, and we did hear a lot of “Egyptians unite” talk in the wake of that. Perhaps after Tunisia that feeling translated into something more political than religious. Whatever sparked it, I’m glad to see it happened, and I know our Egyptian friends are still aglow from the victory. It probably won’t be an easy road, but it was an important one to take.
I had every intention of blogging every day in November, to get myself back in the swing of things again, but the work trip to Miami really threw that intention into the shitter. The company we work for has an all-consuming “work hard/play hard” ethic when it comes to these things, so we started breakfast each day at 7.30am, and meetings ended around 5.30pm. Then we had about an hour to change, before heading to dinner/booze cruises/80s party. We were never done before midnight. And that was if you went back to the hotel when everything was over – plenty of people would then go out and party it up in South Beach. It was wicked exhausting. And fun (except for that one girl who had to go to the hospital after she drank too much). As you can see above, Devo was our 80s party costume choice. Pretty damn easy to pack – that was our goal.
Without getting into too much work stuff, I manage volunteer teams in a four-state area, which includes Colorado. Once a year I go to team meetings in my region, so the weekend after Tucson I had to take off immediately for the team meeting in Colorado.
We met in Black Hawk, Colorado, which is not much to write about, I have to say. The drive there from Denver was beautiful – once off the interstate I drove on roads carved into rock, switching back and forth. I wished it was possible to take photos while driving. However, Black Hawk itself was… well, it was all casinos, and it had all the tackiness and soullessness one expects from a low-tier casino town.
But the work part aside - I was well impressed by Denver. It was much more urban and developed than I expected. It was really pretty. And there was a Six Flags RIGHT IN TOWN!
I stayed with my friend Dee – one of my oldest friends, Dee and I studied in Italy together. It was such a nice weekend, even with work (the Colorado team is probably my favorite). Dee and I got a lot of time to catch up; we went out with a friend of hers on Saturday night and enjoyed just wandering the 16th Street Mall and watching the Zombie Walk; I played with her kids; we ate tons of good food. I really really liked Denver. And since work says I can seriously consider either a move to Denver or Seattle… I have to say that Denver really moved up the scale after this trip.
The best part is that I got my first REAL TOUR OF A FIRE STATION. Yes, it’s true. Dee’s husband works for a fire department so he gave me the walk through. I would have slid down the pole, but I had on a skirt. I did, however, get to sit in the truck.
The very next day after returning from Fort Lauderdale, Davey & I left for Tucson. This was a small little get-away we had planned before I really knew about the Florida scheduling, and well before I knew I’d have to go to Colorado the next weekend. There were super low fares on Southwest, and I knew I’d be in dire need of a mini-break by October, so we snatched up some tickets and booked a resort. Turned out to be a crazy travel week, but I’m really glad two work trips were divided by such a relaxing one with the husband.
Tucson was nice. I’m not going to get into it much, because to be honest what we mostly did was take some walks, relax at the pool, have sex, and sleep in. We explored the actual city of Tucson somewhat minimally – we went out to eat at a local favorite, had a couple Sonoran dogs, went to a local brewery, and walked around 4th Avenue. That area sort of reminded me of a cross between Austin and Berkeley, maybe. Very college-y. Very incense-y. Very head-shop-y. I would have dug it when I was 18.
The best part was the Arizona-Sonoran Museum! It was a cross between a zoo and a desert arboretum, I suppose. Amazing plants and animals. Totally appealed to our nerd sides.
So, since I don’t have much to report due to the generally conjugal nature of the break, please to enjoy some photos.
That last little guy: he looks like Ronnie the Bear:
Well, I won’t lie. This was a boring trip. Not because Florida wasn’t temperate (it was), nor that the ocean breezes failed to energize me (they did); nor that I didn’t witness wealth beyond my wildest dreams (I did). It was because it was work, and I had to work most of the days, and when it wasn’t work in a conference room, it was hanging out with work people in the evenings. Blerg. Swear to god, one has to wonder why they spend all the money on such a beautiful location to have meetings all day that keep us indoors. I’m sure we could have gotten a bargain weekend in Minneapolis and also been fine not leaving the hotel due to cold weather. But I’m not in charge, so we didn’t.
Luckily, I do have some friends amongst colleagues, and we got one pleasant lunch to ourselves:
Also, I had a great balcony from which I could watch the rich folk come in and out of the marina:
But I’m afraid that’s about it, friends. It seems like a place one goes to spend money, and seeing as how I don’t have much to spend, I doubt I will go back any time soon.
I think my landlord lives there. I should find out his address. If he’s any of those homes I saw, I’m asking for a rent decrease.
|
