The Big Update

The summer pretty much vanished. I started several posts but my brain was only focused on the fact there were no updates to share, so I abandoned the entries.

Then everything changed. Overnight.

Doug had three prospective, very good, very interesting jobs. He managed to get ahold of a recruiter, and then another recruiter called him, and finally one company called him after he submitted dozens and dozens of applications.

In one week he went from nothing to everything. He had interview after interview. The universe just clicked for him. He got an offer, he accepted it, and we're good to go. He starts his job on September 18, so we're looking for our place to live, working with a rental agent provided by my company (thanks Company!) and we have seven places to look at this weekend.

One of the jobs he interviewed for, he really wanted. Really. But the pay was more than 20k less than what he gets right now and we can't afford for him to make not near what he makes now. They offered him an extra week's vacation, but, you can't pay your bills with vacation time. One job was at a school district, and he realized the amount of work he'd need to do to get certified and re-licensed was crazy, and expensive. So he opted to remove himself from that candidacy.

The job he took is west of Baltimore, pays well, is a six month contract with the hopes of permanence and more money after the six months are up.

So he took that job, and if it doesn't work out, he now has access to two recruiters, both of whom were eager to place him in a position. He's open to whatever happens.

But step back a little and look where his job is.

Baltimore. That's not in DC. Or near DC.

If you know the region, you know that's a big distance. We looked at a lot of options for where to live, aiming for right in the middle.

Laurel, Odenton, College Park were all on the list. I stalked zillow listings, I eagerly awaited notifications from my realtor for new rentals fresh to the market.

In my heart of hearts I wanted to live in Brookland, and be a total hipster old lady, but the lowest rent we found was over $3000 a month. And that's just dumb. We can't afford to live inside Washington DC with the three of us and a dog - nothing is the right size in our price range.

Our realtor suggested we focus on Silver Spring, so I have easy access to the Metro, and Doug has a straight shot up to the town where he'll be working.

Additionally, we took into consideration Geoff and his life. Looking at the community college system, Montgomery County has a great college and programs he may do incredibly well at. So he is looking at classes for the spring. And we're close enough to DC, and the surrounding area is urban more than suburban, so he may have a lot more employment opportunities than say Millersville.

We are off to find a place to live this weekend. Fingers crossed. Silver Spring, here we come. Each of the places we're looking at are inside the beltway, inside 495. I'll have access to downtown to the red line Metro, and Doug will have easy access to getting up north.

In the meantime, I started a podcast, but haven't put the podcast out into iTunes yet. I still have some tech things to figure out about it. In the meantime, if you want, you can go to smellyalaterpodcast.wordpress.com and scroll down to the bottom for episode 1. I'm interviewing friends to say goodbye to them, but not goodbye - smell ya later.

Over the last week I've been purging and cleaning like mad. I had started pulling content down from the attic in June, and then stalled.

I took today off to do more. But first, coffee.