RF Generation Message Board

Hey guys,

I was just wondering if anyone here has ever relocated to a different part of the country by choice, without being transferred in a job or anything. I'm talking about picking up and moving to a different state or region and finding a place to live and a job, etc. all at once.

My wife and I have both lived in New Jersey all of our lives. We both hate it here. We intend to move to Texas. I visited Austin in 2006 and truth be told, I should never have come back from that vacation. I had a lot less anchoring me to NJ at that time.

Now my wife and I own a house here we'll never be able to sell, and we'd have to charge an exorbitant rent to cover the mortgage payment. We may just do a jingle mail but I'm not sure about that yet.

Our current plan is to first and foremost aggressively pay off our credit card debts (under $5K right now, they were a lot higher when we first met, we've been paying them down for years and now finally this is a goal that is seriously within reach). Then we are going to visit TX sometime in the summer. My wife has never been there and although I know she'll love it as much as I did, I just want to make sure. We intend to look at places to live and maybe even interview for jobs and at least start doing some networking. Who knows what can happen? At the very least we'll get a nice vacation and see the lay of the land as it were.

So if anyone has any thoughts or advice about any of this stuff, I'm all ears. It's a little scary as I have seen so many people over the years trying to do this (though mostly to CA and FLA) only to return to NJ. When we leave, we don't want to come back.

Additionally if anyone here lives in or around Austin I'd love to hear from you. I'd like to know what areas surrounding the city would be good for us (we're in our mid 30s with no kids nor plans for any).

(Note: Please, this needn't become the "Why the hell would you want to move to TX?" thread. Yes, I know it's very hot there. That is precisely why the wife and I want to live there. We both love very hot weather, and that's just one of the many reasons we think the area is right for us. We've thought about it a lot.)

Thanks in advance for the help!

Austin, too hot? I think you need to reconsider your priorities. Austin already has horrendous traffic, and in the next 10 years, will be one of the worst gridlocked cities in the US. Wherever you move if you decide to move to Austin, it better be within walking distance of your job.

We have a studio in Austin - I can always ask around for decent areas to visit/live if you'd like.

Thank you man, that's exactly why I wrote this thread. Maybe ask about job openings too? ;)

As for traffic, nothing is worse than the Northern NJ/metro NYC area. Nothing. OK Maybe Los Angeles but I've been in that too and the traffic in and around Austin (at least circa 2006) wasn't even in the same universe.

Los Angeles: #1 in US
Austin: #4 in US

http://www.forbes.com/pictures/ehmk45mihf/4-austin-tx/

You win, traffic is bad in Austin. Still, I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. I'll take it. A million times over I'll take it.

Here's my commute. Route 80 westbound from 287, and I'm about 30 miles away from home in this pic. Didn't get out of second gear until about twenty minutes after this pic.

[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140306_174047_191_zps6eabe800.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140306_174047_191_zps6eabe800.jpg.html)

There are always reasons not to do something. Traffic don't scare me.

Best of luck with the plans. I've not been to that area, but always enjoyed the Houston area. Traffic there was bad enough, so I can't imagine worse places. I can't say I blame you at wanting to get away from Jersey.

Gtfo, I live in NJ as well. I do not blame you for wanting to leave. It does kinda suck. My wife and I are thinking about moving to Canada actually. We live out of the in laws basement with our two kids (ideal isn't it?) and have been looking to get out. I've never been to Texas but best of luck getting out of this hell hole.

if it wasn't for your hopes of somewhere warm i would agree with monkees19 and say come to canada, we're good people ;D

Its definitely not warm up here, but there are typically plenty of jobs available the further north you want to go :)




PS - The traffic isn't bad either ;)

This is NJ traffic, even during snow storms lol.  I hate the traffic here.  I'm looking to move out of NJ when I graduate, and was considering Texas because of the weather and no state income tax.  Sometimes you need to commit fully to something and just do it, and not look back.  This may be one of those times.  Good luck GrayGhost!

Canada is where I keep peeking. Hat of the free and whatnot.

Can always come to Cincinnati. We have bars and some hills and a river, and we bitch about our traffic but it's not so awful.

Jersey traffic sucked ass when i was coming back from Too Many Games.
Texas traffic sucked ass when i was moving down there. Cross the state boarder instant parking lot for hours.

I liked where i was living in TX. Every area has its downsides though. Don't go in with rose tints make sure you are fully researching anything before just jumping into it.

I moved to TX on a whim but i still had a place to go(living with a person i had never met) and was guaranteed a job(with people i had never met) before i got there.

I moved from San Diego to Phoenix. I tried moving for Phoenix to Eugene, OR but our house didnt sell.

My brother lives in PHX so I came over and looked for an apartment and a job.

As far as moving to TX, the heat isnt why but the state is LOL. I have been to a lot of different states and that is one of the ugliest in the land.

Scott - both Arizona and Texas hate women. Not sure why Texas is so much of a LOL when Arizona essentially states that women don't have rights.
I'd suggest moving to Florida, but I can't even keep a straight face saying that. The south sucks.

I guess it really depends on what you are looking for in terms of the types of jobs and the environment (climate, nightlife, beaches, mountains, etc.)  I've lived in NC all of my life and one of the perks is having easy access to mountains and beaches, and a very moderate climate. We don't really go out, but there are great restaurants and bars/clubs in the bigger cities. Not saying you need to move to NC, just saying that these are some things you need to consider before moving.

I had some friends who lived in Austin for a few years for grad school. They seemed to love it. Very hipster type town, with good music, if that is what you are looking for.

Oh the politics here are insane. AZ has some beautiful places Texas has........I have nothing. I hated driving through that state every time I drove threw it.

The Carolinas are definitely big on my to-move list.  I've been down to Hilton Head twice now and the Carolinas are much prettier than NJ is.

Shut up. West Texas is gross.
Texas has got to have the most varied climates/geography of any state
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas#Geography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb3plRKLLUA

EDIT
The womens rights thing was worth noting though...
All i ever hear about is reproductive freedom and men don't have vaginas so they shouldn't get to vote on abortion and blah blah blah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvkjewgF8GQ

(I make fun of Aubs all the time when that episode is on. Please continue with helpful commentary now :P)

At the risk of being way off topic, I would argue that point. Not that I've actually been to Texas admittedly. I think were I live, Oregon, has a pretty wild and wide range of climates. On any day of the year, I could go snowboarding, water skiing, surfing, and wind surfing. There is everything from the Pacific Ocean to sandy desert. We have a rain forest. One of the longest/largest rivers in the world as well as the shortest. Both active and extinct volcanoes. One of the deepest, clearest lakes in the world. Elevation from sea level to over 11,000 feet. Huge forests of Douglas Fir and the super fertile Willamette Valley farmland. I could go on....

Anyways, there's my thoughts on that, just say'n   :P

Well yesterday we booked our trip for the first week of August. Slowly getting rid of all of our earthly possessions to lighten our load and make for a fresher start. Our house is already looking like we've moved out.

Now that we have dates we can set up to look for areas to live and research places to work. Very exciting.

Glad to hear you are making progress. It sounds like you have a solid action plan, and I hope it works out well for you.

Sounds like this is really happening. I hope the move works out nice for you.

Keep us in the loop as things progress.

Best of luck Shawn. Keep us updated on the move.

Thanks guys, don't worry I intend to use this thread to organize my thoughts knowing that it's public and you guys can chime in. This all is equal parts scary and exciting.

Got the wheels turning to sell our house to our next-door neighbor, so we can rent it from him and leave on a time frame that is more convenient for us. That's the dream scenario at least. Hope we can make it work!

Good job working your plan. Sounds solid.

I hope this thread works out for you the way Crabby's video game store thread worked out for him.  RfGeneration: guiding the lives of people one member at a time.

Thanks Retro, I really appreciate that sentiment!

Just to update, we're putting together a package for the bank that they require to approve a short sale of our house, which we're trying to sell to my neighbor. In my heart I feel like this isn't going to happen, and that in the end we'll end up walking away from the house. My wife and I have accepted that, but we're doing our best to make the sale go through. My lawyer says this can take a long time and they're not likely to approve it anyway. We'll see I guess. Either way, we're outta here.

Better yet, I finally made an actual connection with someone who lives in Austin. He's the cousin of a friend of mine and it turns out I knew him in high school, so not only can he give me info about the area, but it's coming from the perspective of someone who grew up in the same town as me. In addition to that he works in animal care, which is a field my wife and I both have a lot of experience in. This is exactly the kind of hookup I was hoping for, and although ironically the guy is on vacation on the east coast right now, I'm super excited to get on the phone with him to start picking his brain.

Meanwhile I continue every day to empty my house. We always have garbage bags and donation bags and I've always got stuff on ebay or going out to my friends on this site.

Only 81 days until we set flight. It'll be here in a flash, I know it. Gotta keep getting those ducks lined up.

Best of luck man! Sounds like everything is moving forward nicely.

You and your wife are going about this very well. You're sticking to your plan and that seems to be motivating you to make the most of this big move.

Haven't updated the thread in a while here. The latest is that we're leaving tomorrow morning. Holy shit, this is really happening.

Cruising along with selling my house to my neighbor.

Told the company I work for of my plans, and they were gracious enough to refer me to similar company down there. I pestered that company for about month and finally got the call today which set up an interview for Tuesday.

My wife is more "winging it" as far as a job, but she does have a few leads.

I'm taking my laptop so I'll be sure to share pics and whatnot from the trip. Maybe even some scores.

This is it. Don't get scared now.

Best of luck!

Good luck with everything buddy!

exciting! good luck, i hope everything goes well!

Good luck man! Rooting for you to make the best of it.

Hey everyone, we're back!

First of all, thank you all very much for the words of encouragement. It means a lot. Our trip to Austin was amazing! Anyone here who is friends with me on facebook (facebook.com/mrshawngray) knows that we had an action packed nine days in this beautiful town. I wrote two long emails to my coworkers while I was away, so I pasted them below for anyone who wants a rundown of the fun stuff we did. I'll also put a bunch of pics down there. But the point of this thread is to chronicle our efforts to relocate to Austin Texas and we took a few small steps towards doing that.

In reality, it's a short story. The job interview I went on went very well, and I'm almost certain they will offer me a position. Now it's just a matter of when they would want me to start.

My wife went for a more spontaneous boots on the ground type approach to her job search and met a lot of good people and spent a lot of time in the various animal shelters and clinics in the city. A few seemed promising to her and she's going to follow up with them this week. Although it would be ideal for both of us to have jobs we'll be able to get down there even if only I do at first.

We were able to look at a handful of rental properties while we were there but because we don't officially have jobs or an accurate move in date the Realtor we were working kind of cut us off, but I don't blame him. The market there moves extremely fast. There are two houses we looked at that we both liked that are still available. I check on them every day. The plan is if I get the job, I will call on one of them. If they're not available by the time I officially have a job offer we'll be in the unfortunate position of either having to rent an apartment sight unseen or incur the expense of at least one of us flying back down there to find a place to live.

Meanwhile the slow gears continue to turn on short-selling our house to my neighbor.

The strange thing is that despite having told my current company that I'm leaving (as did my wife), trying to sell our house, interviewing for jobs, telling some of our friends that we're moving etc, etc, etc, still nothing concrete has happened. By that I mean we still have not crossed any points of no return. The difference now though is we've been to Austin and are both 100% on board for moving. The fear I was experiencing before the trip is all but gone. I know we can and will do this. Now it's just a matter of when.

Towards the end of our trip I had the following conversation with my wife:

"So do you like it here? Like, this is it, you want to move here, we're going to do this?"

"Yeah, it's a really cool town, reminds me a lot of Charleston." [SC, where she went to college] 

"So let's say somehow all of our possessions and our cats could be magically transported to Austin right this second and we would never have to go back to New Jersey again, would you do it?"

"In a heartbeat."

"Me too."

********************************************

Greetings from Austin Texas!

Hey everyone! So far our trip has been awesome. We spent Friday exploring the city and went to lunch at a restaurant called Frank downtown. Some confusion with metered parking and I had to pull a dangerous and illegal maneuver to get in the parking spot which stopped traffic both ways but not one horn was honked!

On Saturday I went garage saling starting in a bad part of town and ending in a nicer area. In South Austin I met a very nice family at a garage sale and we went with them to a really cool swimming spot in San Marcos on Sunday.

I have hit every video game store in town already and between them and the garage sales the hunting is pretty decent here.

Last night we went to a free outdoor concert of the string section of the Austin Symphony. It was so cool. They did everything from Mozart to Lady Gaga. The view of the city from there was awesome. Check out the picture. After the concert we grabbed some gluten free pizza at Austin's Pizza. Almost as good as Mama's.

This morning I got up early and went for a long run along the trails of Lady Bird Lake. It was beautiful and awesome. In a few hours we're going to see a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse. Tomorrow night we're going to that baseball game with my friend Dave and his girlfriend.

My only complaint is that our hotel is a roachy dump in a bad part of town but that's what we get for just going as cheap as possible. Not spending much time here as you can see so no big deal.

The weather is awesome though unseasonably cool but it's supposed to warm up as the week goes on.

I'll send more updates as the week goes on. Don't miss me too much!

Greetings from Austin Texas Part II

So the last time I checked in we were about to go to the Alamo Drafthouse for a movie. Well we did, and it was awesome! It's the original place that serves food and drink while you watch the movie and they have a strict no talking and no phones policy. That is my kind of place. Plus they have a pre movie show where they show old trailers and promo stuff that is themed to the movie you are about to see. So cool!

I took Eileen to Lady Bird Lake (where I had run early in the morning) and we went for an awesome long walk together. Check out this panoramic I took of the river.

On Tuesday night we went to a Round Rock Express baseball game with our friend Dave and his girlfriend Amy. As you can see, we had awesome seats but I think this field would look awesome from anywhere. The Express lost the game in extra innings but we did see Brent Lillibridge hit a two run jack as soon as we got in our seats.

On Wednesday I returned to Lady Bird Lake for another early morning run. On Wednesday night Eileen and I went to the Congress Avenue bridge, also known as the Bat Bridge. There are 1.6 million bats under the bridge and every night people gather to watch them fly out at dusk. It was really beautiful.

Another thing we've been doing is eating, a lot. Pretty much every restaurant around here is at least decent and pretty much every place has gluten-free and vegetarian menus.

The weather has gotten hotter but the humidity is almost non-existent. Might hit triple digits later today.

Today I'm going to check out Pinballz Arcade. Tomorrow we're going swimming in the world famous Barton Springs Pool. We're sad our trip will be drawing to a close soon, but there is still much to do!

I forgot a few things in my first email. First of all, they sell wine and beer everywhere here, and it's cheap, like five bucks a bottle for my favorite Yellow Tail at 7-Eleven and Walgreens. Also, the first day we were here we went to the Whole Foods corporate headquaters/flagship store and we saw the pictured promo display for Ah!Laska Chocolate syrup. Only six bucks a bottle (but there's a coupon!). So in short, wine is cheaper and more available than Ah!Laska chocolate syrup here.

*********************************************

Lots of pics in this spoiler tag:

Spoiler (hover to show)

[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140803_190123_707_zps823e185c.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140803_190123_707_zps823e185c.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140804_202129_444_zps73094e2c.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140804_202129_444_zps73094e2c.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140805_194830_364_zps813dd1ee.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140805_194830_364_zps813dd1ee.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140806_193158_962_zpsf7b1e6d8.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140806_193158_962_zpsf7b1e6d8.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140806_203055_251_zps16452e35.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140806_203055_251_zps16452e35.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140806_205034_201_zpsfb6ed9a7.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140806_205034_201_zpsfb6ed9a7.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140808_115611_780_zps46707f21.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140808_115611_780_zps46707f21.jpg.html)
[img width=700 height=80]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20140807_113304_141_zpse1ad0a40.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20140807_113304_141_zpse1ad0a40.jpg.html)

Congrats on taking the big steps, Shawn. I enjoyed seeing the Facebook posts about your trip, and you're working hard at it. Don't give up.

Sounds like a great plan. Very happy for you and wishing you and the Mrs. the best.

Did you end up moving? I've only heard wonderful things about Austin and have every inclination to vacation there before too long

We're still in New Jersey. Basically the situation is status quo. Everything is just taking longer than we thought it would, but we're not letting it get us down. I've been wanting to move to Texas for my entire life. Another few months or so will be no big deal.

I was forced to move to Florida from Minnesota and I'm not surprised at all to hear that your friends moved back to Jersey (I met a lot of them while I was there). Place was a f'ing hellhole. I went back in 2013 to visit my parents for a while and I haven't been back since, nor will I ever go back.

I relocated back home to Minnesota after not having lived here for 8 years and it's pretty tough to regain a social life, especially when you didn't have a big one to begin with when you left. Job market is really good here so there's no problems there at least.

I've been reluctant to update this thread because in reality, nothing has happened since our trip in August. In early January my wife went to Austin for three days for what seemed like an extremely promising job interview. The interview went very well and we really thought that was our golden ticket. In the end she didn't get job, and I knew we'd have to move on to Plan B.

Plan B is: Eileen is moving to Texas immediately, taking with her what possessions we have left, with her sole mission in life to find a full time job with health benefits (because she is on my employer's insurance right now, preventing me from leaving my job first).  As soon as her benefits kick in, I will move down there and join her to live happily ever after. I'll be living a monkish existence by myself in NJ for at least three months, but I'm ready, and my job is going into a busy season anyway (which brings also the benefit of a lot of much appreciated overtime hours). 

So, it's finally real. We have a lease on a really nice apartment, the moving company is all set up for less than two weeks from now, and although as mentioned before we're both willing to walk away from our mortgage, we still have some not so hot leads on short-selling our house in NJ. If that happens, great. If not, we don't care any more.

Once again, thanks for the kind words of encouragement. Looking back on this thread, I received very little actual advice, but I'm the kind of person who find communicating my thoughts to other people to be very organizational and thus calming, and I appreciate ya'll just listening.

Below are some random thoughts about my previous posts in this thread, followed by one of my favorite songs about Texas.


We actually got the credit cards paid off months ago, but our dirty little secret was my wife's student loan, which at this time last year was about $4,000. My wife was never big on paying it. I know she felt guilty about bringing it into our relationship. Logically, we're in the same boat so I told her it would have to be paid before we moved. We paid it aggressively for the past three months and killed it last Thursday 02/26, just in time. We are completely debt free, for real this time.


This is something I'm so glad I did, as it is really paying off now. We're still finding stuff to donate or throw away, which I guess is a good thing, but we are not bringing too much furniture at all and I am really glad that every single week for the past year I was putting stuff in the garbage and the donation pile.


It's crazy looking back and seeing that I was this nervous about our initial trip. I wasn't sure Eileen would like the city, but more importantly I think I knew we weren't actually ready. I envisioned us vacationing there in August, one or both of us getting jobs, and moving the next month. Looking back now, I'm very grateful it didn't happen that way. We still had the aforementioned debts and considerably less in savings at the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWsp68dGfrM

Good luck!

Thank you!

Just a quick update, Eileen arrived safely in Austin last Saturday. She turned a three day road trip into a day and a half one with her jalopy of a vehicle loaded to the gills including both of our cats. What an amazing woman!

The movers are scheduled to drop our stuff off between this Friday and Sunday. Hope all my games make it safely ;).

Once she has all our stuff, including some nice clothes, she can start looking for a job. I'm hoping this happens soon because it's only been a week and I am anxious as hell to get down there. I miss my wife, and the weather here is still endlessly cold and shitty. Our new apartment is so much nicer than our house too. I can't wait to be there!

Update?

Thanks for asking.

Let's get the most important thing out of the way: my video game collection arrived safely in Texas about a week after my wife did.

The weather here is still cold and shitty. It is getting ridiculous.

Nothing to report on Eileen's job search, but it'll take time. It's hard not to get frustrated, but I know she's doing her best. In the meantime I have begun to push harder in my own efforts to find work there. I joined linkedin if anyone wants to connect with me: https://www.linkedin.com/pub/shawn-gray/b7/39/406

If I find a job before she does and we have find another way to make sure she has health insurance, so be it.

I am going to Austin on the 23rd for three days to see the new place, help her finish unpacking and putting furniture together, and hopefully going on a few job interviews. I'm very excited about this trip. I think it's going to be great.

i'm sure everything will work out soon, sounds like it's been going great for the most part.

Time for a small update, though as per usual there really isn't anything major to report, which is most unfortunate. Eileen went on an interview last week which she thought went quite well. Unfortunately she found out on Wednesday that she didn't get the job. She'll just have to keep at it. Something will stick. I believe in her.

In the meantime, I've been here since Thursday morning. Our apartment is awesome. It is so much nicer than our house. I spent all day Thursday unpacking and setting up the apartment. The main bulk of what we moved was my video games and I was setting them up into Friday afternoon, all the while questioning the necessity of having such an idiotically massive collection :P. Having said that, our "media room" here is bigger and just nicer than the one in our house.

It was a lot of work, but when I got here the place looked like a storage unit. We still need some furniture and a few lamps, but I feel like I more than accomplished what I needed to do on this short trip. It is about 85% livable and I hope that going forward that will put Eileen in a better mental state and make her more comfortable in general.

Sadly I have to return to New Jersey tomorrow (where it was snowing the day I left, I kid you not) but I'm so happy I got to see my wife for a few days and see the apartment and the area of town we're in. It is so much more of a reality now.

Anyway, here's a picture of a bunch of turtles on a log viewed from the Ladybird Lake Hike & Bike Trail in downtown Austin.
 
[img width=700 height=393]http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h32/grayghost81/IMG_20150424_164649_457_zps7pv8r6oj.jpg[/img] (http://s60.photobucket.com/user/grayghost81/media/IMG_20150424_164649_457_zps7pv8r6oj.jpg.html)

Glad to see this coming together for you, and I hope things move quickly and smoothly. It's great to read these updates. I'm rooting for you two.

Great to hear the move is going well. Can't wait to hear more from you

you should make a video tour when everything has been unpacked and organized! especially of the new game room.

I was thinking about it, but I didn't get to alphabetize everything yet and also it's pretty much the same setup only in a slightly bigger, nicer room so it wouldn't be much different from my previous tour videos.

For the purpose of this thread, I will certainly do a quick tour of the entire apartment the next time I go down there which God willing, will be permanently.

Great to hear it!  Your new place sounds nice.  Are you ready for some visitors? ;)  Don't worry, the job will come.  It just takes time for the right job!

First of all thank you all once again for the words of encouragement. You guys rock.

Speaking of people who rock, Eileen got a job! She starts a full time accounts receivable position (making significantly more money than she did up here btw) on Monday 5/11.

Whelp, I'm moving to Texas. I've been wanting to do this for my entire life.

Oh I almost forgot, I am also in the process of negotiating a full time position for myself, but it isn't as exciting because it's not exactly the type of work I want to be doing so it will probably end up being temporary. I'm likely to take it so that I can land on my feet when I go down there.  

Congrats on the fantastic news man! Very happy for you and your wife.

Congratulations!

Awesome dude!  Be sure to pick up some boots and a cowboy hat, and I expect to hear a strong southern accent on the next Playcast recording!  :P

@GrayGhost81:

That's great news congrats!

congrats man, i'm glad it all worked out!

Congrats dude!

Dear Diary,

So just some random updates here:

Mrs. Grayghost is loving her new job after her first full week at work. I can tell by talking with her that she is a thousand times happier than she has been. She has made friends with a few of her coworkers, which is good because on Wednesday morning her car was dead when she was about to leave for work. That's right, third day at a new job, car won't start. Luckily, one of her coworkers who happens to live very close to us was kind enough to drive her to and from work that day and as it would turn out, for the rest of the week.

Turns out the drive from NJ to TX took a toll on the old Saturn. The battery had died, the transmission needed work, and a brake job was required on all four brakes. The mechanic advised my wife that there was a lot of rust in the undercarriage of the car that could "complicate" any repairs they had to do. He asked her how long we intended to keep the vehicle; not a good sign.

So for a few hours yesterday I was trying to figure out possible scenarios for transportation for Eileen. Luckily, it didn't have to come to anything drastic. Turns out all the repairs went smoothly and the mechanic advised my wife that with the proper upkeep going forward, we could expect to get a few more years out of that hooptie. How's that for a one-eighty? On top of that, I was really impressed with the overall price for all the work they did, not to mention a tow. My wife says the car drives like brand new. On top of that, I feel like we have a mechanic in our new home whom we can trust, another dumb thing to cross of that imaginary list of things you discover by necessity when living in a completely new place.

***

As for me, I've finally started to make progress in my job search, and have scheduled my first interview. This must mean that I know when I'm going down there. In fact, I put in notice at my job earlier in the month. My last day work with be May 28 and I will hit the road the next day. I'm having my mechanic here take one last look at my car before I leave. Not taking any chances there.

I've decided to retrace my wife's steps exactly as far as driving down. Before she left, I urged her to plan on driving for three days, but she insisted that she could make it in two. She was right, and if she can do it in that jalopy with two cats, I can do it as well. I'm even going to stay at the same hotel she did in Tennessee.

***

I'm in an odd place mentally right now. It isn't good or bad. I'm not stressed or anxious about anything. I've been thinking about the day last July when I told my boss I intended to leave the company to relocate. I was so scared that day. Both of us got very emotional discussing it. Now however, it has been so long that the company is ready, and so am I. I know I made the right decision there.

I've talked about it here and in my normal life, for a very long time all Eileen and I could do was plan and dream, look at places to live, call companies to potentially work at, and visit Austin. Up until about the end of this February, nothing real had happened. Then all of a sudden, everything started to happen. Eileen quit her job. We signed for an apartment in Austin. We stopped paying our mortgage. Eileen drove with our cats all the way to Austin in two days.

Then everything went into a weird state of limbo. There was period of about a month and a half between when Eileen safely made it to Austin and when she secured employment where it didn't feel to me as if my wife moved to Texas, and soon I would also. What it felt like was: my wife lives in Texas, I live in New Jersey, this is my life now. The indeterminate nature of our timeline was excruciating.

Visiting her and seeing the new apartment last month made a huge difference. It made the concept of making our home together in Austin a reality to me. Though her job search wasn't going well at the time, I know seeing each other recharged both of us.

So, back to right now. Within the span of less than four months we have gone from not having crossed any points of no return, to only having one point of no return remaining. That point is me closing the book on my life in New Jersey forever. My life is being rebooted, through my and Eileen's own doing, and it has been such a long journey (I think I first decided I wanted to live in Texas when I was about thirteen years old), that being able to count down the days to the conclusion of it is absolutely incredible.

***

Wow, so that's about all I feel like typing now lol. I'm really glad I started this thread way back when so I will always have it to look back on as a chronicle of what has happened.

Congrats buddy! Exciting times and best of luck. Austin is a great town and the slower pace of the South is something you'll enjoy and I'll never give up.

Congrats on building a plan, and executing it. With that type of discipline you're sure to succeed.

Well, I'm here! The journey is all but over, and once Mrs. Grayghost and I pick up some last pieces of furniture, we'll be settled in.

I drove all day Friday to make it to Jackson, TN. I left Jackson at about 3:30am on Saturday and arrived in Austin at about 2:00 in the afternoon. The entire trip was smooth and mostly uneventful, thank God. I only hit one little cluster of traffic and a handful of times drove through torrential downpours in TN, AR and TX. Arkansas was like the Twilight Zone. There were these weird wild dogs or something around the highway and for the first time in my life I saw a vehicle completely engulfed in flames. It was like Deadly Premonition. I was really nervous about the flooding and road closures in Dallas but I made it through smoothly.

Anyway, it has been very nice being here. Obviously my wife and I are happy to be together. We agreed never to pull a stunt like this again! The time apart was pretty taxing.

As I have stated before, our apartment is great. Having more time to explore, I'm finding that I really like the neighborhood. There are bike paths, shopping, and a public park with a long hiking trail attached within a mile of our place.

I got right on the administrative crap like getting Texas plates on my car and getting a Texas driver's license. Once you start working, it's hard to find the time for that bullshit.

I had job interviews on Monday and Tuesday. Both firms made me offers before I even interviewed. It was a really tough choice, but after weighing the pros and cons of both companies I decided to go with the beverage company which I had interviewed with back in August of last year. I felt comfortable there and already have a good rapport with the people who work there, and I will have a lot to do there. The other company I interviewed with would have been really cool to work at too. Again, a really tough decision, but in any event I made my choice and will start working on Monday.

The final step is selling our New Jersey house. My neighbor has been hot and cold on buying it to the point where I had written him off a long time ago, but me leaving must have lit a fire under his ass because he called my realtor the day before I left. It would be absolute icing on the cake if we could sell that old shack and be free and clear.

So that's where we're at. I have a few more days of hanging out and doing whatever, then I join the workforce on Monday. We did it. 

Congrats on the move and the quick job placement! Things are looking up it seems.

 :beer:

congrats man, that's awesome that everything worked out!

Congratulations!!!!!

Glad everything worked out for you guys!

Congratulations on accomplishing this monumental life dream. I wish you two the best in your new home.

I'm so happy I have this thread to look back on, it truly is like a diary.

Just a bump and quick update. I quit my job over a month ago. I posted about having two offers and having hoped I made the right choice. Well, I made the wrong choice for sure. That place was Hell on Earth. It was the worst job I've ever had, and that's saying something.

So, goddamnit, I didn't move to ATX to work in a salt mine so I f*cking quit. God bless my wife for taking me on her shoulders and saying "be unemployed for as long as you need to, I'll take care of us" and truly meaning it, and doing it.

I had hoped to have a job sooner than this for sure (my last day at my last job was 08/21) but I start my new job this Tuesday.

It's at a protein bar company in town, very close to our apartment. The owner was impressed by my experience and I was impressed by her eagerness to "do the right thing" (my experience is in food production, quality, and compliance, and compared to what I was used to the firms down here tend to be behind the times), she was offering the money I was looking for so it seemed like a match made in Heaven.

Then she drops the bomb on me that she can't quite take me on full-time at the moment, but she'll put me on the payroll two days a week (for a ballin' hourly rate, so that's good at least). So she tells me this in person and I can't quite hide my disappointment. I thought I had it made, but everything takes time down here, especially with ultra-small companies like this. So I said let's do this and I'll prove to you that you'll need me full-time.

Upon reflection I'm psyched about it. Honestly, despite over a month of nothing but playing video games and reading comic books, I'm ready to kick some ass in the workforce. I don't care if it is two days a week. It's my foot in the door in a company I truly believe in.

EDIT: Well never mind that! Just got an email which I thought would be instructions for starting tomorrow but instead it said they decided not to take me on. Back to the drawing board!  :grrr:

So anyway friends, we'll see what happens. Mrs. Grayghost is not quite so hype on her job anymore but she's sticking it out for the time being and that's a story for next time.

Thanks for listening and all the positive reinforcement from your posts helps a ton. I mean it.

****

So on a totally unlrelated note here's me and Mrs. Ghost on a charity walk we did two weeks ago. She's not the most physical person (due to health issues) so I was super proud that she walked the full one mile with me. It was an awesome morning.

[img width=700 height=393]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/sqhw9n8wk9M9gseUWsUzt5ZRljqw3CGK37Jz37_OwsFPhSfw0WuLLoplaa3dzAnqsi-wJ6vke1kWNQtzWTnUbc7cGe4jbh4cgplhIEOXMiib1SrfR7l8O8BmaF4SamxwBj4JuqXmE0scIeyiU3HZXqB4QK2_no99Av2AXcUOVfryZjN25KhBgVIvFU0w_E7YOf1d_boJ9bkmtx83oXg7pfU3zWxYluG3K1nMrachUoGvnDD4b7pmyhIsK63znRPu_8OFys5ZMtfRgFODryMjXJ17YQq5b6w4CKz1JAbYplyPoWysZrzlMQHLOCaHNccy-zaXFEwKNQcSpGPAvZTN-ihhDo4pM7y665-s1h8LGlorBjGwBzyLwc0nriiM01MgTdvJQvB6rdzIW9ypAzqoNaH1cL3axM2I2MgDucE0ywhzNjmLeg4ilyV3GWFeAOb8SgNktRcic6MPEAgunEYP3haWJEwZ9GEeiNkUiaB2Tw_2qw1-0hUrpUkFoH0WXXXWLptEi4X-aoRDbhBVXgBMlOMJFja__ymf5Nw_3QJ5wvQ=w1609-h905-no[/img]

I hadn't noticed this thread before - seems like an epic journey!  Glad to hear it's all worked out for you guys.  As the old adage goes, "fortune favors the brave".

Dude, thanks Fro for giving me a bump.

I really have to copy-paste this whole thread in case the site goes down, because this is a crazy journal of all me and Mrs. Ghost have been through in the past two years.

So me and the wife have moved from an apartment on the outskirts of north Austin to a baller-ass house in south Austin (minutes away from South Congress) complete with a game room and an office, two car garage etc. Seriously the rent is suspiciously low for this place, but we're loving it!

I'm working for EPIC Provisions and quite honestly this is pretty much the dream job for me. If y'all know me you know I've been Paleo forever and I've been eating these bars forever. I took an entry level job in the company and due to incredible growth have been able to "climb the ladder" incredibly fast to the point where I got my picture on the website! Check it out (scroll aaaaaallllllll the way down):

https://epicbar.com/team.html

So now the wife and I are minutes away from our jobs and despite a major health scare with her recently, things are really starting to set up. I mentioned to her this evening that my newest game room is probably my favorite that we've had so far. We have a back yard with a fire pit, etc etc it's the suburban life we envisioned when we first moved here (as opposed to the apt complex on the side of the highway we've lived in for the first year) and I'm starting to see the peace I've been seeking for years in my sights.

Really happy for you man. Seems like you're in a great place both physically and mentally.

Glad to hear that life is working out so well for you!

That is so awesome.  I'm happy for you both.

You don't look like a Ghost but you do look Grayish.

LOL!

Gratz glad everything has worked out for you guys. Onward and upward!

congrats! the new place sounds awesome, and i've been seeing all your Epic posts on facebook, glad your new job is going so well!