GrayGhost81 Relocation Thread. "You all may go to Hell, I will go to Texas."

[Addicted]

@GrayGhost81:

That's great news congrats!

[techwizard]

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

[shaggy]

Congrats dude!

[GrayGhost81]

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.

[singlebanana]

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.

[Duke.Togo]

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

[GrayGhost81]

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. 

[singlebanana]

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

[shaggy]

 

[techwizard]

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

[Duke.Togo]

Congratulations!!!!!

[Izret101]

Glad everything worked out for you guys!

[Fleach]

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

[GrayGhost81]

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! 

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]

[MetalFRO]

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".