A Life Hiatus
I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've posted. Not only has it been a significant amount of time, it has been one of the most significant time periods in my life.
I am having such a good time. The house that I live in is great. My roommates are wonderful and great to spend time with. My job is challenging and lies directly in the industry which I want to work. My coworkers, boss included, are great people and I have a great time with them. I'm very very happy right now. How did it get this way? What path did I turn on? Sit back and enjoy while I chronicle the wonderment that is my latest post.
Wonderfully, as expected, I was offered a job by GMI. I am to be a panel consultant, forever destined to have a difficult-to-describe job. I negotiated the offer, celebrated profusely, and mentally prepared for what was to be the next big step in my life.
Simultaneously I visited California. First I attended a wedding in Los Angeles for my former college roommate Andrew. His long-term girlfriend and him finally tied the knot. It was great to see that he had not actually changed much. The ceremony was great, and I had a lot of fun at the reception. The two underage kids sitting next to me outmaneuvered me soundly. The champagne was not drunk by them --despite my best efforts-- and was instead drunk by me. Good game, underagers. I said goodbye to those friends fairly quickly and moved on to say hello to my mom's sister and her kids.
Sacramento California is where she lives. She just started work for Regence Blue Shield as a project manager. I hadn't seen her, John, or her kids for at least eight years. I stayed for the weekend and it was wonderful. Swimming every day, having no responsibilities beyond eating and sleeping, and getting to spend time with my cousins was great. I was also lucky enough to have my former insights reaffirmed: those two kids -- identical in age gap to my brother and I-- are absurdly similar to me and my brother respectively. They have the correct interests, intellect, social dispositions, and even the correctly corresponding haircolor. With Doug have played Halo 3 extensively and with Nick I reminisced on my status as an older brother and tried to give him some good advice.
Then, after arriving in Seattle I got about halfway to Bellingham before my water pump apparently failed in my Nissan. The engine died as I pulled into a parking spot at a rest stop and I was _so_ worried that I had cracked the block. When I put some water into the radiator (after seeing that all of it had trained onto the cement) it immediately boiled and spewed out of the radiator cap for more than 90 seconds; it was very akin to Old Faithful. That car was towed to a repair shop in Arlington and I was lucky enough to have a good friend, Chris, to drive me that remaining 40 minutes back to my home in Bellingham. $500 later my car is running well.
Once I got back to Bellingham I had a little bit over two full weeks to move myself to Bellevue. Let me say this: packing up all of your stuff and moving to an area you have never visited and know very little about takes at least two weeks to do comfortably. That said, I was not very comfortable about moving. I saw several rooms in houses and realized quickly that $500 on a room in Bellevue gets you a large walk-in closet. For a nice apartment that's not a shithole you are looking at $1100 plus per month for a studio apartment or an insane commute on I-405.
I was feeling significant stress and, after much looking on craigslist etc. I visited some rooms one weekend. both were unacceptable, and my plan on that hot, summer day, was to make it to those two appointments and then find a cool place with Internet access can make some more. This, however, was not to be a good weekend. Immediately after seeing the second house my cell phone battery died. Shortly thereafter, my laptop slipped off the seat of my crappy Dodge (no air conditioning because the Nissan was in the shop) and, due to a faulty hard drive, stopped working. Defeated and unable to contact any friends in the area I retreated back to my friend Chris's. There we ghetto-rigged a phone charger using a USB cable and many adapters. My phone was alive! Then I set up a date with a Japanese girl who was rumored to have a boyfriend and set off for Seattle again.
She and I had a good time, given that she is as dumb as a brick. Parked in Pioneer Square, my car waited patiently for our return. However, she failed to protect my assets by simply locking the door. Woe was I to find my duffel bag missing, my dash plastics torn to hell, and my stereo missing. But there, something on the windshield. A business card from a police officer? "Your stereo is in evidence." Yes, you're thinking right, they actually caught the guy. The catch? It will likely be months before I receive my property back. What's worse, that stupid Japanese girl didn't even apologize for egregious error. After a night of sleeping in her host family's spare bedroom alone I left for more fruitless house searching.
Then, some days later when I returned to Bellevue, I saw a few rooms and an apartment. God damned expensive, seriously. But then, serendipitously, a phone call from a landlord not 3 miles away. He and his wife on this house and rent out all six fully-furnished rooms. They are in the process of doing several renovations but the house is great. Fully furnished, with professional cleanings in the communal areas, and style in every room to no end. Nevertheless, I was mostly sold on the room by the wonderful warmth, inherent interesting qualities, and conversation ability of the two landlords. This was a great decision that has already yielded me a $30 "nice guy" discount on rent every month. The room is great and I didn't even have to move my furniture. Oh, and there will soon be a hot tub setup with CD player installed :D.
That is all for today, I think. Time for bed and work tomorrow.
I am having such a good time. The house that I live in is great. My roommates are wonderful and great to spend time with. My job is challenging and lies directly in the industry which I want to work. My coworkers, boss included, are great people and I have a great time with them. I'm very very happy right now. How did it get this way? What path did I turn on? Sit back and enjoy while I chronicle the wonderment that is my latest post.
Wonderfully, as expected, I was offered a job by GMI. I am to be a panel consultant, forever destined to have a difficult-to-describe job. I negotiated the offer, celebrated profusely, and mentally prepared for what was to be the next big step in my life.
Simultaneously I visited California. First I attended a wedding in Los Angeles for my former college roommate Andrew. His long-term girlfriend and him finally tied the knot. It was great to see that he had not actually changed much. The ceremony was great, and I had a lot of fun at the reception. The two underage kids sitting next to me outmaneuvered me soundly. The champagne was not drunk by them --despite my best efforts-- and was instead drunk by me. Good game, underagers. I said goodbye to those friends fairly quickly and moved on to say hello to my mom's sister and her kids.
Sacramento California is where she lives. She just started work for Regence Blue Shield as a project manager. I hadn't seen her, John, or her kids for at least eight years. I stayed for the weekend and it was wonderful. Swimming every day, having no responsibilities beyond eating and sleeping, and getting to spend time with my cousins was great. I was also lucky enough to have my former insights reaffirmed: those two kids -- identical in age gap to my brother and I-- are absurdly similar to me and my brother respectively. They have the correct interests, intellect, social dispositions, and even the correctly corresponding haircolor. With Doug have played Halo 3 extensively and with Nick I reminisced on my status as an older brother and tried to give him some good advice.
Then, after arriving in Seattle I got about halfway to Bellingham before my water pump apparently failed in my Nissan. The engine died as I pulled into a parking spot at a rest stop and I was _so_ worried that I had cracked the block. When I put some water into the radiator (after seeing that all of it had trained onto the cement) it immediately boiled and spewed out of the radiator cap for more than 90 seconds; it was very akin to Old Faithful. That car was towed to a repair shop in Arlington and I was lucky enough to have a good friend, Chris, to drive me that remaining 40 minutes back to my home in Bellingham. $500 later my car is running well.
Once I got back to Bellingham I had a little bit over two full weeks to move myself to Bellevue. Let me say this: packing up all of your stuff and moving to an area you have never visited and know very little about takes at least two weeks to do comfortably. That said, I was not very comfortable about moving. I saw several rooms in houses and realized quickly that $500 on a room in Bellevue gets you a large walk-in closet. For a nice apartment that's not a shithole you are looking at $1100 plus per month for a studio apartment or an insane commute on I-405.
I was feeling significant stress and, after much looking on craigslist etc. I visited some rooms one weekend. both were unacceptable, and my plan on that hot, summer day, was to make it to those two appointments and then find a cool place with Internet access can make some more. This, however, was not to be a good weekend. Immediately after seeing the second house my cell phone battery died. Shortly thereafter, my laptop slipped off the seat of my crappy Dodge (no air conditioning because the Nissan was in the shop) and, due to a faulty hard drive, stopped working. Defeated and unable to contact any friends in the area I retreated back to my friend Chris's. There we ghetto-rigged a phone charger using a USB cable and many adapters. My phone was alive! Then I set up a date with a Japanese girl who was rumored to have a boyfriend and set off for Seattle again.
She and I had a good time, given that she is as dumb as a brick. Parked in Pioneer Square, my car waited patiently for our return. However, she failed to protect my assets by simply locking the door. Woe was I to find my duffel bag missing, my dash plastics torn to hell, and my stereo missing. But there, something on the windshield. A business card from a police officer? "Your stereo is in evidence." Yes, you're thinking right, they actually caught the guy. The catch? It will likely be months before I receive my property back. What's worse, that stupid Japanese girl didn't even apologize for egregious error. After a night of sleeping in her host family's spare bedroom alone I left for more fruitless house searching.
Then, some days later when I returned to Bellevue, I saw a few rooms and an apartment. God damned expensive, seriously. But then, serendipitously, a phone call from a landlord not 3 miles away. He and his wife on this house and rent out all six fully-furnished rooms. They are in the process of doing several renovations but the house is great. Fully furnished, with professional cleanings in the communal areas, and style in every room to no end. Nevertheless, I was mostly sold on the room by the wonderful warmth, inherent interesting qualities, and conversation ability of the two landlords. This was a great decision that has already yielded me a $30 "nice guy" discount on rent every month. The room is great and I didn't even have to move my furniture. Oh, and there will soon be a hot tub setup with CD player installed :D.
That is all for today, I think. Time for bed and work tomorrow.