A wild Damien appears!
There is a strong benefit to living with a compulsive planner and worrier: You get a little more warning time on potential future mishaps.
In this case it was the reminder that, ready or not, our lives will be drastically changing in less than a year. I've spent the last half decade living in the rather small, somewhat isolated (if you don't have a car, but still a fair trip with nasty gas prices even if you do have one) town of Whitewater, have spent a fair bit of my online time bitching about it.
Now that it's all going to be changing soon... well, I'll admit I'm not ready for it.
Thankfully since Rhi brought this up in early December, I have another five and a half months to get ready for it, as opposed to shuffling it away into a mental no-go zone and suddenly realizing it a week before I move.
First off the bad stuff: It's not going to be an easy move. Leaving alone the fact that we aren't fully sure what vehicular means we'll be taking from one location to the other, there's plenty of other stuff to worry about. Money's not going to be easy, we're kind of treading financial water as it is, and both a location and a job switch will result in some necessary sinking. Interim housing is a concern: Rhi graduates in the spring, whatever stipends and housing allowances she's earned won't come until next fall, that leaves a few months where we're going to be in limbo, as it were, and have a cat to worry about to boot.
All of that is both dependent upon, and in the shadow of the biggest concern: We're not yet certain where we're going, though it's narrowed down to three locations for grad-school. The easiest, Milwaukee, involves the least amount of stress. It'll be trivial to get our stuff and establish a living situation up there, and I'm confident in my ability to claw my way into a somewhat productive job. Chicago, the most prestigious option for Rhi, is sort of a balance of good and bad. The good: We know the city, aren't too far away, and have plenty of friends and family nearby. For Rhi, the U of Chicago is by far the best school for her academic future. The bad: For me the job situation will be a complete bitch. For Rhi, the U of Chicago is one of the most stressful, cutthroat institutions to do grad-school in. Choice number three is Santa Cruz. The good is it's a great school in a beautiful location with a not-completely-shot job market and great potential for both of us. The bad is we still don't know how we're going to afford and coordinate a cross-country trip with our possessions and a neurotic cat.
These have been our biggest worries as of late, but on the plus side it's good to get them out now when we actually have the time to deal with them.
In happier news: I'm leaving Whitewater. I'm leaving the desolate no-man's land between Milwaukee and Madison. While I don't know for sure where I'm going, know it's going to be a very rough road between here and there, I know the end result will be far better than here.
Normally I'd say something about never updating that often, and I admit I probably won't be updating much after this either. I kind of curl into my own little hermitage out here, and will likely do so again between now and when I actually move out. I have a full-time job that saps my energy, for the sake of my sanity and feelings of self-validation, I dedicate most of what's left into insular, creative pursuits. While I have hope for the coming changes, until then my situation here won't change.
So this isn't a completely miserable update: While I consider this section of my life sort of 'meh', with the bright spots of mah Rhi being beyond awesome and wonderful and helping keep me sane, occasional talks with the best goddamn little sister in the world, and the sporadic ability to bury my occasional depressive fits in drawing and writing... I can now see an end to several of the more pressing 'meh' elements, and beginning a leg of my life's journey that promises to be an exciting change in environment and mindset.
In this case it was the reminder that, ready or not, our lives will be drastically changing in less than a year. I've spent the last half decade living in the rather small, somewhat isolated (if you don't have a car, but still a fair trip with nasty gas prices even if you do have one) town of Whitewater, have spent a fair bit of my online time bitching about it.
Now that it's all going to be changing soon... well, I'll admit I'm not ready for it.
Thankfully since Rhi brought this up in early December, I have another five and a half months to get ready for it, as opposed to shuffling it away into a mental no-go zone and suddenly realizing it a week before I move.
First off the bad stuff: It's not going to be an easy move. Leaving alone the fact that we aren't fully sure what vehicular means we'll be taking from one location to the other, there's plenty of other stuff to worry about. Money's not going to be easy, we're kind of treading financial water as it is, and both a location and a job switch will result in some necessary sinking. Interim housing is a concern: Rhi graduates in the spring, whatever stipends and housing allowances she's earned won't come until next fall, that leaves a few months where we're going to be in limbo, as it were, and have a cat to worry about to boot.
All of that is both dependent upon, and in the shadow of the biggest concern: We're not yet certain where we're going, though it's narrowed down to three locations for grad-school. The easiest, Milwaukee, involves the least amount of stress. It'll be trivial to get our stuff and establish a living situation up there, and I'm confident in my ability to claw my way into a somewhat productive job. Chicago, the most prestigious option for Rhi, is sort of a balance of good and bad. The good: We know the city, aren't too far away, and have plenty of friends and family nearby. For Rhi, the U of Chicago is by far the best school for her academic future. The bad: For me the job situation will be a complete bitch. For Rhi, the U of Chicago is one of the most stressful, cutthroat institutions to do grad-school in. Choice number three is Santa Cruz. The good is it's a great school in a beautiful location with a not-completely-shot job market and great potential for both of us. The bad is we still don't know how we're going to afford and coordinate a cross-country trip with our possessions and a neurotic cat.
These have been our biggest worries as of late, but on the plus side it's good to get them out now when we actually have the time to deal with them.
In happier news: I'm leaving Whitewater. I'm leaving the desolate no-man's land between Milwaukee and Madison. While I don't know for sure where I'm going, know it's going to be a very rough road between here and there, I know the end result will be far better than here.
Normally I'd say something about never updating that often, and I admit I probably won't be updating much after this either. I kind of curl into my own little hermitage out here, and will likely do so again between now and when I actually move out. I have a full-time job that saps my energy, for the sake of my sanity and feelings of self-validation, I dedicate most of what's left into insular, creative pursuits. While I have hope for the coming changes, until then my situation here won't change.
So this isn't a completely miserable update: While I consider this section of my life sort of 'meh', with the bright spots of mah Rhi being beyond awesome and wonderful and helping keep me sane, occasional talks with the best goddamn little sister in the world, and the sporadic ability to bury my occasional depressive fits in drawing and writing... I can now see an end to several of the more pressing 'meh' elements, and beginning a leg of my life's journey that promises to be an exciting change in environment and mindset.