Things are starting to shake out and settle into place!
Of course, the major answers to the biggest questions have yet to be revealed, as we'll be playing the waiting game about grad school for another month or two. We're keeping our fingers crossed, hoping one of us will get in! Once we know that, we can finalize the plans.
For now, we have a line up of basic dates. We're staying in our current house through April, then packing up and staying with Russell's dad for a couple of months in order to save money. We'll jettison most of our possessions and what not in April - I see a large yard sale in our future!
The wedding and all related events is June 10-11. We'll head out for the Electric Forest Festival on June 29, with our camping gear and 'the basics' for survival on the West Coast. Post-festival, we'll drive across the U.S. (taking a route south of Michigan, through Colorado, and into the Bay Area). The kitties and Toodeloo will have to sit tight in NC for a few weeks. Russell will fly back to NC on July 11th, grab the Jeep and a trailer, and head back to Cali with the bulk of our stuff and the pets.
At that point we'll officially be West Coasties! Yaya!
We'll have about a month and a half to settle in pre-Burn. With all the pre-compression events, I'm sure we'll already have a great community of friends growing. I can't wait to be there!
Assuming I'm not in grad school, I'll be working for Trader Joe's, doing my regular nights and weekends. However, on a job-search we conducted via Craigslist, I discovered a plethora of job available on a part-time basis at day cares all over the place. Most don't have insurance; but if I kept my 21+ hours at TJ's that would be covered, and perhaps I could find a gig at a day care where Orion could be with me while I was at work - plus having another part-time job with even better pay. That would solve a lot of our money flow issues. According to every single place I looked into, their only prerequisite is that I have 12 credit hours of Early Childhood Education... I'm pretty sure I already have that somewhere in my BA, or close to it. A class or two at a community college would cover all the bases - and maybe I can even do lateral entry. We shall see...
I'm getting so excited about it all! It seems like most of our days are spent discussing strategies, looking at dates, making budgets, and solidifying our plans. I've dreamed about this for years, and now it's coming true! Yippee!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Orion update!
He's getting to be such a big guy! Orion is now 9 months old... He's got 6 teeth - 4 bottom, two top! He isn't crawling (or walking) yet, but he does love pulling up on stuff, especially me and the coffee table. There are now pillows all over everything to catch him when he inevitably rolls over.
He kept me up all night last night, waking up every hour or so; I think we're in line to get some new teeth here soon... poor little guy. Poor us! I'm exhausted today. Of course now he's sleeping like a little angel in our bed in the sunshine, with Kiwi sitting by. Meanwhile I'm pretty zombified, but trying to get on with our day.
If, then
"If, then..." statements are one of the more important statements in educational training. They are an important element in mathematics and language, philosophy and science.
For us, the "if, then" statements are the defining concept of the next six months of our lives. There are quite a few things we do know for sure: we're holding our wedding June 11, we're going to the Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury, Michigan, for our honeymoon. We're attending the Burn with a group of friends and putting together a theme camp called The Tough Love Lounge. We know life is good, we love each other, and Orion is a wonderful little guy. We don't really need more than that! Which is fortunate, because everything else is a big IF (then...)
IF Russell gets into the MBA program at Dominican, THEN I'll transfer to a Trader Joe's in the area, and we'll move to the North Bay Area. I'm hoping this is what happens more than anything else.
IF I get into the Masters of Scenography at HSU, THEN Russell will find a job in the area and we'll move to Arcata/Eureka California.
IF both of us get into school, THEN I'll politely defer and we'll go to San Rafael.
IF neither of us get into school, THEN we'll take a look at towns on the West Coast, find a spot where we can both get jobs, and head out there - probably a bit later in the summer than we would need to if we get into school.
IF it works out, THEN we'll go to the Electric Forest Festival and then head across the Northern U.S. to Washington, then head down the coast to our destination - and new home town!
IF we're already living on the West Coast, THEN getting to the Burn is that much easier!
It's all going to happen so quickly - but the first step is hearing back from the two schools we applied to. If need be, we'll fly out there for a weekend to do some interviews and trek around a bit, find the right spot for us, rent a house, etc. etc.
Actually, I hope we can find a big studio or even warehouse style living space that we can turn in half living space, half work space. That would be incredible!
Waiting in the hardest part, for sure. We should know by April about the masters programs, and then the real decision making starts. In the meantime, we need to get rid of as much stuff as possible. I'm attending a clothing swap next Friday, and I plan to unload most of my wardrobe. Almost none of it fits, anyway. In April we'll have to hold a big yard sale and ditch most of the furniture and 'stuff' stuff... I'm really looking forward to getting rid of some of the weight we've carried for so long. All this just isn't that necessary. And the money coming in from the sale of the items will certainly help with the move.
On that note, if you're attending the wedding, please don't be offended that we're asking people NOT to buy us STUFF! We don't need it - if you really feel the need to get us something, gift cards or gas cards or simple cold, hard, cash would be most appreciated. I sincerely hope no one is offended by that; it's too bad that 'tradition' doesn't really allow for realism when it comes to wedding gifts.
And that's the news today - a whole lot of "IF's" that will eventually whittle down to a few solid "THEN's". Wish us luck!
For us, the "if, then" statements are the defining concept of the next six months of our lives. There are quite a few things we do know for sure: we're holding our wedding June 11, we're going to the Electric Forest Festival in Rothbury, Michigan, for our honeymoon. We're attending the Burn with a group of friends and putting together a theme camp called The Tough Love Lounge. We know life is good, we love each other, and Orion is a wonderful little guy. We don't really need more than that! Which is fortunate, because everything else is a big IF (then...)
IF Russell gets into the MBA program at Dominican, THEN I'll transfer to a Trader Joe's in the area, and we'll move to the North Bay Area. I'm hoping this is what happens more than anything else.
IF I get into the Masters of Scenography at HSU, THEN Russell will find a job in the area and we'll move to Arcata/Eureka California.
IF both of us get into school, THEN I'll politely defer and we'll go to San Rafael.
IF neither of us get into school, THEN we'll take a look at towns on the West Coast, find a spot where we can both get jobs, and head out there - probably a bit later in the summer than we would need to if we get into school.
IF it works out, THEN we'll go to the Electric Forest Festival and then head across the Northern U.S. to Washington, then head down the coast to our destination - and new home town!
IF we're already living on the West Coast, THEN getting to the Burn is that much easier!
It's all going to happen so quickly - but the first step is hearing back from the two schools we applied to. If need be, we'll fly out there for a weekend to do some interviews and trek around a bit, find the right spot for us, rent a house, etc. etc.
Actually, I hope we can find a big studio or even warehouse style living space that we can turn in half living space, half work space. That would be incredible!
Waiting in the hardest part, for sure. We should know by April about the masters programs, and then the real decision making starts. In the meantime, we need to get rid of as much stuff as possible. I'm attending a clothing swap next Friday, and I plan to unload most of my wardrobe. Almost none of it fits, anyway. In April we'll have to hold a big yard sale and ditch most of the furniture and 'stuff' stuff... I'm really looking forward to getting rid of some of the weight we've carried for so long. All this just isn't that necessary. And the money coming in from the sale of the items will certainly help with the move.
On that note, if you're attending the wedding, please don't be offended that we're asking people NOT to buy us STUFF! We don't need it - if you really feel the need to get us something, gift cards or gas cards or simple cold, hard, cash would be most appreciated. I sincerely hope no one is offended by that; it's too bad that 'tradition' doesn't really allow for realism when it comes to wedding gifts.
And that's the news today - a whole lot of "IF's" that will eventually whittle down to a few solid "THEN's". Wish us luck!
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