I came to Washington state almost 13 months ago (5/5/08 was my first day on the job that brought me here--which I talked about in my last blog). I was blown away back then by how beautiful this place is and by my gorgeous apartment, and over the year that's passed, those feelings have only increased. I have LOVED my time here! And in the last six months, I've met three women my age and with similar interests, and we've become fast friends. Here I am with Judy, one of the three. So all of that will be hard to leave. But leave it I must--and am about to do--as you will see.
My original job ended sooner than any of us wanted--12/5/08 was my last day, and I immediately got on a plane for Austin: if I'm not working, I might as well be traveling! I spent 10 days in Austin, and while I was there, my "manager" in New Hampshire arranged for me to have a phone interview for a new job. I did the interview, which I thought went quite well (the fellow, whose name was Peter, was going to be in Yarmouth, ME, visiting his mother for Christmas, at the same time as I'd be in Westbrook, ME, visiting my son, so it even looked like we might meet). I did, in fact, go on to Maine on 12/20, and stayed there until 1/4/09, seeing friends and family and thoroughly enjoying Christmas--but I did not meet my potential new boss, due to inclement weather (in Maine in December? Who'da thunk it!).
I actually didn't hear about the job until I'd been back home for a couple of weeks--I was beginning to be nervous! Can I interrupt here to add a picture of the wind turbines that I can see from my apartment, but that (in this picture) are up close and personal? More about these wind turbines in a future blog. Anyway, Peter did finally call and I was hired to spend 3 months writing training documents for his company. The training documents were for a pollution-removal process at two coal-fired power plants in South Carolina, and Peter felt it would be a good idea to have a site visit to familiarize us (he had hired two editors), so I flew to SC at the end of January and spent a week touring the two plants. THAT was an experience: picture me in hard hat and steel-toed shoes, as I put it, "boldly going where no 67-year-old fat lady has ever gone before." I climbed to the top of a 7-story limestone milling structure and then came back down, and pretty much followed everyone else around this fascinating place for 3 days in one plant, and two in the other. Then I went back home to write with my fellow editor. This arrangement could NOT have happened 10--or even 5--years ago: I worked for a company in NH whose client (in MA) needed documentation for 2 plants in SC, and that documentation waw provided by two editors, one in WA and the other in TN.
Anyway, that job ended on 4/8, a few weeks early, and that left me adding to the fast-growing unemployment statistics here in Washington state. But I have to say I was never fearful that there wasn't something fabulous out there for me! And sure enough, my "manager" in NH asked me almost right away if I wanted to go to the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC (where Kent, my former partner, and I had already spent two 2-3 month periods helping on proposals back in 2003 and 2005) for a salary that knocked me over! I am still not taking it in. In the middle of this recession, I'm going to be making more than twice as much as I've ever made in my LIFE! Absolutely incredible!
Well, needless to say, I said "YES!!!" It took a while for the offer to actually come, but it has come, I've signed my contract, and all I have to do now is get there. And leave here--I'm picking this point to show you part of the view from my apartment, the cable bridge in Pasco that just fascinates me. Anyway, that part of the adventure, too, is proceeding absolutely without a hitch. I took a "can't hurt to try" attitude a few weeks ago and called my wonderful mover from Las Vegas, hoping I could persuade him at least to come up here and pack my stuff onto whatever vehicle I could get to take it to SC, and he said, without hesitation, "For you, I'll do the whole move." That was almost as mind-bending as the job itself.
As I write this it is Sunday night. JR, my wonderful mover, will arrive on Friday night, pack my things onto an ABF trailer on Saturday, and fly back to Vegas on Sunday. After I take him to the airport, I'll head out for points south and east: 2,148 miles from my door to Karen's in Austin. I hope to make that trip in 4 days (3 nights), and I also hope to blog along the way to let y'all know how I'm doing. After a week in Austin crammed with lots of interesting events, I'll head directly east approximately 1,100 miles to South Carolina (or perhaps Georgia, since it's looking like there are more opportunities for house in Augusta than in Aiken). My mover will fly in from Vegas to meet me and my stuff, which should arrive on 6/19, we'll unload on 6/20, JR will fly back to Vegas on 6/21, and I'll start work on 6/22.
That's the bare bones of the next three weeks. I'll try to keep you up to date on stuff as it happens (what do they say? "Pictures at 11"? although I'm not going to put many pictures into this blog). Meanwhile, I've had a lot of time to sort through stuff and cull out what I haven't used for years (decades, in some cases). I've cut my books down by nearly half; I've given away more than half of my video tapes, I've gotten rid of almost all of my CDs (after digitizing them to my hard drive), I've got several pieces of furniture that I'm going to give away or sell, and this last week is going to be spent disposing of, one way or another, at least half of my clothes. This is going to be the easiest and pleasantest move ever! There's no "bad Elizabeth" to deal with (see earlier blogs on the move from Vegas to here), JR is the best when it comes to packing, and I'm going to have everything but my dishes and pictures packed and waiting for him.
One of the best aids in this move was a visit by my lovely daughter, really the only person to visit me here for the entire year. Her company, TIP Strategies, just established a new client in Ellensburg, WA, about 113 miles up the beautiful Yakima River valley from here, and she went with a team from TIP to meet the new clients on 5/6. They had their meetings, did some touring of the area, and then, on the next day, Thursday, 5/7, they "released" Karen to me and we drove back down here to Pasco and the Tri-Cities, where we spent the BEST 3 days, unhassled by kids, husbands, agendas, or whatever. We did some sight-seeing, visiting places I'd always intended to see but hadn't yet--and would never have seen if she hadn't come. Here we are at the site of the wind turbines, which I can see from my apartment. We also tackled my books. Karen is THE BEST at helping me go through things and recognize that I don't need to be carting this, that, or the other across the country AGAIN! As I say, nearly half my books are gone (and I now have over $500 in store credit at Hastings and a local bookstore. I can use that credit online, and I have vowed (to myself and to Karen) that I will give up two books every time I order one!
I've sprinkled a few pictures throughout this blog, hoping to give you some idea of how beautiful things are here. But they really don't do it justice. Still they're an attempt. I'm hoping, too, to give you some more information on the upcoming job, some other events that I'm excited about, and where I hope to be living in SC/GA. And, as I say, I'll blog my way from here to Austin, and then from Austin to the east coast, as the days go along. For now, though, this is Patsy signing off on one of her last days in this west coast Wonderland.
