Tuesday, August 12, 2003

So much to do, so little time

Much has come to pass since the last entry here. Let's try a brief synopsis:

My original contract at SPX was to be "for six or seven months." Starting in October of 2002, that would mean that six months would be up at the end of April, and seven at the end of May. After speaking with the person that is my contact at SPX, we determined that I would be kept on indefinitely until the project I was working on was in a stable condition. It was never my intent to be anything other than a contractor at SPX.

Then, I was offered a full time position. I had been looking for other jobs via Monster but had not found anything. Also, I noticed that this was the first job that I actually really enjoyed. Some others were fine, but this was the first one where I really didn't mind going to work. So, Kendra and I decided that I would take this job and continue to commute.

Well, it quickly became obvious that the 105 mile commute twice a day was really eating up tons of time and really wasn't much fun. Also, after chatting with one of my boss people who had recently just relocated from Maryland, it occurred to me that it might not be so bad living in Kalamazoo. Especially since there is a fairly nice relocation package included as part of my job; I like to think of it as a "signing bonus." :-D

Although it will be sad to leave the area, it made sense that we should be closer to my job. So, we went looking for houses. The second house Kendra and I saw together was the one we liked; we still went looking at eight more or so, but found we kept comparing them to this one. So, after only one day of looking, we made an offer. A couple of counter offers later, we have a new house in Portage (right next to K-zoo.)

We don't really need two houses so that meant it was time to say goodbye to our first house. It was a frantic week as we went through the house, getting rid of old junk. Most difficult was the basement with the tons of boxes and other stuff. Amusingly, many of these boxes were still sitting there from our move into the house, over four years ago.
However, sorting through the stuff went much easier than it had in the past, thanks to a book that Kendra gave me a while back. After reading it, I realized that I didn't need to continue to hold onto items that I did not need simply because they were "good." Of course, there is still much to go through. We did, however, get all the stuff prepared for the charity that came to take junk on that Thursday.

Kendra and I will each miss our activities in the local area. Kendra will miss singing with the choir and I will miss my karate (I have withdrawn at the rank of purple belt.) But, we are sure to find similar groups in Portage.