Well, anyway, onto the newest developments. About a week ago jb was offered a job. A good job. With complete benefits. In Philadelphia.
The reason it caught us so off guard is that jb didn't even apply for this job (someone forwarded her resume), so it seemed to come out of nowhere. It's great news mostly because our family could use the income and the health benefits. I tend to gloss over our money issues, because who wants to hear about that? But I will say that after my layoff we burned through our savings quickly and since then it's been pretty depressing. I was lucky enough to extend my benefits through Leo's birth, but that has come to an end, too. For an opportunity like this to fall in our laps is really a blessing. On the other hand, the only thing that has made being poor bearable - actually, despite everything it has been the best year of my life - is the amazing support system we have here. Both our families are nearby and we have a ton of amazing neighbors and friends. It's hard to think about leaving all that behind - even for only one year.
To complicate matters, they want jb to start as soon as possible ie, this Friday. I've been to Philadelphia exactly twice. Once for a high school day trip to the Museum of Art and once for a 36 hour work trip where I hardly left the convention center. So planning a move there is not easy. We have been researching neighborhoods and looking at apartment listings, but still felt really unequipped to choose a place to live - so we decided to make a trip out there to check it out for ourselves.
600+ miles by car
10 apartment viewings in neighborhoods all over the city
36 hours
2 month old in tow
Believe it or not, it went pretty smoothly. Leo was a total champ. We drove out on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a motel for the night.
The next morning we headed out bright and early to a day full of appointments to check out potential homes. At first we were a little discouraged because some of the neighborhoods we were looking at were pretty seedy - but soon we saw some places we could imagine living. We really liked one neighborhood in particular and had lunch in this great little cafe there. Unfortunately, the place we looked at there wasn't ideal - but at least now we know where to concentrate our search.
Leo has his first roadtrip under his belt (and I can say I've nursed at a Turnpike rest stop) and we are on our way to a major life change. We still don't know the answers to a lot of questions surrounding this transition - Where are we going to live? What about the cafe? How often will we make it back? Will we stay out there for just a year or longer? Our heads are spinning. Still, I feel pretty good about it overall.
