Archive for March, 2011

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Coming Home

Friday, March 25th, 2011

This is the 5th and final part of  the our story about moving out west to find our dreams. Finding instead, no work and a lot of debt. Click here to start from the beginning.

Yes! I had a job lined up, finally! It was just a 3000 mile commute. With that being a little too long even for me, we set to making moving arrangements.

Because I had a real job lined up (as a PHP developer, I might add), we decided to replace Cathy's old Sentra before the trip back. We purchased a brand-new 2003 Forester! Perfect for cross-country trips!

We didn't have to make arrangements for our cat, Church (aptly named after the cat in Pet Cemetery). Unfortunately, we had to put him down the month before. He had developed cancer and he would've had a painful death. Still, it was one of the hardest things we did. He absolutely loved that little apartment and was our constant companion the whole time out there. He died after a long, happy retirement in the Northwest. He is missed.

Having learned the lessons of cross-country moving before, we called a moving company (after considerable online research). They came out, cocooned all of our furniture in plastic, moved everything into the truck and drove ahead. That was the last we ever saw of our stuff... nah- just kidding. They drove ahead and we hopped in the cars and took off the next day. Sure it cost $3000, but it was worth every penny!

Our route back east was a little different because I wanted us to see Mount Rushmore and Bull Run and Wisconsin. We had fun doing the drive again, and there were no bad surprises on the trip. It's just that it felt like a retreat of sorts.

We tried to make it out there, but couldn't. Now, we were moving into Cathy's parent's basement with $16,000 of credit card debt. We are eternally grateful for Cathy's parents. Without them, we never would've been able to chop down our debt while saving for a house, all within the span of one year. They helped us and housed us, and for that, we love them.

Cathy and I found a fabulous home in downtown Frederick. I've since moved to a different job, . Cathy has continued here career and has become a wonderful designer. We now have our awesome little boy and are trying to be the best parents we can

We still have debt, but are whittling it down exponentially. We sometimes talk about our Oregon experience. While I have extremely fond memories of that time, Cathy remembers it being a stressful period of uncertainty. It was probably somewhere in the middle. One thing I will say, is we have some great memories (some bad) and we had adventure.

Posted in Geek History, Westward Memoir | No Comments »

Paradise Lost

Monday, March 21st, 2011

This is part 4 of  the our story about moving out west to find our dreams. Finding instead, no work and a lot of debt. Click here to start from the beginning.

The economy, they said, was recovering. That statement was, at best, optimistic. Whether it was or wasn't, September 11th shattered any hope of that. The markets stagnated or tanked soon afterward. The job postings all but vanished in Portland. The headhunters we had used went out of business. We were still getting freelance, but not enough to get us ahead. We were able to pay off the $800/month rent (which was pricey at the time, but seems dreamy now), buy food and pay some bills. Occasionally we had to use the credit card, but did so only in emergencies.

After Cathy's friend came to visit, and they had gone white-water rafting, we purchased insurance. We thought it would be best, if we were going to be doing anything like that again! Three seasons out of the year, we had access to inexpensive fresh veggies and fruit with the help of Beaverton's farmer's market. We had discovered how to grocery shop frugally with the help of Fred Meyers and the local co-op! Beyond that, we rarely went out to eat.

The first summer Cathy had found some great pick-your-own farms on Sauvy Island on the Willamette River. She went out with, and without me (when I was working on freelance), to pick blackberries, marion berries (for real!), blueberries and peaches. That first summer, she canned (bless he Pennsylvania-Durch heart!) most of the harvest.

The Second Summer

That was how we got by. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't "moving forward" either. The freelance started to dry up, then I got a bite on a job. It wasn't much, but tech-support for HP paid some bills! For a whole month, I trained how to be a tech-support operator. We signed up with their credit union and things were looking better. Then, the HP contract got cut and I was laid off.

...really?!

Then Cathy got a bite. This was good bite though. She got a job for a not-to-be-mentioned scrapbooking company south of Portland. Sure, it was an hour commute, sure it was only for $23k, but it was a job! Better- it was a job in her field! She started immediately, and we both felt relieved. As our money situation was improving however, Cathy's situation was not. She came home with tales of women crying (on a daily basis) in the office . Then she got an understanding of why. The owner and staff of the not-to-be-mentioned company were adept at cruel remarks, backstabbing, and general not-niceness. It turned out to be the worst job either she or I had ever seen. Cathy started crying most nights about how terrible it was. It was really bad. Finally, after three really suck-worthy months, I told her to quit. My parents, who were visiting that week, even agreed. She should hand in her resignation gracefully. So imagine how crappy a work environment would really have to be when you would quite the job after a year of unemployment and that would be this place!

During any downtime, I wan't twiddling my thumbs when I wasn't working- I was learning. I decided I would learn server-side code writing in PHP. I bought books. I made websites with forums and chat, newsletter admins and content management. Really cool, geeky-type-stuff! I was becoming "marketable!"

I met Steve through a job posting for a PHP person. These folks needed help with their church consulting website that was mostly (but not all) written. It was out of my comfort zone, but I had to have some work. I made some code adjustments and did some icon development work and Steve was impressed. It was looking good again... We could actually do this!

The Second (and Last) Winter

No, we couldn't. While this was promising, time was ticking. We had accrued $16k in credit card debt. Neither of us still had any full time job and freelance, though good right-that-moment would dry up again. We had decided we wanted kids and we couldn't (wouldn't!) do it under these circumstances. We decided we would look for work back east in the D.C. area. Amazingly the D.C. area was relatively immune from the lack-of-job-opportunity slump that had been hitting the whole country. We both sent out resumes.

March 2003

Maryland Sea Grant, under the University of Maryland's Center of Environmental Sciences, needed a PHP person for a five year grant. After two phone interviews (and lots of praying), I was that person. It was settled, we were leaving.
Next: Coming Home

Posted in Westward Memoir | No Comments »

Excitement, Wonder and Delight

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

This is part 3 of  the our story about moving out west to find our dreams. Finding instead, no work and a lot of debt. Click here to start from the beginning.

Yes, we had made it. We were here and we didn't have jobs. As we unpacked, we also did enormous amounts of freelance. Cathy had work from her previous employer and I had work from a brand new client (also back east). Days were filled with getting up at 8am, leisurely drinking coffee and chatting with each other then working at the computers (back to back). Nights were filled with fabulous dinners that Cathy had time to make and TV. It was wonderful to find that, despite being with each other 24 hours a day in a 970 square foot apartment, we absolutely loved the time together!

It was Springtime in Oregon. Some rain here and there, but mostly cool sunshine. Coming from hot and humid North Carolina, it was a welcome change. Personally, I couldn't get over it- I thought there was perpetual rain in the Northwest. It certainly did when I lived in Seattle.

In between doing freelance, sending out resumes and talking to headhunters, we took some time to explore the area in the form of hiking and sightseeing. The awesome about hiking, it's fun and free! and, oh boy, did we hike! I the two years we were there we must've treked 200 miles! We hiked in spots along the Columbia River Gorge, we hiked two lava fields, we hiked in the coastal range and Mount Hood.We hiked and hiked and absolutely loved it!

Once a week, we took the Max (the local light-rail) downtown to Portland. We didn't have money, but we could afford a couple of coffees and baked goods form the Pearl Bakery. We could squeak in a meal at Mother's Bistro. The weekly trips to downtown were our splurge times to remind us of how it would be.

We connected with two people in Beaverton- David and Virginia. Great people! Though we loved being together, we were starting to miss having friends. We left all of them back in North Carolina. I had exchanged a few emails on the Pint of Portland listserv with David. He was a web designer/developer like myself and wanted to connect with us when we moved out. So at the next "Pint" we met up at Rogue Brewery. David said he "had to meet the guy with ego enough to have a picture of himself on his resume website!"

Cathy and Virginia hit it off as well. D and V were kinda quirky, but then so were we. David worked at a development company and Virginia at a translation services company (Since then Virginia started and runs her own awesome translation and localization services company and David runs the largest green web hosting company on the market. They were fun to hang out with and during those two years, indispensable).

Things were looking up! we had some interviews. I was developing freelance contacts! One morning, however, changed everything. We had just had our morning coffee together. Cathy went into the office to check her email. I was settling into the final chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone when Cathy yelled from the other room, "Turn on the news!" 9am Pacific, September 11th, 2001 I turned on CNN. The world had changed, and so had the direction of our good fortune.

Next: Paradise Lost

Posted in Geek History, Westward Memoir | 3 Comments »

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