I was listening to NPR's Marketplace last night and an interview with a married couple caught my attention. The book "Made for You and Me: Going West, Going Broke, Finding Home" by Caitlin Shetterly chronicles the decision her and her husband made to move from East to West more-or-less on a whim and a promise to find opportunity.
The more I listened, (minus the pregnancy) the more it sounded exactly like what we did in 2001!
ok... flashback to 2000. It was pre-dot-com-bust. The euphoria of internet millions was everywhere! Not only did we not have any debt, we actually had $5k in savings! We were not anchored into home-ownership without any way getting out rented, had the complete freedom of movement and care-free life without kids had no kids and were looking for an adventure.
As a teen, I lived in the Northwest for 5 years with my family. I told Cathy how spectacular is was our there so we went on a scouting trip. It was a glorious 5 day trip in the sunny Northwest! I told Cathy not to be fooled by the weather, it's common to have spectacular weather when visiting there- "the better to fool you with, my dear." I had a job interview with the Seattle Times for the Art Directorship of their online edition so we decided to hit Portland, OR first, then move up to Seattle for the interview.
Everyone there was so nice and there were as many tech jobs as there were coffee shops (if you've never been in the NW, you just don't know)! We fell in love with the Northwest and decided that if I got the job with the Seattle Times, we'd move to Seattle- otherwise, we'd look in Portland!
Well, three weeks later, after a second phone interview, the Seattle Times position was filled by someone local. Apparently, their candidate pool was getting bigger out there - rumblings of things to come. So, we set our sights on Portland- the town we really wanted to move to anyway. Our target date- March 31st, 2001!
Next: Westward HO!
©2012 
