The Move to Los Angeles 9/09: The Prequel

So, if you haven't heard already, Addy and I have moved to Los Angeles. I know I'm WAY behind on my blog (as some of you keep reminding me), so this is where I'll start. This whole adventure started when I was making plans for our summer trip to SoCal. I was talking to my buddy, Bowman, about getting to see him when we were down there, since he lives in Newport Beach. As we were talking he jokingly asked if I wanted him to set up an interview for me with his boss at Toys R Us. This was in June. Later in the month, he brought it up again. I agreed to it, thinking that I had nothing to lose and maybe something great to gain. You see, Addy and I had talked about moving to California before. We both love the sun and the beach. When we vacation, its either to a beach or to see my friends and family in the Midwest. Therefore, why not always have the beach and move to Cali, right? Also, one of Addy's items on her life's to-do list is to live in another state than Oregon, since she had always lived there. This opportunity with Toys R Us, would make it possible for us to move to Cali and fulfill those wishes.

Needless to say at this point, I got the job at Toys R Us. But I'll still tell you the story, since the events that fact put into motion were interesting to juggle. I had an interview with the DM of RUS on Aug 17, the day after Bowman's wedding. It went well and he said that he was very excited to have me on his team. I then had to fill out an online application and when that was completed, I was scheduled to have a phone interview with the district HR. After a long game of phone tag, on both of our parts, I was able to have the interview on September 2nd (for those of you in the know, you may realize that part of the reason for the phone tag was that I was participating in Hood to Coast the weekend of Aug 28!). But she called me when I was at work, so I ended up taking the call in my car, in the parking lot. Again, it went well and she told me I would be hearing from the recruiter for an offer. I wanted to leave Target on good terms, so I was going to work 2 whole weeks after receiving an offer from RUS. Time was of the essence now, because of our housing situation. As you know, we bought a house last summer. As we were planning for this move, we decided we did not want to sell. Not that we even could have, if we wanted with the market the way it is. But we really like the house and would like to have it available if we were to move back. So, we decided to rent it instead. Addy took the initiative and put up a Craig's List ad and after a few showings, found someone who wanted to rent it for at least a year. They needed to move in by the 1st, so we needed to be out, obviously. To make everything fall into place correctly, I needed an offer by the 11th, at the latest. Not to say that would be easy, but it would at least work. On my way to work on the 11th, I got the offer. And after talking it over with Addy, accepted. Once I got to work, I gave my notice. My boss and boss's boss were both disappointed and tried to change my mind. It was nice to have them try to dissuade me and they said they would take me back, if this didn't work out.

Now that the timing was set, all we had to do was execute the plan. The plan depended a lot on Addy. I was still working 55 hrs/wk at Target, and to get everything ready to go, Addy stopped selling insurance. She worked on getting everything together for the move, from setting up our stop date on utilities, to getting a lease together, to packing, to selling things we didn't need anymore, and probably a hundred other things that I don't even know about. Oh yeah, she even traded-in her car. She had leased a 2009 Acura TSX (it was sweet. the first new car either of us have ever "owned") the summer before. She traded it in for something more utilitarian and affordable, a 2007 Toyota Corolla. We had 2 yard sales, sold a bunch of stuff on craiger's (including our bikes and our bedroom furniture), and donated LOTS of stuff to Goodwill. Besides working frantically to get everything ready for the move, we spent time in the city that we loved and with our friends that we were leaving behind. If you didn't know, Addy's got her own blog going. You can see what she wrote about the end of our time in Oregon here:

http://addylynn.blogspot.com/2009/10/last-days.html