Drumroll....I've accepted a real-live, full-time job! The offer came a couple Friday ago, and I was incredibly excited to accept it. It's a sales engineering job in Windsor, CT, and basically the job I've been searching for all along. They seem really excited to have me there, and I'm psyched to start. I'll be able to work with a lot of different departments, as well as customers, so lots of learning will be happening. This also means that I have a solid plan for my next step when my temp assignment ends on December 23rd. Right now I'm in temp limbo, as all my work is done, but my contract has me still here until the 23rd, so it's been pretty discouraging showing up to work with nothing to do. I'm ecstatic that I was able to get the job that was right for me, rather than having to settle for the first thing that came my way, like I had to do with this temp thing.
In the very same weekend, Corey found out about his year-long rotation in Seattle (starting in early March), and got into grad school (part-time online at USC). It was a pretty exciting weekend, getting all that good news at once, but that also meant big changes and decisions to make.
I will be starting my new job in Windsor on January 10th. The commute is about an hour and 20 minutes, so it's doable, but not particularly desirable. I decided that I should probably start looking for a place to live that is closer to work. Since Corey would be heading out to Washington late-February, early March, I wanted to find a place that would be halfway-ish between Windsor and Pittsfield, so that he wouldn't have to be bouncing around between where we live now, and my new place, in order to commute to work. This would mean a roughly 1 hour commute for both of us...not much of an improvement, but it could work. So I spent the last week or so making phone calls and arranging visits to apartments so I could move after Christmas.
Saturday, Corey and I woke up early (a feat in itself, as his company holiday party was the night before, and he was still jetlagged from a business trip), and started our schedule of apartment visits. The first place we checked out was a bit far, in South Hadley. The location was nice, and I liked the outside of the apartment complex, but once we got inside, I realized that it definitely wasn't what I wanted. The one-bedroom apartment was really small, and I felt more like I was in a hotel than an apartment building. It wasn't bad for my first-ever apartment visit, but not for me, and too far for us to both live there for the time between when I start work and Corey goes to Seattle.
The second place we visited was basically the complete opposite of the first. It was in a really small town, and about half an hour from the Masspike. Now I enjoy living in a rural area now, but for commuting, this place was a little removed from where we want to be. It was a really nice, completely redone 2-bedroom upstairs in an 1850s era house. I liked it, but calling it a 2 bedroom was a bit of a stretch. Two roughly 10' x 10' rooms with teeny tiny closets. I probably would need to use both as a single bedroom, with my bed in one and dresser in another--definitely not ideal. Additionally, the only way to do laundry would be to drive half an hour to Westfield or Northampton, and I just wouldn't have the time or energy for that. Additionally, the really sweet older lady who owned the home is probably looking for someone like her previous tenant who would help her around the house and such. Between work, commuting, and flying out to visit Corey on weekends, I just wouldn't have time to be of much help to her. Again, there were good and bad things about this one.
We drove around the Westfield area for awhile, browsing complexes, and when we found a nice one, we stopped by the Leasing office on a whim. This seemed like a really nice place with everything included. At 700ish square feet, the one-bedroom apartments were much larger than the first one we looked at, and amenities were nicer. This one was still pretty far from the highway though, and we'd both still have a relatively long commute. We didn't get to see an actual apartment, but the girl there was really nice and showed us pictures and floor plans and such. It was a nice complex, but I guess I haven't fully decided it's where I want to be.
Apartment hunting has proven to be much more difficult than I had anticipated. The situation with Corey leaving in March has complicated things because of the two months between when I start and he leaves. I guess we've been kind of spoiled because we live in such a great place right now. Moving into an apartment right after Christmas has a ton of downsides: not a lot of time to visit and make a decision, I'd have to rush to move during an already stressful time of the year, and Corey would be bouncing from our current apartment to our new apartment, depending on where the new place is in relation to his work. When he leaves, I'd be left with a commute that is still long, and possibly in a place that I rushed into just for the sake of moving. The obvious conclusion is that this is a bad idea.
So, I have a new plan that makes much more sense. I'm staying put. I absolutely love where I live right now, and there's not much of a reason to move right this second. I can tolerate the long commute for a couple more months (it's all highway anyway, so snow shouldn't be as bad), and I get to stay with Corey before he goes away for a year. This also gives me more time to shop around and really find the right place, as I'll be there for a year. I can look for places closer to work, so that I have a 20 minute commute, rather than an hour, and I can feel better about not making a rushed decision. I'll probably sign a year lease (March 2011 to March 2012) and then when Corey comes back, we can find a place that is halfway between Windsor and Pittsfield. In the areas halfway between (where we'd both have a ~45 minutes commute, so not bad), there aren't really many small apartments that would be suitable for just me anyway, so we'll have more luck there when we're looking for a place for both of us.
It's kind of weird making all these long-term plans, but I know it's going to turn out for the best. Apartment hunting has been much more stressful and overwhelming than I thought. I think my new plan is much more well thought out, and will be much better in the end. I have a great place to live (with a pretty sweet roomie!), a wonderful family, and a real job to look forward to. I'm thankful for what I have right now, and there's no reason for me to rush into something that will mix that all up.
Sunday was spent baking tons and tons of Italian christmas cookies...I'll update about that soon, hopefully with pictures.
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