Lather, Rinse ... REPEAT

I’m sitting in my suite at the Larkspur Landing in a city by the name of Renton, Washington. Renton, Washington?  Never heard of the place; although it is now entered in on my Google Maps as my “home.”  Don’t think it’ll be too long before that changes – I wrote a check for $500 as a deposit on an apartment up in West Seattle earlier today.  I’m not one for wasting time and, the way things are with finding decent housing these days, I figured it best I claimed my stake before it disappeared.  All’s that’s left now is the application and – assuming I qualify with said application – delivery of my crap from Nevada.  No problem…

Interestingly enough, I’m not even 100% sure that I really have landed the contract job that all this “moving to Seattle” depends on.  However, I’m not about to let such a miniscule hitch slow me down.  Nope, I’m all-in.  I seem to have been dealt a solid “start hand” – it’s that flop that kills ya, though…  Curtis, the recruiter that landed me this job, is stopping by my hotel this afternoon to get the contract signed and whatever … maybe I’ll find out more then.  Haven’t heard “word one” from Boeing since being told that the PDF I created for the non-employee badge request was deemed sufficient and “preferred” to the FAX option that Curtis was asking me to do.  I was also informed that my badge is ready to be picked up although I still have no idea where this would be done nor where I am expecting to be working – an address would be nice … as would a start day and time.  Oh well, beggars, choosers – you know what they say…

I suppose this is just a case of déjà vu all over again.  Seems to me I’ve done this before.  It was a somewhat younger me and, at that time, the whole “not speaking the language of the locals” twist was thrown in as well.  I survived – thrived, actually.  Things have got to be easier this time.  It’s just that, at one time – and not too long ago, mind you – I believed I had put these adventures of jumping blindly into the deep end behind me.  An ill-advised detour seems to have brought me a substantial distance back, however.  Here we go again…

But hey, on the positive side, I am getting the opportunity to broaden my horizons.  I still have little to no idea what this next project will actually be requiring me to do.  I’m somewhat sure that it will require at least some of the skills I already know (well, knew at one time … let’s be honest, it’s been a while) although it sounds like the largest portion of work is going to be doing things I’ve never actually done before.  I’m thinking this will be mainly a learning experience.  Nothing wrong with learning new skills although I better learn quickly – getting paid to learn things just sounds so un-capitalistic to me and we all know that, in this country, capitalism rules.

I do get the opportunity to check out the Seattle lifestyle.  The apartment I just claimed seems like an ideal basecamp for such an endeavor as well.  It’s located just a short walk from the north end of Alki Beach as well as the Seacrest Ferry Dock.  I guess this basically translates to it being pretty much a short walk to downtown Seattle.  That could be good, I suppose.  I’m kind of hoping that, by its location alone, I will have much more desire to continue my adventures that I so enjoyed back in Santa Monica.  I tried walking through the old neighborhood a few times whilst back at the parent’s but that just wasn’t the same.  It’s a big plus to actually have something interesting to see.  I do hope it doesn’t rain too much…

bis später,

Coriolis

Fly, Fly Away

It’s a Saturday.  I’ve technically got nothing planned for today.  Tomorrow I plan to perhaps shave my head and begin the packing process.  I’ve got to somehow pack everything I’m going to be needing into a couple checked bags and one carry-on prior to my flight early afternoon on Tuesday.  I’ve got a one-way, first-class ticket to Seattle … it comes with two “free” checked bags and one carry-on.  I’m planning on using all three.

For you see, things have moved forward a bit since the last chat I had with you.  I mentioned the three jobs that I had the most hope of “going somewhere” and have apparently landed the first.  Ends up it’s in Seattle.  I, on the other hand, am still in Allen Park – a smallish suburb downriver from Detroit, Michigan.  This is currently scheduled to change in three days.  Although the actual start-date for this year-long contract I am accepting isn’t quite finalized yet – we’re currently “targeting” next Friday, the 1^st of March although that could easily slip a bit – I’ve decided to fly out there a few days early.  I’ve booked a room in one of those extended-stay type hotels – booked it through March 15^th, actually – and I am hoping to use the days before I start work to hopefully find an apartment or at least begin the process of apartment procurement.  Seems like, these days, this process has the potential to become a bit complicated.  Fingers – crossed.

It’s becoming more and more apparent that I’ve gone about this moving process wrong.  Although flying to Seattle is, by far, the simplest way to get “me” there; it makes the amount of “stuff” that I can bring quite limited.  The problem is that I drove here from California last fall with quite a bit more than I can pack into two checked bags and one carry-on.  First and foremost is the car that I drove – there’s no way they’ll let me check a car in on my flight!  So, the car stays where she currently is – in storage.  That’s just one more monthly bill I’ll need to keep paying until the time comes where I will hopefully be able to get the car shipped to me in Seattle.  Either that or I’m thinking I could maybe take a long weekend and fly back to Michigan, load up the car with the other items I wasn’t able to take on my flight, and drive her back to Seattle myself.  That, of course, would need to be sometime after winter.  Winter, after all, is why I’m not just making that drive now.  Driving a sports car with speed-rated, sport tires across the north of this country in the middle of winter just sounds like a stupid thing to attempt … besides, my mom won’t let me.  I’m going to now need to be renting a car for quite some time … yet another expense.  Oh well, that’s life.

Apart from the car, I’m also going to be needing to leave my guitars – some other bits of miscellanea as well, but the guitars seem quite consequential.  I suppose they’re actually no big deal since I haven’t been playing them at all lately due to my fear of making either of my arms (or both) completely un-usable (I wrote about this a bit earlier).  Leaving them behind does seem a bit weird to me, though.

I don’t know … it just seems blatantly apparent to me now that I should have just rented a vehicle and driven to Seattle.  Sure, this wouldn’t have solved the “car” issue; however, it would have allowed me to bring everything else.  Oh well, at least this way I get to avoid a rather long solo drive just prior to tackling the “life restart” issues.  I suppose that’s probably good … something tells me that I’ve got some somewhat difficult tasks that I’m going to need to be solving soon…  Haven’t I already completed this portion of my life?

bis später,

Coriolis