A lot of shit to talk about...

The countdown to Saint Paul went from being 'this year', to 'this summer', to 'probably in April or May' to being 'at the end of March.' And now it was last weekend. That's right, I am now in St. Paul, sitting in a coffee shop, eating an apple cinamon muffin, drinking a chai tea and updating my blog. Oh, and waiting for the movers to call. But let's start from about where we left off.

A couple weeks ago, Dinah went up to Minneapolis to interview for a job. She'd done a phone interview and wasn't exactly sure how it went, because, over the phone it's hard to get a read for how people are reacting. But it went well enough that she got to go up for an in-person interview, which also went well and ended in her getting an offer. Which she accepted. Of course, I feel a little weird that she'll be working at the University of Minnesota Law School, but I'm okay with it. They did pick the more talented of the two of us. And it probably won't be bad to know she has connections to people in the industry and who might know things about the job market that I might not. And I can root for the Gophers honestly. That's good too.

But the thing about the job is it happened rather quickly. Seemed like it took a little over a month from the application to the acceptance. So, immediately, we started hatching plans. She would probably have to stay with her brother for a bit and find an apartment while I stayed here and worked and tried to find someone to take over our lease down here. Hopefully quickly, but I was preparing myself for being her until May. June at the latest. It did not sound ideal, but it could work.

Then, sort of on a whim, we emailed someone who posted a craig's list ad for an apartment in St. Paul. A nice place. A lot bigger than our current place. And cheaper, especially since heat would be included. On the second floor, so we'll get a lot more light. And it's a block and a half from William Mitchell. The woman emailed us back and before we knew it, we had Dinah's brother take a look at the place, got his thumbs up and some pictures, and we signed a lease.

Which calls for a reworking of the plan. She'll have to stay with her brother until the lease starts in April. I'll work on getting someone into our place as soon as we can and we'll figure out the moving later.
So, we post our own ad on craig's list and showed the apartment to a nice couple on Wednesday. They seemed to really like our place and they filled out the application. And today they signed the lease. New plan. We'll move up to Saint Paul at the end of the month. Start packing now and I'll leave my job and move up with Dinah at the same time. We don't have to stay with her brother, because our new landlord's cool with us moving in a couple days early. So, we'll figure out the movers.

This seemed the most daunting of the tasks, because we'd heard stories about waiting for weeks, waiting for the movers to call. I like to think of myself as a person with simple needs. It turns out one of thoses needs is a nice couch to lie on. But Dinah was able to find a company that was based in Minneapolis/Saint Paul and makes the trip frequently. So, we'd only need a weekend of spartan existence. So that is our last plan, and up until now it's been going swimmingly. And, as you may know, Ilove it when a plan comes together.

It's been an amazing couple months. It seems like everything has just fallen into place for us. It's a powerful feeling that makes it hard to be cynical. Indeed, aided by the return of the sun to the midwest, I've been feeling a lot of happiness and hope of late. I really think everything is working out and will continue to work out.
The drive up was not without it's problems though. As you may know, we have two cats--a mother and son. They are skittish and do not adapt well to change. And they hate their carrying cases. So, we knew they were not going to appreciate the sudden loss of all the stuff in our old apartment, followed by being confined and riding in a car for 8 hours or so. We got a bigger carrying case, so they could be in it together and feel some solidarity or something. But, it turns out this was not as big a solution to that problem as we hoped. To be fair, there were stretches of quiet time. Hours of quiet sometimes. But, there was also a lot of crying. And there was Oscar scratching the carrier until he broke one of his claws and bled a little. Which was really worrying and frustrating, but ultimately not a big problem.

And after a great weekend of seeing some friends and family (including our little niece who keeps getting more and more adorable), I am feeling amazingly optomistic about living here. I'm really liking the neighborhood and our apartment (seriously a block from school is going to be awesome, and it's frickin' huge). I'm hopeful that Dinah will enjoy her job. And I'm hopeful that I'll be able to find some sort of work to keep my busy this summer. I think it's all going to work out well...you know if we work hard and make good decisions. That kind of thing.
**UPDATE: Movers come tomorrow morning. Kind of earlyish, but that sounds good to me.