Not known for my patience...
Jul. 30th, 2008 10:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
norsegirlI'm finding it hard to concentrate.
Jason had his interview in Austin on the 21st. He submitted his (hopefully) final piece of documentation on July 28th and now we're just waiting to hear back. I know that it should take a while. The potential bosses have to review his interview and the document he's just submitted and decide whether they want him or not and then pass their decision on to HR. If it was a "no" we'd probably hear back sooner, so I guess the wait is a good sign. If it's a yes HR probably has to jump through a bunch of hoops exploring immigration requirements, setting the salary and whatnot and I have yet to meet an HR team that thought speed was an important part of their job. When Jason wrote to ask about receipts and reimbursements the HR person said he'd hear "soon". Gotta love those vague estimates that don't point at any real timelines or set any real expectations. I don't expect to hear from them this week. In fact, I even think next week might be a bit early, but that isn't stopping me from feeling all anxious and anticipating. Which leads back to the hard to concentrate thing. It's hard to really hunker down and get settled and get work done when "I might be gone soon" is floating around in the back of my brain, pushing itself to the forefront at regular intervals.
Speaking of receipts and reimbursements... we were just told they are reimbursing EVERYTHING from that trip. We expected the hotel, flight and rental car would be paid for (since they booked those) but I figured we were on our own for meals. If I'd known I would have been less cheap and actually bought myself some food on Monday at lunch instead of eating half of a soggy, leftover sandwich from the plane ride in. I wouldn't have gone nuts with the expenses, but eating something I was SURE wasn't growing something harmful would have been great! Ah well, live and learn, and I didn't get sick from eating the old sandwich anyway.
I also did the Canadian half of my grocery price list thingy and I'll post the results later when I've had a chance to really review them and draw some conclusions. My initial impression is the same as the initial impression I came to when wandering the aisles down there: grocery prices will be about the same. Some items were cheaper while others were more expensive and I can't really find a trend. Wine was WAY cheaper, bananas were significantly cheaper, tomatoes and mushrooms were more expensive. I'll post the full list of surveyed items later. I also have to factor in their relatively high sales tax (8.5% as compared to the 5% GST) and there's the inconvenience factor of losing many of my favourite brands (no more PC).
I still haven't managed to pull up a car insurance quote of any sort, so that could make a big difference to expenses. I also have no idea what home insurance costs. The mortgage will run us either the same cost as our current rent or maybe a few hundred more, depending how much mortgage we need. Property taxes will add a few hundred to that, so no more dining out for us if we move. I have no idea what utilities will run us, and I really should ask about that too.
Overall I suspect that moving there will actually cost us slightly more than staying here, and with the reduction to one income it will be a challenge. We'll have to wait and see what the offer is of course, but I'm anxious.
I've never been known for my patience and this wait is just killing me. I've got all kinds of things in my home that I'm thinking of parting with, but I'm immobilized by the uncertainty of my future. I have a bunch of winter coats I keep around for doing grubby work (Hjalti's workshop, driveway shoveling, dog walking) that I could get rid of in a heartbeat if we were moving to Austin. Conversely I have a bunch of dress shirts made of really thin, breathable fabrics that are somewhat unfashionable and have gone unused in years since moving here, but that I might pull out again if I had to work in the Austin heat. So I've got these piles of things I don't really like but that might be useful and I can't decide what to do with them. I probably should have dealt with them last weekend but I have been completely useless since returning from Austin. And this weekend of course we're off to Quad, so I can't hope to accomplish anything this week either. There's a little voice that is screaming "just throw it all out and don't worry about it. Only keep the things you love" and I know that voice is right, but the voices of insecurity "I might need that", "I won't have money in Austin to buy new things", "I could move it all and think about it when I get there" are overpowering it. And louder than all those voices combined is the old status quo voice of inertia "it's such a big job, where do I start?" and when I do start there's the old "I'm just going to sit and rest for a moment" that results in absolutely nothing getting done. You know what happens right? You start the job, take a "break" and never come back to it, live with the unfinished job all over the place taking up your space for weeks and finally get frustrated and just shove it all back into the closet/guest room/junk drawer or wherever it came from so even the little bit of effort you expended starting it amounted to nothing in the end.
Whether we stay or go there's so very much that needs to be done, and so little that I am actually accomplishing.
In other news, I hate the ergonomic keyboard that I am stuck with at work. These things are really hard for people who never actually learned how to type properly.
Jason had his interview in Austin on the 21st. He submitted his (hopefully) final piece of documentation on July 28th and now we're just waiting to hear back. I know that it should take a while. The potential bosses have to review his interview and the document he's just submitted and decide whether they want him or not and then pass their decision on to HR. If it was a "no" we'd probably hear back sooner, so I guess the wait is a good sign. If it's a yes HR probably has to jump through a bunch of hoops exploring immigration requirements, setting the salary and whatnot and I have yet to meet an HR team that thought speed was an important part of their job. When Jason wrote to ask about receipts and reimbursements the HR person said he'd hear "soon". Gotta love those vague estimates that don't point at any real timelines or set any real expectations. I don't expect to hear from them this week. In fact, I even think next week might be a bit early, but that isn't stopping me from feeling all anxious and anticipating. Which leads back to the hard to concentrate thing. It's hard to really hunker down and get settled and get work done when "I might be gone soon" is floating around in the back of my brain, pushing itself to the forefront at regular intervals.
Speaking of receipts and reimbursements... we were just told they are reimbursing EVERYTHING from that trip. We expected the hotel, flight and rental car would be paid for (since they booked those) but I figured we were on our own for meals. If I'd known I would have been less cheap and actually bought myself some food on Monday at lunch instead of eating half of a soggy, leftover sandwich from the plane ride in. I wouldn't have gone nuts with the expenses, but eating something I was SURE wasn't growing something harmful would have been great! Ah well, live and learn, and I didn't get sick from eating the old sandwich anyway.
I also did the Canadian half of my grocery price list thingy and I'll post the results later when I've had a chance to really review them and draw some conclusions. My initial impression is the same as the initial impression I came to when wandering the aisles down there: grocery prices will be about the same. Some items were cheaper while others were more expensive and I can't really find a trend. Wine was WAY cheaper, bananas were significantly cheaper, tomatoes and mushrooms were more expensive. I'll post the full list of surveyed items later. I also have to factor in their relatively high sales tax (8.5% as compared to the 5% GST) and there's the inconvenience factor of losing many of my favourite brands (no more PC).
I still haven't managed to pull up a car insurance quote of any sort, so that could make a big difference to expenses. I also have no idea what home insurance costs. The mortgage will run us either the same cost as our current rent or maybe a few hundred more, depending how much mortgage we need. Property taxes will add a few hundred to that, so no more dining out for us if we move. I have no idea what utilities will run us, and I really should ask about that too.
Overall I suspect that moving there will actually cost us slightly more than staying here, and with the reduction to one income it will be a challenge. We'll have to wait and see what the offer is of course, but I'm anxious.
I've never been known for my patience and this wait is just killing me. I've got all kinds of things in my home that I'm thinking of parting with, but I'm immobilized by the uncertainty of my future. I have a bunch of winter coats I keep around for doing grubby work (Hjalti's workshop, driveway shoveling, dog walking) that I could get rid of in a heartbeat if we were moving to Austin. Conversely I have a bunch of dress shirts made of really thin, breathable fabrics that are somewhat unfashionable and have gone unused in years since moving here, but that I might pull out again if I had to work in the Austin heat. So I've got these piles of things I don't really like but that might be useful and I can't decide what to do with them. I probably should have dealt with them last weekend but I have been completely useless since returning from Austin. And this weekend of course we're off to Quad, so I can't hope to accomplish anything this week either. There's a little voice that is screaming "just throw it all out and don't worry about it. Only keep the things you love" and I know that voice is right, but the voices of insecurity "I might need that", "I won't have money in Austin to buy new things", "I could move it all and think about it when I get there" are overpowering it. And louder than all those voices combined is the old status quo voice of inertia "it's such a big job, where do I start?" and when I do start there's the old "I'm just going to sit and rest for a moment" that results in absolutely nothing getting done. You know what happens right? You start the job, take a "break" and never come back to it, live with the unfinished job all over the place taking up your space for weeks and finally get frustrated and just shove it all back into the closet/guest room/junk drawer or wherever it came from so even the little bit of effort you expended starting it amounted to nothing in the end.
Whether we stay or go there's so very much that needs to be done, and so little that I am actually accomplishing.
In other news, I hate the ergonomic keyboard that I am stuck with at work. These things are really hard for people who never actually learned how to type properly.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 05:22 pm (UTC)How exciting! It'll suck to have you move but how exciting for you - tres cool.
I can't remember....are you guys coming to Quad?
no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 05:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 05:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-30 05:48 pm (UTC)At least they have SOME idea of what it is...
Thanks for the offer of company : )
no subject
Date: 2008-07-31 06:52 am (UTC)hey can you bring the cute bar code scanner? I was looking for it recently and forgot I loaned it to you! *grins* too much buying in europe!
no subject
Date: 2008-07-31 01:49 pm (UTC)Save me a spot near the A&S tent, I think we'll be arriving late Friday.