Quite a lot has changed.
I’ll start with the good. All three of my upcoming trips are now officially happening. Plane tickets for Portland have been purchased, and I leave next weekend. Plane tickets for SXSW in March have also been purchased, and I’ll be spending a good 5 days in Austin, TX at the Design(but-also-music-and-film) festival. Lastly, the roadtrip to Arizona at the beginning of March is a for-sure happening now, too.
Portland, OR: Danny and I will be flying up on the 13th. The same day, my parents will start their drive up to Portland. This will give Danny and I a day or two to hang out with Todd and Beth without the parents. Then when the parents arrive, it’ll take on a more family-vacation vibe, I’m sure. Thursday (I think…) is when we all leave, Danny and I driving back down with the my mom and dad. Not sure how awesome the drive back home is going to be, but we’ll soon find out.
Austin, TX: Before Jamie quit, he and Marke were going to go to South By Southwest in the middle of March on the company’s dollar. A big web design/development conference that has also become a hot-bed for indie bands and films to debut (or maybe it was the other way around, I really don’t know). After Jamie quit, I raised my hand and said I’d like to go. And now the rooms are booked, the tickets purchased, and the registration submitted. It will just be Marke and I going (and I think we’re sharing a room too). It should be a lot of fun, and may just be the kick in my ass I need to get my butt in gear and back into designer-mode. I’ve become such a lazy slob lately. I think I really need this.
Also, there is a slim chance that I will actually meet Emily at some point during this trip! If it doesn’t end up happening, I’m pretty sure we can make it happen sometime else this year. So far I seem to be doing pretty good with saying something and following through.
Bisbee, AZ: The first weekend in March, Sarah and I will be making the trek to Bisbee to see Charrmaine! It will be absolutely amazing, I already know. The current plan is to leave Thursday evening, after work. Road trip. I’m told it will be about a seven or eight hour drive. We’ll maybe split the driving right down the middle. Those kinds of details ain’t worked out yet.
On the way back, we will be making a pit-stop at Sarah’s friend’s house in Phoenix. An old friend of Sarah’s I’ve never met, and have been properly warned about. It should prove to be very interesting.
Suddenly, I’ve become quite the little traveler. Making up for all this lost time, maybe?
As for the things that have changed that fall under the “bad” category. I am, in fact, moving back home with my parents.
Friday night I popped my head into Danny’s room to tell him about the upcoming trips in March and how he’ll be having the place to himself. Our lease is up at the end of February, but we (sorta) agreed to do the month-to-month thing once, and stay until the end of March. But after I told Danny about these trips in March he said he doesn’t want to pay month-to-month, and would rather move out at the end of February.
He also told me that he, too, plans to be moving back home with the parents.
At this time, I had already decided that moving back home was no longer an option. My happiness (and sanity) is far more important than my financial well being. I had figured that I had until the end of March before any solid decision had to be made on my part. However, now I’m learning that I only have until the end of February.
Of which one week is spent out of town. And since I can’t look for a place to live on a weekday while I’m at work, that realistically left me with only five or six actual days to make arrangements. Which, suffice to say, wasn’t going to happen.
So, tail between the legs and all, I’ll be going back to my parents. The plan, as it stands now (and seems to be ever changing), is stay at my parents’ house for one or two months, then figure out what’s going to happen. I’ll be putting the most of my stuff in storage, trying to not even unpack. I keep saying, the more uncomfortable I am there, the better off I’ll be. The last thing I want to do is actually unpack and move in. I’ll never move back out.
I’m telling myself that this is the best solution, given all my available options. And that may actually be true. Between these three trips I’m taking (of which they are all one week apart from each other), I could use the money I save from not paying rent in March. I’ll save up three or four paychecks (trying my damnedest not to buy big expensive things…. like a 27″ iMac that is calling my name…) and then get my ass out of that house.
As far as that goes… The current plan (and certainly not yet set in stone… or even styrofoam, for that matter) is to get a place with Sarah in a few months. I’ve brought it up to her a few times now, and she seems to be pretty keen on the idea. She’s trying to get out of her place too, so as soon as she’s ready, I’m ready.
So, there’s going to be some rough water ahead, it seems. These trips of mine will be awesome, and help keep me afloat, I’m sure. But, once they are over mid-March, I’ll be “stuck” at that house with no more escapes. I’ve gotta figure something out.
It’ll all work out, right?
Goodnight Moon.
Dream On.
