One Year

One year ago today I got my infamous pink slip. Inasmuch as one never wants to be fired from a job, especially for frivolous, make-believe cause, there are many, many reasons that I need to say "Thank You!" to my former employer for their decision.

I got home first that day, and when Elisa arrived home (along with Sara Sue and my mother who happened to be visiting for a few days), the first words out of my mouth were, "Well, are you ready to get a realtor?" She knew immediately what had happened. And after about 3-4 weeks of a decision-making process, we did indeed get a realtor to list the house and spent over $10,000 in improvements to make it more enticing for the prospective buyers. And boy did it pay off - we had a contract on the house in 6 days. At the closing about 6 weeks later, our realtor whispered to us, "You guys are so fortunate to sell because the market is DEAD right now." I'm not sure what we could have gotten for the house even just those few weeks later (let alone NOW), but it's safe to say we'd be poorer than we (already) are right now. The timing was everything in maxing out on our sales price. So, thanks to my old bosses for making us more money on the house.

We made the trek west in late July, and arrived on July 29th after stopping in Nashville for a few days' visit with my family. It was immediately apparent we made a good decision - it was just terrific to be around family, specifically for Sara Sue to grow so close to her cousin Lucy. We hated leaving DC - so many wonderful friends and great memories - but for us at this time in our lives, California is clearly the place to be. So, thanks to my old bosses for enabling us to clarify our priorities and giving us an avenue to switch coasts.

It's been an eventful past 12 months, to say the least. But here we are, in our new house in the Valley. Tonight we hosted the Warfords and Jeremiassens for a quick, informal dinner around the coffee table. About a month ago we hosted a bunch of old DC friends who now live in SoCal: Mike & Michelle, Todd, Edette & Richard. And overall we're just plain happy. Although it's still a new scene in many ways, we can't imagine being anyplace else.