Moving, Transfers, and the Magical Speeding up of Time When You Want it to SLOW DOWN.

The management that I've dealt with since being with Starbucks (two years on July 6!) has been generally awesome. My store manager is phenomenal, as are my fellow shift supervisors, the several other store managers in my district that I've had contact with have been great, and my district manager is usually amazing.

However. 

I am currently annoyed. 

• I asked my district manager about the proper protocol for transferral.  
• She gave me some directions, which I followed. 
• I then left her a voicemail to follow up on my actions and received NO FEEDBACK. 
• So I contacted the DM of the district that I'm hoping to transfer to... she sent an email to my DM here in Virginia... who contacted my store manager and wanted to know why I was not following the proper chains of communication.
• The DM said I needed to fill out a form. 
• I did that, and left it with my store manager to finish and send to the DM. 
• AND THEN I find out that I was supposed to have done all this extra leg work and found a store to transfer to FIRST. 

WHICH IS TOTALLY NOT WHAT THE DM TOLD ME TO DO THE FIRST TIME I ASKED.

Long story short, I lost nearly a month in the transfer process because my DM didn't tell me the right things to do. UGH.

Jeremy is going to interview for a teaching position in Opelika, Alabama on Thursday morning. There is also a super long-shot at a job in IOWA, doing some kind of statistical data analysis stuff with John Deere. I think that sounds way more awesome than teaching math... but maybe that's just me.

More fun things... we have figured out that Samuel and I need to get out of this house by mid-July so that Jeremy can have us out from under his feet while he does fun things. Like paint our bedroom and ALL the trim in our house. This means I need to leave my job by July 10. It's kind of devastating for me, and I'm trying not to talk about it at work because I get all emotional and weepy. The pregnancy hormones are not helping.

The good thing is, we are actually sorting through all of our stuff and getting rid of a TON, which we really should have done last time we moved. But last time, we were moving out of and in to our own houses. This time we are moving out of our 3 bedroom/full basement house and into 2 bedrooms of my parents' house. I am super thankful for this opportunity! I have spent so much of my life holding on to crap that clutters up my space and my mind, and I am now being forced to let it go. I'm sure I'm still trying to keep too much... but I'm working on it.

I do wish that time would slow down a little. I wake up feeling a little sad every morning because I know that it's one day closer to leaving this life and these friends behind.

Take What Comes, and Live without Complaint...

So.

It looks like we're going to be moving in with my parents this fall.

I don't know if I can express how truly depressing it is to have to leave it behind. I haven't really lived with my parents since I graduated from high school. Sure, I spent summers there while in college, but it was 3 months at a time. 

We are being squashed by our finances, mostly the result of irresponsible choices early in our relationship and an unexpected pregnancy, early in our marriage and prior to the end of my husband's education... and our decision to push our luck in an attempt to let me be a stay-at-home-mom for the first seven months. The reality is, we took a lot of gambles, and most of them have been a loss. 

Jeremy didn't finish his PhD (although he did manage to turn it into a second Master's). We moved to a town that I hated. I left behind the majority of my emotional support. The first year in this new place sucked. My son didn't start sleeping through the night until he was a year old, and I was the only one getting up with him. Every time I made a new friend, they had to move. Literally.

And then? I started working at Starbucks. And it changed my whole life. I made friends. I talked to real adults-- sorry, Jim Dale. Listening to you read Harry Potter on a constant loop just wasn't good enough. I was promoted. I got a new manager-- the best boss, EVER. I became part of a team, a family. Part of a group of people who were interested in my development, professionally and personally. I am not sure I can count the number of times my boss saw me cry and listened to my woes. She was the first person to hear about my miscarriage, other than my husband, obviously. At one o'clock in the morning. She told me to take whatever time I needed to recover. She and one of the other management team members have been there for me in every trial. They gave me candid advice and constructive criticism. I found purpose, drive, and ambition. This summer makes two years of barista bliss. And while I will be leaving this store, it is definitely my intention to stick with the company as long as humanly possible.

A few weeks ago, a store manager position came available in what I consider to be my "home town." In a moment of desperate, delirious hope, I applied. For a shining moment, I thought I could go home. That I could do something to rectify our financial situation. That I could keep us out of my parents' house. But. I'm honestly just not ready for that position yet, and my district manager and my current store manager both know it.

I have to admit that I am doing a lot of grieving about this situation. I tried to put a cheerful face on it for a while. But the truth is... it's going to suck. A lot. A LOT. It's going to try us. It's going to push my relationships to the edge-- my relationship with my mother, my father, my husband, and my child(ren). I am going to have to learn to be far more honest and vocal than I ever was in the past, living with my parents as a child.

You know what, though?

It is going to grow me. Stretch me.

And?

There are so many more terrible things that could be happening in my life. We are not getting chased out of our house. We have someplace to go. My current pregnancy (22.5 weeks now!) is going strong-- healthy and perfect as can be. My son is healthy. My husband has 8 (eight!) educational endorsements in math and science, and should be able to get a job in Alabama with no trouble. We have friends from Virginia Tech who live 2 hours from my parents. My parents have a house that will allow us a measure of privacy. 

I cannot change what is coming. But I can change the way I face it.

"Take what comes, and live without complaint. What will be, will be. Life is woman's gift; death is God's."