Holly Cows, it’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to write to you! Life was really hectic for a while there, and while it’s not back to normal quite yet, it’s getting there. So what’s my big excuse for the radio silence, you ask? Moving! And the whole process of getting settled has been super up and down.
My past posts have been mostly about how to stay financially stable and prepared for life’s curve balls, and l was so sure that we would be totally fine when we moved. I had money saved up, the guests at our wedding had been generous, I had sold my stock to finish paying for the wedding and prepare for moving. Sure it might take a little while to get a job, but I’m a server in a city of restaurants and bars. How hard could getting a job be? My husband being a car guy in Southern California would of course get a job quickly. I figured what we had would work out fine and we would still be content with what we had. HA!
I’m going to Monday-morning-quarterback myself before I get into the details. What I should have done was apply for jobs asap, gone through all the name change and DMV process sooner, and I should have suggested to my husband that he just drive my car to work instead, but this being the first time that I have ever made an out-of-state move in my adult life, I had no clue.
From Colorado we rented a Penske truck which broke down in a major sort of way in Arizona, setting us back a day. Penske refunded us for the hotel reservation that we couldn’t get to, the one we stayed in Flagstaff, instead of Needles, and for the dinner we had that night. Oh and they gave us some extra money for our troubles, which was very nice of them. They hired some movers to switch our belongings over–and of course all the boxes labeled “Fragile” were placed on the bottom, but nothing broke and that’s what matters right?
When we got to California, we put our junk in a couple storage units, thanks to the help of my mom again, and made preparations to head back to Colorado to get our fur babies and my husband’s car. The trip back to California was smoother, but half the trip our oldest cat kept getting car sick and then stressed out each time we were in a different motel room that we barely got any sleep those few days.
When we landed back in California, we needed to stay with my mom for a couple weeks until the place we were moving into became available. We were planning on not applying for jobs until we moved into our permanent address so we spent the next two weeks playing around. Mom took us out to fun restaurants, Shawn and I explored the beaches close by and the shopping centers. I should have been applying for jobs during this “vacation time,” but was I? No, absolutely not. Serving isn’t a relaxing job and I wanted a break. Deep down I knew that I would have to start in the position below serving, because that’s just how the industry tends to be, but my ego was telling me that with four years serving experience I might just get hired in as a server. Cute. We weren’t spending a bunch of our own money so financially we were fine.
The first financial hole-in-the-damn was registering our cars. We barely did it in time and with the Mustang being classified as a “luxury” car by the government, registering it wasn’t cheap. Auto insurance isn’t cheap out here either, so there was that and we did another dumb thing that drained my savings account so all of that and no income totally sucked.
I applied to about 20 jobs at first and I took the first one that was offered me until I realized I wasn’t built for it. I applied to at least ten more and ended up accepting a host position like I knew deep down would end up happening anyway. My review is coming up though and I should be able to take the server test soon. That way I can at least be trained and if not scheduled to serve for a little while I can at least pick up some serving shifts in the meantime.
Shawn got a job at a classic car consignment/storage facility and is thriving. He even gets to teach the manager a thing or two from time to time.
In our free time we are visiting beautiful beaches and getting to know the area. Lucky us! I’ve started a little garden of mint, some fruits, and veggies. It’s my desperate attempt to get some free food. Silly, I know, since nothing will probably produce fruit for a while and by then we’ll hopefully be good. Hopefully.
The last two months have been hectic, stressful, an fun. I’m so happy to have my husband here struggling along with me. It’s not all bad though, don’t worry. There’s always patches of rest and relaxation. Sometimes I even feel like those Instagramers who get free trips to exotic lands because I can drive right down to the beach and photograph all the beauty that surrounds it, sometimes I even feel like that includes me.
Our Oyster 