So if it can be said to start anywhere it started with a dame..that dame may be my wife, as she prefers to be called, but a dame none the less.
So we get married and I follow her because she gets a job in a college town in Indiana and as I wasn't terribly excited to make military ammunition so it wasn't that hard to leave. Besides it gives me time to pursue an errant master's thesis.
So a new puppy, several week trips to my alma mater to edit the thing and I have a newly minted master's thesis and we are about a month pregnant. My wife has a job that will end right around the time that we are due and little old me is jobless and trying to reconcile the fact that that condition runs counter to ever moral fiber in my sensible Midwestern soul. Such a thing, pregnant and jobless was a state for 16 year-olds and pot heads so I head out and try to do the most sensible thing I can - find a job that pays as much money as possible. Which I do and accept the position despite finding the offices completely sterile and walking out from the interview with the boss thinking, "he is a jerk but I have worked with jerks before and I can lead up". The cost of this decision: about 7K per year.
That sounds like a lot - I wouldn't want to leave that money just lying around - but I ended up gaining about 20 pounds out of the deal which I have only just recently lost. I wouldn't have run screaming but I failed to get in touch with the employer I turned down which was a real mistake when on my second day the senior engineer in the department - 5 years experience on the job - and my trainer tells me that she may not be back as she was going to give her two week notice. I thought that responsible adults stuck with things like this; it didn't even occur to me that this particular plant hasn't found its footing yet and that such low morale is not something an engineer can fix - in this case it is a tone that starts at the top and hopefully the plant manager will figure it out.
To recap: took the worst fit job for me and then proceeded to have a son (kids are awesome) and do all the first time parent stuff (here is a tip: it is a lot like woodstock: I don't really remember it but I have pictures) when 2 years ago my wife came to me and said, "There is a job opportunity in Lisbon, Portugal, should I apply?" Having no idea what I was getting in to I said yes. 16 months ago we packed up an 18 month old child, a two year old dog, sold our cars and set about living out of a suitcase for a while. It ended up being six months as we had already made plans to say goodbye to dear friends and family around the US; to spend Christmas with my wife's family in the States; and our hilarious introduction to our first Portuguese neighbor - 'the dragon lady' - meant we started looking for our second place to stay within moments of locating the first. Did I mention that while there is a down economy in the US there is a really down economy here, that I had a stable if somewhat despotic job and that neither one of us spoke a lick of Portuguese? No? Well, it makes for interesting times.
So we get married and I follow her because she gets a job in a college town in Indiana and as I wasn't terribly excited to make military ammunition so it wasn't that hard to leave. Besides it gives me time to pursue an errant master's thesis.
So a new puppy, several week trips to my alma mater to edit the thing and I have a newly minted master's thesis and we are about a month pregnant. My wife has a job that will end right around the time that we are due and little old me is jobless and trying to reconcile the fact that that condition runs counter to ever moral fiber in my sensible Midwestern soul. Such a thing, pregnant and jobless was a state for 16 year-olds and pot heads so I head out and try to do the most sensible thing I can - find a job that pays as much money as possible. Which I do and accept the position despite finding the offices completely sterile and walking out from the interview with the boss thinking, "he is a jerk but I have worked with jerks before and I can lead up". The cost of this decision: about 7K per year.
That sounds like a lot - I wouldn't want to leave that money just lying around - but I ended up gaining about 20 pounds out of the deal which I have only just recently lost. I wouldn't have run screaming but I failed to get in touch with the employer I turned down which was a real mistake when on my second day the senior engineer in the department - 5 years experience on the job - and my trainer tells me that she may not be back as she was going to give her two week notice. I thought that responsible adults stuck with things like this; it didn't even occur to me that this particular plant hasn't found its footing yet and that such low morale is not something an engineer can fix - in this case it is a tone that starts at the top and hopefully the plant manager will figure it out.
To recap: took the worst fit job for me and then proceeded to have a son (kids are awesome) and do all the first time parent stuff (here is a tip: it is a lot like woodstock: I don't really remember it but I have pictures) when 2 years ago my wife came to me and said, "There is a job opportunity in Lisbon, Portugal, should I apply?" Having no idea what I was getting in to I said yes. 16 months ago we packed up an 18 month old child, a two year old dog, sold our cars and set about living out of a suitcase for a while. It ended up being six months as we had already made plans to say goodbye to dear friends and family around the US; to spend Christmas with my wife's family in the States; and our hilarious introduction to our first Portuguese neighbor - 'the dragon lady' - meant we started looking for our second place to stay within moments of locating the first. Did I mention that while there is a down economy in the US there is a really down economy here, that I had a stable if somewhat despotic job and that neither one of us spoke a lick of Portuguese? No? Well, it makes for interesting times.
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