The Dating Game (Job Love Triangle Part 1)

As most of you know, Mat will complete his fellowship this July and we'll move onto greener pastures (putting on my rose colored glasses...now!). Finding a job in the plastics field has not been in as high demand as it has say, before the Great Recession. He also needs a 250,000 population base with a lot of elderly and wealthy young people. We scoured and fine combed all areas close to the west coast, hoping to land within driving distance from family. We came up short on a lot of them. A lot of doors were closed and bolted, for that matter, because of the decrease in elective cosmetic surgery. Idaho, Colorado, Utah, Washington, Arizona, Oregon--nope, Nada, zero, see ya.

So we went with our only leads, Palm Springs, CA, Sacramento, CA, and Cheyenne, WY. We decided to date Palm Springs and Sacramento first and then ask out Cheyenne on a rebound date later. I just couldn't see myself dating Cheyenne, they just weren't my type. During this dating process of jobs, many would ask, "Why would you want to date them?" (translation: why are you choosing there out of all places?) My response, "There's just not that many fish in the sea or all the good fish are already married."

So we traveled to Palm Springs and Sacramento during the Fall to interview with the kind help of the Manwarings watching our kids and the kind help of the practices flying us out.

In Palm Springs we got to see our loved ones for a brief moment which I'm so glad they made the trip down for us. It was also a fun resorty vacation:



Date farm, perfect for our dating game for jobs.



In Sacramento, it was just the two of us, Mat and I. Mat went to interviews all day while I passed out almonds to homeless people on the city street corners.



See, nuts. I happened to be the only one requesting to watch the video on almond processing that day.



The kids were okay with either, well, except for Gretchen, of course, she's my onion, lots of layers. One night I went to check on her before going to bed and as I walked into her room she was turned on her side with quiet tears streaming down her face. Out of concern, I hustled to her and asked what was wrong. Gretchen: "Nothing." Mic: "Gretchen, you can tell me." Gretchen: "I just don't want to move to California because (her voice starting to build now) there are Earthquakes. And I don't like earthquakes. EARTHQUAKES ARE SCARY." She cries some more. Gretchen: "Why can't we just move somewhere like the middle like Kansas where there are never any earthquakes?" Mic: "Well, these are our only options right now and Daddy needs a job. And, besides, Kansas has tornadoes." Gretchen: "It DOES? Oh! We can't live anywhere in the United States!" Mic: "There, there." She begins to cry harder.


Both Palm Springs and Sacramento had there goods and bads (with possible chance of earthquakes), but I quickly fell in love with one more than the other. continued....