Update: Job and Car

The Job
The more I thought about the Tivoli Services position the more I decided that I really didn’t want to travel that much away from Benjamin. In fact, at the gym last Friday morning I pretty much had talked myself out of the position.

Then on Saturday I had a rare thinking-outside-the-box thought that caused me to pause. What if we turned the biggest negative about the job, the travel, into the biggest positive? What if Benjamin quit his job and traveled with me? Between the “signing bonus” and the increased compensation it would almost match a year of his salary. Certainly he wouldn’t be able to (and wouldn’t want to) travel with me to all of the customers but maybe a few here and there.

Better yet – why don’t we go try out other cities? Our friend Danny has been begging for us to come live in Denver now for over two years. If it truly doesn’t matter where I live for this job, why not spend a few months in Denver? We’d get to try it out and see if we liked it before up and moving there permanently. Benjamin could go visit some of his other friends as well like Leslie in Salt Lake City, Uncle Joe in Boston, and Eric wherever he decides to move. Sure it is unlikely that all of our friends would want us to move in with them for a month or more but I’m sure they wouldn’t mind us stopping by for a week.

To further complicate matters, Benjamin’s sister Evelyn is coming to live with us for at least 6 months starting in a few weeks. She just graduated from cosmetology school and is trying to get some cash to get her feet on the ground. Since we’ve already hosted my brother and sister-in-law for six months, hosting Eve is the least that we can do. The plan is for her to live with us rent-free and pay 1/3rd of the utilities until she has enough money for a place of her own. If we go the traveling route we don’t want to up and leave her by herself in a big house in a new city a month after she gets here.

Another twist is Benjamin’s career. Right now Benjamin is on a path to become a customer support manager at his Compass Bank branch by the end of the year. Things are trucking right along and although it is not a guaranteed position we want to see just how far we can go down that track.

With all of that in mind, the tentative plan is that should we decide to go this route that Benjamin will stay here in Austin until at least the end of the year. That will give him a chance to see how his banking career goes as well as give Eve some company. In January 2007 we would re-evaluate the situation and see if we should do the whole “try out Denver” idea.

Benjamin and I tossed the plan around for a while and decided that we really liked it. I sent an email to my manager letting her know I was going to investigate the position and set up a time on Wednesday to talk with one of the ISST managers to see if our “temporarily live someplace else” idea was valid.

Wednesday afternoon I had a meeting with the ISST manager who said he didn’t see any reason why that wouldn’t work. He pretty much gave me the response that I was expecting for the rest of my questions so I went back to my office and applied. No word yet, I’ll keep you updated.

The Car
On Wednesday night we finally got the pictures of the car uploaded. Both days we took the pictures it was overcast. Maybe if we have a nice sunny day sometime soon we’ll take some better ones.