I'm booked

I've booked my flight. That's singular, yes it is. It's so bizarre. I've never ever booked a one way ticket before this. My one way to Austin Texas.

I fly from Buffalo on February 8. And there is still so much to do.
Lunch dates, going away festivities, packing and moving, moving in with my parents, organizing my life here, preparing for my start there...it seemingly never ends. And I'm getting antsy.

I just want to be there already. Enough with the waiting!

I'm staying in this cute little vacation rental for the first week. Found this place on VRBO.COM
which is a great site for numerous locations around the globe. We have taken many vacations and found our places to stay through this site.

Just a little studio apartment, close to downtown is all I need. A shuttle bus will pick me up at the airport and take me to the door for only 23.00 which is AMAZING. Do a quick grocery shop and some other errands like banking and things over the weekend I arrive.

I start work on Monday the 10th. I have orientation for 4 hours and then I get to meet a few more people in the office (like the Dean) and then I get the keys to my new office. Yep that's right, for all those who know what hell cubicle life is, I get my very own office now! I've decided I will bus to work and walk home. It's only about a 40 minute walk, just don't think I can manage that in the mornings. HA!

It's so funny though, I feel like this isn't happening. I have moments of panic. Moments of stress. Moments of purrrre excitement. But then for the most part nothing has changed so it feels like a "dream". Dream in the sense it feels like a goal, "oh how I wish I was moving to Texas. Imagine I was moving to Texas" and yet it's happening in 2 weeks.

I wonder what it will be like in a few more weeks. Our leasing agent says it's super shitty weather down there today. Tomorrow they are calling for snow. So in the Winter it really can be hot or cold. And they say the weather kind of changes without notice. SO unfortunately I will be needing my wool coats. Well it's not that unfortunate, I love them! And everything closes down there when there is ice on the ground or flakes in the air. Because they aren't equipped with salters, shovels or windshield scrapers. So I'll have snow days in that case. HAHA It will seem so funny at first. When we hardly close for anything in Canada. It has to be really bad for it to shut anything down. We are resilient. Not those Texans!

Can't believe this is all really happening to me. My Chinese horoscope predicted I would set my sights on something this year and make it happen. Well here it is, it's really happening! YAY ME!

The Cats Out!

Here we go.

My first public Lu's Life blog. And the reason for that is, I've let the cat out of the bag at work.
Supervisors, Managers I support and Admin team are all in the loop.

I'm moving to TEXAS!

It was a mix of responses yesterday, mostly in the "I'm happy for you, this is huge!" kind of way.
But of course for selfish reasons people are sad to see me go.

One of my tough cookies almost cried in fact! Hearing things like

"but, you're my shoulder to cry on"
"I've never had an assistant I could trust like I trust you"

makes this a tiny bit sad for me.

BUTTT I have to admit. I'm not really all that sad at all.
It feels good to have this out in the open. Where I can talk freely about plans and things that are happening in my life. Instead of keeping things a big secret.
I had been really causing myself a lot of stress and anxiety this week, resulting in heartburn, headaches and fatigue. So I decided it wasn't worth it, that I would just let everyone know now.
Why wait!?

It souuunds like I'll have many visitors though, which makes me very happy!

And that's that. It's public. It's real. I'm movvvving!

XO

L.

Still in Shock

This weekend I'm in Texas with Bee and our purpose when we booked this trip was to apartment hunt in Austin. We've been booked and anticipating for about two months now, and in the meantime I had been interviewing with the University of Texas and we were able to coordinate a face to face interview while I was here. So we landed on Thursday at 1pm Texas time, which is 2pm at home. And we had been up since 2:30am...needless to say we were both tired and starving to boot. So we got our rental car, found somewhere to have lunch and we also made a quick trip in to shop at Target and decided we really wanted to get to the hotel to check in and relax a little bit. Well relaxing for a little, turned in to relaxing for a long time. We ended up going to bed really early and didn't see a single apartment all day.

I was feeling a bit anxious about it but knew that meant we'd just have to search that much longer on Friday.

Friday morning was my interview. Bee dropped me off at the doors and I was 45 minutes early. Better than being late I'd say! I found where I needed to be, and still had time to calm myself and prepare a little more for my interview. I really couldn't have been more prepared which felt really great. I was called in and off the interview went. On the right note from the start and we whizzed through the questions. A couple of times I got really nervous and felt like I was talking quickly. I just took a deep breath and slowed things down. There were a couple of questions about the program specifically that really stumped me. However, in the grand scheme of things I really felt I nailed it. They were really pleased to meet with me and one of the ladies actually said "Austin will be a better place once you're in it". How sweeeeet. The only concern was my moving date. They had another candidate who could start Monday, and they weren't sure if they could wait for me (until February). My timeline I had given them was early to mid February, with no possibility of being able to move in January. They would have to discuss, and they would get back to me.

I felt good about it either way, I figured if it was meant to be it would be. And I jumped in the rental and Bee and I were off to find our apartments. We made our first stop. After ripping in to the parking lot on two wheels Bee put the car in park and we walked in to be greeted by Jamie. I was in my interview clothes so I asked for the bathroom to change, and when I got back Bee had the situation well under way. We are looking for 2 separate units, within the complex. These are the details...we ended up seeing 3 units.

1. 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom plus a study (which is a small hole in the wall that they have inserted a permanent desk. NO THANK YOU.

2. 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom with lots and lots of closet space, bathtubs in both bathrooms, double sink in the master bath, large bedrooms, and a very modern kitchen. YES PLEASE

3. 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom with a ton of space. It felt as big as the 2bd 2ba without the additional guest space of course. It was fabulous.

We were in love when we walked out. Not only with the units, but with the pricing annndd our leasing agent Jamie. She was lovely.

So we headed off in to the afternoon sun to check out a few more places and nothing compared. We even stopped back at a place we had seen in October and fell in love with back then. In comparison to our new found love the fixtures and features seemed cheap in this place we revisited. And immediately we were able to cut it off our list. We decided after seeing 5 places and chatting over our Noble Pig sandwiches at lunch that we didn't really see a need for any more viewings. We were heart set on the first ones we had seen.

When we got back to the hotel I had a text message from my interviewer saying to call her. I phoned and left a message. I opened my ipad to check my email and they had OFFERED ME THE JOB! I couldn't believe it. I was in such shock! I GOT THE JOB!

So today I sign my acceptance letter. After that we are going to sign our lease. This has been one successful trip, and it's only Saturday morning!

In the last 3 days I have truly experienced some of the kindest people I've ever met in my life. Including an adorable cash clerk at a CVS (drugstore, while buying nail polish). I'll be practicing my y'all and southern drawl, saying 'hook'em horns' and ramping up my country music selection on my ipod. My start date is Feb 10, earlier than I had planned but no big deal. I'll live on the streets of Austin for 5 days until my apartment is ready for me!

#lovinglife #feelinghappy #can'tbelieveit #shocked #lifeisgood #hookemhorns

L.
xx

The things that I will miss

In the last week I have had 2 fun hangs with 2 of my favorite ladies.
Miss Mia Bettio and Mrs Cara McManus.
And these are the things that I will miss.

As exciting as my adventures will be when I make my big move to Texas in just a few short weeks, I will miss my friends so much!

For those of you lucky enough to know these two ladies you can attest to the fact that both of these ladies are beautiful on the inside and out, are as sweet as pie, and have hearts of gold.

I'm so grateful for ALL of my wonderful friends.

 

 

LOVE YOU BOTH

 

xo

 

L.