I officially got the job in California! I will be doing quality for a large bottled water company and will have a good starting wage, benefits right away, 401k, and all that fun stuff. I will be starting in about 5 weeks so things are going to be going pretty fast. Here is my tentative schedule:

Load stuff up to ship April 20-23

Fly to Portland April 25

Visit family and friends April 26-April 30

Drive down to California May 1

Move into the apartment May 2-4

Pick up Leah at airport May 4 or 5

Start work May 9

Since I will be in Portland for about a week, I want to see as many people as I can since it has been a long time!

So I ended up not getting the Charleston job (sad) but I am in the running for another job that would take me back to the West Coast. I have interviewed with HR and the plant manager and they both like me. The last hurdle is meeting with one of the corporate directors while he is in St. Louis. If he likes me, the HR guy said it would be pretty quick before a formal offer is made (just have to do a background check and drug test, neither of which really take too long). If I get the job, I will be moving out to California. The job pays well, has health insurance, and a 401k. It also happens to be in the same city as a couple of my college friends and that a few more college friends will be moving to in July. I am trying not to get too excited about it, but the prospect is pretty exciting. It would be nice to be back on the West Coast and with friends.

In other news, Leah is now working at Whole Foods. She is working for a new store that is opening in a few days, so her schedule will be getting crazy pretty soon. She likes working there so far and the benefit of working there is that they have stores everywhere and transferring is fairly easy.

That is all for now. I am going to St. Louis on the 22nd, so I should know more after that.

Charleston

We went to Charleston on Monday and got back yesterday. It was wonderful! We both loved Charleston and didn't want to leave. It has very old architecture and a laid-back feel. It has a lot of palm and magnolia trees and (apparently) a lot of really good food. It was a comfortable city and I am sad we couldn't see more of it. The first day it was raining the whole day and the second day we had to take off so we could get back at a reasonable time. The interview went really well and I should find out tomorrow if I have a second interview. It seems likely that I will get a second interview and I can't imagine them calling me all the way back down there (4 and a half hour drive!) for another interview unless they were seriously considering me for the job. Anyway, Charleston is right on the coast and felt like home the moment we got into the city. Here are some pictures of our trip. Most of from the car as we drove around and there aren't too many because, as I mentioned before, it was raining the whole first day we were there so we took all the pictures in the couple hours before we left yesterday.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2343295&id=19703332&l=a601f56c8b

I got a call last week about interviewing for a chemistry job down in Charleston, SC! So Monday we are heading down to Charleston to stay the night and the interview is on Tuesday. I will try to take a lot of pictures and update about how it was. The city seems pretty neat, but we will find out as much as we can in the two days we are there. This is a short update so here are a couple pictures. One is of the snow storm we had over Christmas weekend and another is a recent one of the cats.

Resolution

So I/we are making a resolution to update this more. This is the first update of the new year and I am going to try to update once every week or two. Anyway, Christmas was good although low-key. We talked with all the family and on Christmas day we had brunch at a friend's house. The kitties got some presents as well and they loved them all (we could tell by the growling at each other when one had the toy).

Other than that, Leah is going to Portland soon and I am taking the first actuary exam on the 20th. After that I will start applying for jobs and take the second exam on the 15th of Feb. I have been looking to see what entry-level jobs are available and it seems like my best bet is one in Connecticut right outside of NYC. There is another in Wisconsin that I will apply for too, but I don't really want to end up in Wisconsin, haha.

We have a bunch of pictures saved up so maybe the next post will be of all the pictures we took of the snow and all that. Happy 2011 all!