Basically, Tim and I left Chicago a little under a week ago. We've kept it under wraps until now (or rather, as much as possible) simply because we didn't have the time to explain it fully. We gave our notice at work, packed up our stuff and high-tailed it to Minneapolis, MN. And we did all of this in a little under 2 weeks. Between the first call (June 9th) and our last day of work (June 20th) we had done nothing but plan, pray and hope to God that it would work out in our favor.
We left Chicago with no jobs, no house and very few possibilities, however we've had people on the ground in the area looking for us and helping us with job leads. This has been helpful. The last week has been an absolute drain on us, and we're still recovering.
As it stands today, Tim and I are renting a room from a friend's parents for short term, meaning about a month or so until we get jobs and enough money for a deposit and such. Tim has a job interview this afternoon, so I hope he gets it. I have a good chance of getting a job at another chain bookstore in the same area. I'm handing in my application today.
The issues we're facing right now are daunting, but we are well equipped to handle them. We've been crashing on the floor of a friend's house for the past few days, and they have been legitimately surprised by our drive to Get Things Rolling and to move on and up. I don't think a lot of people really understood our decision to move here. I'll try to explain.
Graduating college in 2008 was going to be a struggle. The economy, while still not at choking point, was starting to tank pretty bad. Graduating college in Michigan in 2008, with the expectation of getting a job was impossible. I can count on one hand the number of people who had jobs starting after graduation. None of them were instate. This was one reason why we moved to Chicago. We had hoped that the Michigan Unemployment/Job Bubble stopped just short of Chicago, and that we'd get jobs. As you know, this was not the case.
So after a year of working part-time minimum wage, we had a choice, thrust upon us by the rental company. Sign a new year long lease, or get out. Since our jobs were ending in December anyway, we got out. Minnesota's unemployment rate, while still high, is actually under the national average, and there *are* help wanted signs in the windows of stores and places where people work. Now, they're not great jobs, but they're jobs.
So we're in Eden Prairie. Jobs, while not overly plentiful, offer us some more stability than what we have had in Chicago. Once we figure things out a bit more, we'll update again.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Millennium/Grant Park day
Today the weather was (mostly) cooperative, and so Tim and I headed to Millennium and Grant Parks, to just walk around and enjoy both the weather and the pretty gardens. As usual, the trains were packed and people were annoying, but we made it in good time to the Bean. We didn't get too close because there were a ton of people around it. So we just kept walking through the park, enjoying the flowers and everything else that was there.
A small exhibit called "Sculpture from China" was in between the rows of trees, which was both interesting and a bit weird (My favorite was the giant red T-Rex, the weird one being a gold pig, eating a man, and another man's head being in the first man's body, trying to save him from being eaten by the pig). After we walked around the touristy part of Millennium Park, we crossed the street into Grant Park and walked through the gardens, stopping to look at a Monarch butterfly and a Red-winged blackbird who was squawking at us. It was pretty cool.
Then we crossed another street into the Green, where Barack Obama accepted the election win. Let me tell ya, that was a tiny, tiny little area. How they fit that many people into the place, is beyond me. It was kinda cool to be there though, because there weren't many tourists walking around and being kinda annoying, though we did see one or two Segway tours go through, which prompted us to sing this song.
Then we walked a bit further and saw a huge fountain, made famous in this TV Opener, and thought it was interesting and sort of funny. Once again we started singing that theme song and had quite a bit of fun. We wanted to buy ice cream but it was over $3, so we didn't. After that we decided to head home because it was getting rainy.
It was actually really good for us to spend that time together, especially because we haven't really seen each other much in the last few weeks due to very conflicting work schedules. It was very peaceful. Maybe we'll go somewhere else next week.
A small exhibit called "Sculpture from China" was in between the rows of trees, which was both interesting and a bit weird (My favorite was the giant red T-Rex, the weird one being a gold pig, eating a man, and another man's head being in the first man's body, trying to save him from being eaten by the pig). After we walked around the touristy part of Millennium Park, we crossed the street into Grant Park and walked through the gardens, stopping to look at a Monarch butterfly and a Red-winged blackbird who was squawking at us. It was pretty cool.
Then we crossed another street into the Green, where Barack Obama accepted the election win. Let me tell ya, that was a tiny, tiny little area. How they fit that many people into the place, is beyond me. It was kinda cool to be there though, because there weren't many tourists walking around and being kinda annoying, though we did see one or two Segway tours go through, which prompted us to sing this song.
Then we walked a bit further and saw a huge fountain, made famous in this TV Opener, and thought it was interesting and sort of funny. Once again we started singing that theme song and had quite a bit of fun. We wanted to buy ice cream but it was over $3, so we didn't. After that we decided to head home because it was getting rainy.
It was actually really good for us to spend that time together, especially because we haven't really seen each other much in the last few weeks due to very conflicting work schedules. It was very peaceful. Maybe we'll go somewhere else next week.
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