Friday, May 18, 2007

Finally some positive news...

....but not what everyone's expecting.

I got a new job here in Halifax! :)

I figured it was time for me to suck it up and get over my stupid mindset that taking a job in Halifax means resigning myself to living here long-term again...and that I was essentially saying that I didn't think Art could get a job. (I told you it was a stupid mindset, didn't I?) So earlier this week I applied at Tommy Hilfiger. They're opening their first store in Nova Scotia at the new Dartmouth Crossing (sound familiar? It seems I open new and exciting firsts for Nova Scotia lately..haha!)

Anyway, went for an interview on Thursday and I got offered a full-time position on the spot! :) Wheeeee! I'm now full-time employed by a designer! :P I work in a designer store! Waaaaahooooo!

Sadly, still no news on Art's job front. It's kinda depressing that he hasn't been able to find anything yet, given his amazing skills and experience, but I have to hold out hope that he WILL find something someday soon. I know my honey would be an asset to any company he works for, they just have to realize that! ;)

So for now, I'm the sole breadwinner in our family (for the first time ever...haha!). I'll keep holding out hope that Art finds something soon. Then comes the discussion on what we should do...because logic says I should stay here and work for a bit (to save up some of the savings we had to spend in the last 4 months) but emotion says book the next ticket to move back with my honey. Who knows what we'll do...that's a conversation for the near future, I think.

For now, I'm an official Tommy Girl! The store opens June 5th, but I'll start work there May 30th (training and stocking the store for the first time...again, something I'm familiar with, having done the initial stocking of Old Navy!) I've always thought that karma would tell me that once I got a job, Art would get a job...then we'd have to make another decision....so, I guess stay tuned!

I hope my next update will be that Art found a job too!

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Almost a month later...

....and I'm still in Halifax!

Yep, it's May and almost 4 months to the day since I left Florida. Still no word from any job prospects for Art. We've talked about it and he applied for a few jobs abroad this past weekend. Just in London and Dublin for now, so we'll see what comes out of that. If he does get them, this will mean a huge move for us over "the pond". The bonus to moving to Europe is that Art can work visa-free in EU countries (as a citizen of Poland) and I can apply to work there visa-free too (as a spouse of a EU citizen). Both of us would finally be working in the same country again!! So, I've been spending my free time (aka all day long) looking for flats in London and making a list of stuff we'd take/leave if we did make the move.

I never realized how hard it would be to decide what we'd take. And it appears my husband was right when we first discussed moving to Europe. He asked if this was a short term or a long term thing and I said "who knows, why would we have to decide now?" I realize after making lists that we would kind of have to decide if we were going long or short term....and what to do with our stuff.

If it was a short term move (a year or two) we could take minimal things, get a furnished apartment, and leave most of our big stuff in North America. But where to leave it? Halifax? Florida? Tough choices. And what stuff is "essential"? What would I want to make a London apartment feel like home?

If it's long term, we'd most likely give away/sell most of our stuff that we wouldn't take...and to decide what we should take too. Do we bring our furniture? Probably not our bed, since from what I've read, London apartments are much smaller and our king probably won't fit well). And if we don't bring our furniture, do we sell it or give it away? We wouldn't take much of our electronic stuff (except probably the laptop and the digital camera, but we have a converter so it would work) so our big screen would be gone. :(

So many little things to think about. Like would England have the same stuff kitchen-wise that I'm used to? Would our martini/wine/champagne/shot glasses get broken on a trip across the Atlantic? What would I really miss and what could I live without? Would Art really need all those computer books (we have over three bookcases full of techie books!) in London? I guess the final determining factor on what we'd bring would be determined on any relocation package any future employers would give us! ;)

It would make me sad to get rid of our stuff, as it's all stuff Art and I picked out together since we've been living together. But, then we'd get to go shopping in Europe to get new stuff!

So many things to think about...for now, we wait and see if any of the Europe companies are interested in my uber-smart husband! ;) Stay tuned for future updates....