An explanation of yesterday's post

Sorry for the cryptic first post (re: moving west again) yesterday. I heard from a colleague at work that my company wants to keep us from moving to another company so badly that even if they do not have an open position, but have work for us to do, we can ask to transfer to another region. I immediately told CP about the opportunity. At first he was kind of annoyed at even the suggestion of me transferring to the Boston office because we had made up our minds that I would stay at my current office for a few years after my fellowship ends. However, a day later, his tune totally changed.

The new plan is to move back out west. While it would be SUCH A PAIN TO MOVE ACROSS THE COUNTRY YET AGAIN I immediately got excited about the idea. We moved out to the east coast for CP’s job. They wanted him to move out to MA for the past two years….he stayed out west waiting for me to graduate (and almost got fired in the process) and we worked through CP having to travel every week for work. Along with the move to MA came a pay raise and a promotion. The pay raise came….the promotion and the new job duties? Didn’t. So CP’s company is paying him MORE for the same job he was doing before he moved out to MA. Not only did the boss that CP like go into semi-retirement (leaving the son that tried to FIRE CP in charge), but the company seems to be moving in a different direction….away from what CP does. In a nutshell, this doesn’t make CP happy.

So….CP’s argument is that if the reason that we moved out to the east coast is not working out, then why are we staying? We both agreed when we moved out to MA that we would eventually like to move back to the west coast city where we met. We both loved it out there and CP’s sister would only live an hour and a half away, thus allowing CP to be closer to his niece and nephew. Then when we start having kids CP’s mom and dad could fly out and see all of the grandchildren at the same time. My parents are still stuck in Chicago, but whether we lived in MA or lived on the west coast, they would still have to fly to see us. We still have a lot of friends there. We love the weather. We love the outdoors. It is less expensive to live there. Why not move now since we know that is where we are happy as opposed to 20 years down the road?

If we were able to pull my transfer off, I would be bringing home the bacon while CP went to school. He is going to start studying for the GMATs, with hopes of getting his MBA.* Unfortunately, getting into an MBA program is ridonkulously hard right now what with the recession (when the economy slumps, people head back to school). CP is a very smart guy, but his engineering grades from college are not the best so he will have some stiff competition. His work experience should help. We figure that he should get school out of the way before we start to have kids so that we can both be bringing home the bacon once again in order to be more financially stable.

My plan is to call tomorrow to find out the scoop on transferring to another office. It wouldn’t be for at least a year, but I want to make sure that it is an option. I am already getting nervous thinking about it. I mean, I technically have the power in this relationship because they want to keep us with the company…but still. There are so many variables and I don’t want to get my hopes up too much…..


*I keep joking that he thinks he needs to get an advanced degree because I have one and he doesn’t.