surprise!

So, J just got offered his dream job as the junior designer here. Okay, his real dream job would be at the Tate Modern or the MOMA, but the SAM is a close third. So, we're moving. To Seattle. In two and a half weeks.

I know, I know, we're crazy!

We are thrilled that J gets this chance to work in the museum industry. Plus, since the museum is in Seattle, J is really excited at the chance to contribute to the community and city that he loves. He's wanted to do museum design for a while, but he got discouraged this summer after applying to several museums and never even getting called for an interview. And then, this job at the SAM just fell into his lap.

When we went up to Seattle this past August, a BYU grad offered to introduce J to the creative director of the SAM. J was excited to have this person as a contact, and went to the meeting with no expectations (J had actually called the SAM a few months prior to see if they were hiring any designers, and at the time they weren't). This director really liked J's work, and basically spent a good hour explaining to J why he should come work for the SAM. J was floored. The director said that he would be in touch with J - and we basically have been waiting, white-knuckled and with bated breath, to hear about this position for the past two months. (This explains all of my ambiguous "status updates" on Facebook about waiting, right?)

So, J was offered the job on Thursday. He starts the beginning of December, so we're going to move up to Seattle before Thanksgiving. Yikes!

The only downside to the job is that it is a major pay cut from what J is making now. So, we're going to be poor. Like, really poor. But hey, I figure that if we're going to be poor, this is the time to do it. J is going to want to try his hand in the museum industry sometime, and it's probably better to be poor with a small baby than to be poor with a kindergartener, right? And who knows? I might like being poor. I've been conjuring up a lot of romantic ideas about poverty: we can wear patched-up clothing and huddle under the blankets together to try and get warm. I even told J that I could get a job as a laundress like Charlie's mother (in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and wash laundry in a large vat of steaming water. We're going to be living in the house that J grew up in, so I've envisioned that I'll put my vat in the living room, next to the grand piano. Yesterday I began to perfect my rendition of "Cheer up, Charlie." It'll be awesome. You'll wish that I did your laundry.

I'm a little nervous about moving across the country, but I'm happy that J's family is there. And one of my best friends from high school lives there too, which makes me reeeeeally happy. And my aunt lives in Portland, which isn't too far away...

Yippee!