The deer are playing and stomping for a bite to eat on the fairway some ten feet away from where I am sitting, taking all of it in. Small beads of sweat start rolling down the side of a once frosted glass that contains the light brown goodness of an iced latte. In my lap is a small white dog who's watching the deer with interest, her muscles tighten as she gets ready to launch an attack but she settles down when I scratch the back of her neck. This afternoon we're going to journey into Austin to check out some of the real estate while we talk to the in-laws about opportunity in the land of plenty. And then in the evening we'll all gather around some dead-cow and make loose plans for tomorrow.
At least that's how it was supposed to be.
Instead I'm still here in Glendale, in a recently remodeled but quickly falling apart flat next to a kabob stand that everyone suspects is really a front for 'extra-curricular' activities that law enforcement would not be happy with. There is also a large, beautiful Armenian church where weddings occur often — apparently it's mandatory to have a wedding there with a Limofied Hummer in waiting, a videographer using equipment dating back to the late 80's, and a small village of people in attendance. Downtown Los Angeles sits directly to the south. It's small enough I can crush it between my index finger and thumb. I do this often but nothing happens to LA, it's still there.
Next to me is the Rocket Scientist who has been on a mad search for a bona-fide chemical engineering job since last June. Apparently even in this fast paced information age it's still possible for large companies to make decisions like it's 1899. Many, many jobs were applied for but as more and more time passed without a single interview we decided that maybe it was time to take a hint and get the hell out of here. After-all, there is more to the life than living in Southern California, although not many people here know that, I think it's because sun has fried their brains.
I can't tell you how many, many great things I have heard about Austin. Both from persons whose opinions I respect and complete strangers who could not help but to interrupt and provide their own happy memories about the town.
In the book Life 2.0 : How People Across America Are Transforming Their Lives by Finding the Where of Their Happiness, author Rich Karlgaard (Editor of Forbes Magazine) discusses how people are moving inland and finding the middle America iceberg lettuce scene to be more of a myth than redneck reality.
The book profiles nearly 300 American cities of differing scale as alternatives to more expensive cities on the coasts. Only one city is described as such:
That and a bag of chips. After several hours of research it would appear that Austin may very well be the best kept secret in America. And I was ready to embrace it with golf clubs in one hand and a good faith deposit check in the other. Hell, I even scanned Ebay for a set of steer horns to mount to the Passat.
Yet before a boarding slip could be printed, the day before all of this was to take place, a telephone rang with a request to interview with a global engineering firm. The next day two more companies called to schedule interviews, that's three in less than twenty-four hours. Before the day was over an engineering job, a real one not temporary position mind you, was offered and accepted — plans for moving back to Orange County are well underway.
Crazy. Simply crazy.
While this is all very happy and welcome news I have to be honest with you, I'm a little sad right now. I was looking forward to living in the hills, but it's not like I have to return to Alaska anytime soon so that's good news.
I know this is a long entry, go get something to drink and come back, there is more to tell.
Two weeks ago I finished a large and lengthy project where the course of work changed three times and was on the scale of diverting the Mississippi River through Colorado, at least that's how it felt. After presenting the deliverables to the client everyone in the room was happy with the results in a way that could have ended a John Hughes film. My counter-part on this project asked if it felt like we had just graduated — It did — and when it hit me that we would likely not see each other in the near future I wondered if maybe we should have had yearbooks to sign:
Perhaps it felt more like an ending for me because unbeknownst to everyone working for the client, it was also my last full day working for Polychrome — graduation indeed. In preparation for taking flight from, as Narayan puts it, North America's largest future coral reef, I had given notice at the studio about a month ago. Although my time there was shorter than previously planned I gained a huge amount of experience that I could not have received anywhere else. Now that I've had a little time to reflect on the last month, I know it was the right job at exactly the right time and I'd like to thank Tom Dolan for my time there.
Today hundreds of people around the world rebooted their website. In the midst of all the craziness, today I'm going to reboot my career.
Stay tuned.
Join the fray by reading through and commenting at the end.
Whatever your next step may be, Greg, you'll knock 'em dead. And no, I don't mean that you'll go postal. Much. :P
Oh boy! I've got an idea! I think I'll take a fifteen minute drive up to Austin and enjoy its world class music scene for you! I'll send you a picture of an authentic homeless person! I bet I can even dig up the local (formerly) homeless transexual that got like 30% of the vote in the last mayoral election.
On another, vaguely relevant note, and considering the nature of this website, our little town of San Marcos is home to Texas State University, which has one of the most highly lauded communication design programs in the nation.
Yes! I totally plugged my school. Eat it, UT!
Yeah, I don't really have anything else to say. Sorry about that. Grats on the career!
Many congrats man, when I was down in Austin for South By, I thought it was a fantastic place. Now we can all crash at your new house next year :)
Mike, you can come crash but I'll be living three states away. That part I wrote about being sad...I wrote that because I'm not moving to Austin afterall. *sniff*
Good luck with everything Greg! You've got a ton of talent, so I'm sure the perfect gig will appear soon!
Greg, congrats and best of luck to you and the missus! Austin is kinda magical, but it's not going anywhere, and I think you're still young enough to be called a whippersnapper (though not by me), so there will be time to make it yours.
Sometimes it's the move that is what's important...the specfiric place, less so.
Don't you hate it when you finally make up your mind to do something radically different because the current plan isn't working, then a day later the current plan is everything you (thought you) wanted and more?
Similiar thing happened to me earlier this year.
The middle cities are becoming popular? Maybe I'll hedge my bets and stay in Indianapolis. It may be a veritable black hole of culture and design, but in ten years everyone will move here. Right? (Ok really, everyone will really move to Chicago cause its... better. In all ways.)
Greg I just moved from Austin to Pittsburgh (of all places) to work for MAYA. Austin is a great place to live. The people are great, tons of things to do, and a relaxed lifestyle. I am quite curious to know what you will do there...my apologies if you have blogged about it. Best of luck and do ping me should you want some suggestions related to living in the city. - cheers.
Congrats Greg and best of luck. I myself am in the middle of a carrerr reboot. This week will be my last at e&a from there it off to a big Corporation to help them redesign their site and hopefully get them to adopt web standards.
As for Austin, it wonderful. If I ever decided to leave Seattle I'd definitely end up in Austin. How ccan you not love a place whose moto is "Keep Austin Weird".
This is the best blog post I've read this year.
/Just finished my last university exam. Same thoughts on my mind.
Greg,
Sorry you didn't get the opportunity to live in Austin like you wanted, but good point that you don't have to live in Alaska any time soon.
I myself have been stuck in SoCal for 2 years too long. I'm a bit more to the Northwest, however.
Good luck in the future. just like Darrel said, sometimes the actual place you move to isn't as important as the reason you move there.
Yup, California sucks. Please, don't subject yourself to it any longer. Austin - that's where it's at. Don't mess with Texas Baby! Show your horns!!
By the way, when you do finally leave, once you get there tell everyone where you go how much it sucks here...PLEASE. And as your passing through El Paso, could you shout it out over the border to the south as well, just for good luck? Thanks.
I say that assuming/hoping you won't end up another California resident who talks how great everywhere else is....and yet.....never......leaves.....
LOL, classic
My girlfriend and I are looking at moving (from Sacramento) come Fall. We actually just sat down yesterday with a trucker's atlas in hand and picked cities that seemed interesting.
Last night we narrowed the list down to Austin, Philly, Colorado Springs or somewhere in the Bay Area.
I'm personally hoping for Austin, going to go check it out in July and see what we think.
Nice to hear the encouraging words regarding Austin, seems to be the buzz city lately.
Wow, I loved the begining of this entry. I dont know why. Its just very well written.
Well, there goes my two cents..
I currently live in the midwestiest of the midwest... Kansas City. As I've mentioned before I'm not really all that thrilled about this. I moved here from Indiana and... at the time Kansas City held all the promise in the world for a small-town Hoosier like me. I wasn't really sad to leave Indiana, but I think I probably will be when I live Kansas/Missouri. I met all my friends here (they've since moved on) and I met my fiancee here. We'll be married next month, and we hope that within a year or so we can follow our friends who have evacuated this land of unfortunate bigotry. (And the part of it that isn't doesn't have enough of a voice to make a difference. Or they don't use that voice.)
I think our options are Austin or Portland, Oregon. We have of friends in Portland and I truly love the city. Austin holds a little more mystery for us, and I like just about everything I've heard... and Carolyn would love to be closer to Mexico and in Texas. (I wonder if it's possible for Austin to declare itself officially "not Texas?" We'll see what happens.
Greg: Congratulations on everything.
Hook 'em horns.
Austin, and Texas in general, is really, really hot. No... REALLY hot!
I lived in Dallas for three years, and Austin for one year. Although Austin is a great place, the heat is unbearable. For me at least.
So now I'm in NYC, and the cold temperatures here are killing me. Seattle, I do believe, is my next destination in the pursuit for the ultimate climate. Note that I like misty rains.
Whatever you do, don't move to Austin! It is really, really hot and I think the city is over hyped.
Ok I am lying, by far and away one of the coolest city in the country, but then again I am bias. My parents moved there before it was cool to live there.
Currently I live in the Seattle area and can wait until I retire in 40 years so I can move back to Austin if not sooner!
I miss Chuy’s and the Salt Lick!
Wow, sounds a lot like my story right now. My wife is a ChemE grad as well, but rather than looking for work she applied to PhD programs. We were all prepared and planning to relocate from our lifetime home of Florida to Raleigh, NC when that and other denial letters came in - GaTech and Rice (in Austin...). Fortunately though, a door opened up in South Carolina in March and we haven't looked back. Graduation indeed. Best of luck and I look forward to hearing how it all goes. PS - Just because you're living in "The O.C." doesn't mean you can't mount steer horns on your Passat.
As I started reading your entry, I wondered (perhaps for the millionth time) why it is that we choose to live and work in places that aren't where we really want to be. Why we tolerate traffic, crime and mounting work pressure.
Let me explain. About two years ago, all of the above got to be too much. We (me, wife, son, daughter) lived in Johannesburg. Great city. Busy. An hour from lions the bush and just a few minutes from the traffic and hubbub of a big city.
I'm 54 and run an ad agency. Fortunately, I can do most of my work over the 'net. My kids were busy moving out - daughter our of varsity with a BA (Fine Art) and son going to study computer animation in Cape Town.
Jozi (Johannesburg) is a fantastic place, but it was time to move on.
So, the Cape it is. For the price of a small apartment in most US cities, we have a 4000 sq ft home at the (Atlantic) water's edge and a view as far as Antarctica. I get digital TV and the only hassle I have right now is getting broadband; there are so few people living around here (50 miles from Cape Town) that our telco isn't sure about viability, so I live on ISDN.
What are you guys waiting for? If you think you've seen all the extraordinary places on the planet, try this - digital images on request!
Of course, this IS Africa and somethings don't go as you'd expect, but the upside is extraordinary. C'mon and get a look see.
Wow, this is a great topic.
My wife and I have lived in San Francisco for years now, but are looking to move out of state. As much as we love the Bay Area (and we loooove it), the high prices are just getting annoying, and we've now got a one-year-old to think about.
The cities we're currently looking at are: Austin, Portland, Colorado Springs, Charlottesville (VA) and Charleston (South Carolina).
Anyone have any thoughts on any of these? Are looking for a smaller-town feel, though with a great community, arts, etc. We also, of course, love the outdoors.
I figure that with a DSL line and Amazon, I can stay connected to the rest of the world just fine...
Anthony Baker,
You sound like me (see my post above)
Great minds...
I could come up with a thousand reasons for you and everyone else to stay the f*(! out of my hometown, because although Austin is cool and rad and fabulous, it also is very much not so in other ways. However, all of those reasons would really just be me coming up with reasons when I really want people to stay away because they are driving up my rent costs. The influx of people to Austin over the past 10 years has come with a terrible increase in rent which may seem cheap to people elsewhere but is exorbitant to Austin natives. It used to be cheap. It used to really be weird without having to try. It used to have a great music scene instead of a corporate juggernaut of a music festival (South by SO WHAT!) It used to be sleepy. It used to be a lot of stuff and now it is just too freaking desireable for its own good. So I say stay away.
Anthony, I did a fair amount of research into this and I can't recommend Austin enough. Depsite a few months of heat (and it's not that bad, I mean I come from Alaska and it wasn't that bad) it has everything you can think of.
So happy to hear you’ve got a new little puppy. Although Austin’s a great place, we’re happy to have you back.
And congratulations to Cecily!
You can run but not hide-Greg. Pearl, Miss Linna and I miss you in HSB, but Orange county hear we come! Can I wait until the moving is done? I have a new electical tester,- no not your screwdriver! See you before my birthday-- This is a Test!! Great Blog-- to the WORKERS!
Now Stu why would you bother bringing a tool all the way from Texas when I have perfectly good electricity gauge in my toolbox? Lately I've been thinking that with my Craftsmen Handheld Volt Meter I'm going to hit the local school safety circuit where I can teach: Electricity vs. Children: You Will Loose, Everytime.
You're welcome anytime and your expertise is needed, the Honey Do list has already been started and the cost of moving to Texas is to be diverted to something the wife is calling the Sheet Rock Fund for Areas That Have Not Received Proper Attention.
This is the most optimistic post I've read on this site. Must be the influence of a regime change in your life. Yay!
You are certainly right about Austin - it rocks. Please don't tell too many people, as the roads are getting crowded here.
Bon voyage, mon ami (a little French lingo there for ya).
Come back to the Cathedral.
Let's just be friends.
Nice story man! Very optimistic! And as everywhen very interesting to read you. Good luck!
Good lord, this will teach me to keep the newsreader closed for 2+ weeks.
Greg, a few thousand congratulations on the new phase. Your freelance-fu will, of course, be rockin' like Dokken, but still--good luck nonetheless.
Right, I need sleep.