Shuffle Off FROM Buffalo?!?!

As I mentioned in my last post, aside from a new baby, there is also another life changing event on the horizon.  Things have been quite hectic here.  In the course of just *one week*, David accepted a job offer in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area, he gave notice at his job here in Buffalo, we put our house up for sale *and* we had a baby.  Talk about multi-tasking!

So how did this all come about?  Although David loved his most recent job, we knew that in order to take that next step in his career he'd have to move on.  Unfortunately, since David is in a very specialized field, there aren't many of his kind of job in any given city.  We hung tough though, I guess because we both love Buffalo and we hoped that some type of opportunity would magically appear in the region, overnight.

How did we end up in Minneapolis?  That all started in about February.  David was in a conference in San Diego.  On one of his breaks, he was able to take a walk and enjoy the beautiful weather.  Meanwhile, I was back in Buffalo freezing my butt off.  David texted me, "Remind me again, why do we live in Buffalo"?  In the course of that text "conversation" we  decided that if he were to look for another job, we (because we have no immediate family in Buffalo) could move anywhere we wanted.  We could choose a city with a warmer climate, where winters are shorter.  Ummmm.....somewhere we failed in the execution of *that* part of the plan! But after opening our minds to the thought of a relocation, we began keeping our eyes opened to job postings in David's field. When an interesting posting came up, David would ask me, "What about (fill in blank with city name)"?? My response was always, "There is no harm in sending a resume".  In May. when Minnesota wanted to meet David for coffee, while both parties were at a conference in Indianapolis, my response was, "There is no harm in coffee".  I didn't start getting nervous until July when they wanted to have David fly to Minneapolis for more interviews, not to mention the fact that I was 9 months pregnant and couldn't travel to Minneapolis to scope out the city. If they offered David the job, and it was a good enough offer, that would mean I was relocating away from my home town to a city, sight-unseen.

Soooooo.........NOW we know what is the "harm" in *just* a resume or *just* a cup of coffee. The offer presented to David was too good to pass up. Talk about mixed emotions!!! On one hand, I was happy for and proud of David's success.  On the other hand, I was so sad - almost felt as though I was in mourning, at the idea of moving away from my hometown and all my friends.  Without a doubt, preparing to move has been much more than just having our house packed up.  Preparing to move has also meant preparing myself emotionally for this transition.  Although I am excited about many aspects of our new adventure, I am very sad to leave my friends.  Many tears have been shed and now, I take a deep breathe and forge ahead.

What is in Minneapolis?? God only knows.... Many people, when finding out about our move, have made reference to Mary Tyler Moore and the "hat throwing" scene in the opening of the Mary Tyler Moore show.  I remember this scene well as when I was a kid, it was my bed time when Mary threw her hat in the air.  Come to find out, that scene was filmed in Minneapolis.  Furthermore, the scene is further honored with a bronze statue of Moore's iconic hat toss erected near the Minneapolis intersection where the scene was filmed. I'm sure I will eventually make my way to the statue and have a hokey picture taken of me throwing *my* hat in the air.  But as many of our first days in Minnesota will be spent exploring new sights (especially the Mall of America) I will try to keep the Mary Tyler Moore mentality in the forefront of my mind.  
As the theme song says, 
"Love is all around, no need to waste it.
You can have a town, why don't you take it
You're gonna make it after all."