Enough about me... let's talk more about me


5.10.2004 The Plan has been put into action

The metamorphosis has begun.

We shipped Elizabeth's car off to Houston. We were going to fill it with our essentials and drive it down ourselves, but due to grateful busy schedules, shipping the car was the more cost efficient option. We dismantled Megan's crib, placed it in the back of her car, and sent it on it's two week adventure down south. Yee haw!

Also, last Friday, Elizabeth, Megan and I flew down to Houston ourselves. We filled two humongo suitcases full of stuff, placed Megan in the baby carrier, and we loaded onto a plane. Then Sunday, I flew back to New York and started my work week - leaving them there sacking out at Elizabeth's mom's place. This is basically going to be the routine for the next couple of months.

Things went seamlessly well initially, as expected. I guess this is how it is when traveling to a place that's less densely populated. There were no strangers at the airport yelling f*ck-you-a-hole, or the other things we were so accustomed to. I consciously knew that I was going to see Houston through different eyes this time. Not like I've never been here before, but when it's not really a vacation anymore, things tend to be different. I tried my best to prepare, and part of me knew that what I was about to perceive was still unexpected. As we drove away from the airport, the first thing I realized was that it seemed really immaculately neat and clean compared to what we were used to. There was this lit up sculpture by the airport exit and all the bulbs were even in it. I subconsciously let out a sigh of relief and smiled warmly inside.

This was the initial feel-good-feeling, and it was very important, for the next thing I saw really frightened me. I looked around my surroundings and acknowledged that the environment was very different - I had known this before, but now, it was really starting to sink in. The economic situation in Houston is a little barren - not totally dead, but more so on the repressed side at the moment. But as previously stated, we had a plan - a very directed and well thought out plan. And I also knew that all I had to fear was fear itself, and once again, I had the same concerns as when we moved from Rochester to New York. So, over the course of the weekend, I reassured myself that things were going to work out well. Just stick to the plan, I would say. Break things down into small digestible chunks and take one step at a time. Stick to the plan.

And part of that masterful plan was that for this weekend, I was to start researching office space. And we did. I pulled out my nifty spreadsheet printout of the vacant office spaces I had found, and also street maps, and started charting our drive-bys. Elizabeth and I took notes of what the office situations were like from their exterior - the location of the offices, the condition of the buildings, the parking situations - so on and so forth. Later that evening, I reorganized the spreadsheet according to our notes and rankings, and I was to start calling the brokers come Monday.

The next thing I needed to do this weekend was to go and get a Houston telephone number to start calling these realtor brokers and other business essentials from. It's always best to conduct business from within a "suggested" locale - when in Rome, do like the Romans do, they say. My telephone requirements were that it had to be a Houston number and it had to be portable - I will have to use this number from New York, or anywhere else I may be at the time. Elizabeth's brothers brought me to the mall, and I picked up this new cool nifty cellular phone that I've been doing a bit of research on (I'm a gadget freak). I forked over a little bag of money and the phone and new Houston phone number was now mine.

Ah, the plan has been put into action.

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...One thing is that no matter how old I am, I probably will not like being called sir or mister, for they have always seemed too far out of reach...

  

 
 

 
 

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