Interview: Done!

We got the interview done!!! This is speeding along nicely, as we only got our ITA to them on the 27th of June. We don't have job offers (obviously since we had to do an interview)

I screwed up one question when i mentioned there might be a few months where i'm wrapping up lose ends with the company I'm with here, the person mentioned that a Skilled Migrant immigration was for people looking for work in NZ. I had to correct myself by saying that I had to wrap up things in Canada before I could transfer to the NZ subsidiary, that seemed to clear it up.

She seemed very pleased that Carly is a certified elementary school teacher now, I get the impression that's starting to be a rather pressing problem.

She told us that it would take approx 1 week from the time she received the final document to make the decision, so hopefully within the next week or two we should hear back the decision!

A side note: if you are born in one country, but now reside in a different country, there's some additional documentation you may need.

I was born in Costa Rica to Canadian parents, who moved around a lot, so they want a Statutory Declaration (affidavit) that I did not have Costa Rican citizenship and don't have a criminal record there (the though of a 1 year old having a criminal record makes me giggle)

I'm About Ready to Scream.

Ok, it was bound to happen, this is going to be a whiny post.

The waiting is getting oppressive. In fact, it's starting to affect my daily life. We got confirmation of our application being in the right queue on the 27th of June but we got not further feed back from there.

It starts simply enough, when you start to realize that there are significant deadlines that are coming up, whether or not you have your Visa, that you can't get around. We need to move all our stuff to Kingston the second week of August. We need to be out of the house by August 28th. Those aren't negotiable.

Then there's all the stuff that depends on the "acceptance" date. Like buying the tickets, finding homes for the cats, getting rid of the car, figuring out what to do about my job, arranging the movers, getting our finances sorted... the list goes on and on. And none of it can be done without knowing the state of the Visa.

And then of course, doubt starts to creep in. There's a few technicalities in our application that may or may not be an issue, but when you start obsessing over them, the become HUGE in your mind. you start making backup plans, looking at the money you've saved and wondering how long it would last if you completely homeless and jobless in a new country.

Your mood goes down hill, you start to lose sleep. Nothing seems to be going anywhere with the direction of life, so nothing seems to matter. Tempers flair.

... It's only been 21 days. The website says this can take up to 4 months, though we were told via email that it's more likely to be 4-6 weeks. Either way, we just hit the 3 week mark and i'm going nuts.

Good thing Carly's a patient soul.

A Great Post On Being a Nomad

It's funny how sometimes people have the same thoughts and ideas at the same time. Nothing has been more cathartic for me then figuring out what stays, what goes and what I can totally live without. Every time i look at the costs of moving, I distill my life a little more, decide what my true interests / passions are and what is a random fad.

I just started reading Big Contrarian, and it's quite well written.

From Big Contrarian:

It gets easier.

During our move to New York, I remember watching my girl getting lost in memories. She’d been living in the same place for five years. Every nook of her basement apartment in Chicago hid an artifact and every artifact begged for reflection. As I ran up and down her stairs, assembling, organizing and taping, I would catch her in these moments where it was clear that the next phase of her life was starting, and that the old one was slipping away. She was a mix of nervousness, anticipation and regret. I was an impatient machine: barking commands and commanding she move on to the next corner.

I’ve never lived any where longer than two years. I have no excuse. I wasn’t an army brat; My family wasn’t in a relocation program or hiding from the mafia. We just moved. And when we stopped, I started.

I’ve moved four times in as many years. DC, Chicago, New York, San Francisco. I’m heading back to Chicago in a few weeks¹, and I can already feel the city tugging me at. The to-do list getting organized in my head.

Movers need to be arranged. Boxes packed. Goodbye parties avoided and contacts kept at a distance. Better to disappear slowly. Grand exits are only appropriate if you’re never coming back.

Every item in my apartment has already been assigned a value and weight. Many won’t make the next leg. There are books I’ve only read once; Utensils that haven’t aged well. There are clothes I’d rather forgot I ever owned and gadgets made obsolete. Anything I keep is one more box to unpack when I arrive, and I’m often in a hurry to get settled.

I won’t get lost in memories when I pack. I’m the same impatient machine privately as I am publicly. Done correctly, I can pack my entire life in one evening. Two if there’s something good on TV.

I won’t miss this apartment, or this city. I’m taking everything with me that they gave me. Knowledge, memories, friends: they travel with you, bouncing around in your brain available whenever you’d like. San Francisco isn’t going anywhere.

Across the country, there’s some empty space just waiting for me to shuffle into. To fill with junk, cigarette smoke, programming books and loud music.

It’ll be different than this one, but it will be the same.

And two years from now, who knows where I’ll be. But I’ll be in a space filled with my shit, some of which I have now, some of which I’ve yet to acquire. I’ll be with her, and I’ll be OK.

Life could certainly be worse than that.

Heart Wrenching

It's with incredible sadness that I put up the first of what will likely be several notices trying to find a new adoptive home for my cat, Mitou. I've quite literally been losing sleep over finding her a good home. Casey I'm not too worried about. She's still a young cat and is very affectionate.

Mitou in her older age has decided to live a more sedentary life. She's a very calm and laid back cat, . She's 14 now but in very good health. I'm trying all of my social networks first then I'll reach out to coworkers. Family likely won't work as they all have animals / prior commitments. I'd hoped I could find a solution that would allow me to get her back if we came back, but realistically that's really not fair to whomever will adopt her, so that's out of my mind now.

It's cliché I know, but you don't realize how important some relationships are until you're about to lose them. I feel worse about leaving my cat then leaving my country...