The Deadline

So now, we are packing the house. We have to leave Aug. 18. Our convoy has grown to include Jonesy and Sonic, who have agreed to help us out: Jonesy will drive the Badger's car, and Sonic will ride with the Badger in the U-Haul to make sure he stays awake.

I will be off next week, while the Badger heads out of town for work. (He didn't have to go through the whole job hunt. He gets to keep his job and work remotely. #NOPANTS)

We have rented a house in Las Vegas, so we won't have to live in the tunnels. That will be nice.

It's so weird to be leaving our Missouri house, though. It's the place where both the Badger and I have lived the longest, so letting it go is bittersweet. We are both ready, though. It's scary and amazing. And though I'm slowly losing my sanity, because a cross-country move ain't easy, I believe this move may be the best thing we've ever set out to do.

The Offer

While all of this was going on, my paranoia about being able to find a job was growing.

I had told my supervisor upon my return from Vegas that we were going to be relocating, likely sometime during Q3. He was very supportive, for which I am grateful.

The idea was that we would move whenever the house sold. We weren't in a HUGE rush, but definitely did not want to spend another winter in Missouri.

So I was applying for jobs. And jobs. And jobs. All told, I submitted about 40 applications and resumes. While I did receive a couple of calls, there was nothing great.

Then I saw that the city's biggest newspaper was hiring. I got as far as a phone interview, but didn't hear back right away. That was fine — things take time. I eventually emailed and found out the position I had interviewed for had been filled, but that they were still looking to fill a different position I would be a candidate for. So I waited some more.

During my wait, a former colleague of mine sent me a link from JournalismJobs.com.

"Go get this Las Vegas social media job," her message said.

It was exactly what I was looking for. And it was posted by the same person I had already interviewed with.

So I emailed him one more time, telling him we hadn't spent a lot of time talking about my social media experience, but here's why I was a good fit.

His response: Was I going to be in town this summer so we could do an in-person interview?

WHAAAA? YEAH! I CAN BE!

Of course, I didn't have another trip planned. But it just so happened that I was on vacation the next week. I told him I had to be in California on Wednesday, but could probably do a quick turn-around trip on Monday. Which I did.

I met with 7 people in about 6 hours. I took 5 tests. I caught the red-eye home.

I was spent.

But, as it turned out, it was worth it. During our vacation in California, I took the call and accepted an offer for a web producer position, and I really couldn't be happier. A weight was lifted knowing I won't be unemployed for an undetermined amount of time. 

Here's the thing, though: They wanted me to start in mid-August. Our timetable had moved up. 

The Listing

When we got back to Missouri, it was time to list our house.

We hired a cleaner to come in every two weeks to do the more thorough cleaning you just don't have time to do on a daily basis. Money well spent, in my opinion.

We were referred to a real-estate agent through USAA. She came to the house, did a walk through, and made recommendations on how to spruce the place up. I spent that weekend painting. The house is in good shape, but after 13 years needed a few touch-ups.

We listed the house the next week. It is still for sale. If you know anyone who needs a 3-bedroom house in southern Missouri, hit me up!

Listing Day was exciting because it was just another step that made the journey seem more real to us. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel was just a pinpoint, but it was there.

The Mission

In late May, we embarked on a fact-finding mission to Las Vegas.

We made an appointment with a Realtor, I made plans for a job interview and a couple of job fairs, and the Badger and I planned to show Sugar Bear the city.

Well... the interview was a dead end. I got a call back but decided it was not a company I wanted to work for. The first job fair failed to provide any leads, and I decided to skip the second because I found out it was industry-specific.

The meeting with the Realtor went a little better. We explored neighborhoods, and she showed us a few condos. The purpose was not to make a purchase at this time, but rather to see what areas we might like to live in. Ultimately, we chose not to buy just yet. We decided we wanted to spend some time in the city on our own before choosing a more permanent neighborhood.

Overall, it was a quick and fairly stressful trip. But it was necessary.

We did show Sugar Bear how Las Vegas rolls. He seemed to enjoy it.

The Sale

We purchased two parking spaces' worth of space at a community yard sale set for May 1 to try to unload our crap on the unsuspecting Southeast Missouri populace.

We loaded up Sugar Bear's truck — twice — and hauled our boxes downtown.

The Badger had had the idea of a mystery box sale, in which we leave all the boxes sealed and sell them at amazing rock-bottom prices. As it turned out, people didn't want to do that. So we compromised. We opened all the boxes and let them see what was inside, but if they wanted any one item in a box, they had to buy the whole box.

Between our low, low prices and The Badger's wheeling and dealing, we left that sale with only a CRT TV and a pair of crutches left unsold. The crutches were donated to Goodwill, which wouldn't take the TV because they said no one would want it. After that small hit to our self-esteem, we unceremoniously dumped it in a Dumpster.



There was NO WAY we were taking anything back into that house.

Items that we didn't want that didn't make it to the sale because they wouldn't fit on the truck were given away or sold via social media.

Another big obstacle was out of the way.

The Clutter

The pace began to pick up after the first of the year. We listed all the things we wanted to do to the house to prepare it to sell. Included on that list were getting rid of the carpet in our living and TV rooms and decreasing our clutter.
We heard about a locally sponsored community yard sale and decided that was our chance to unload all of our unwanted stuff and maybe make a few dollars to help with the move.
So The Great Clean began.
We went through, room by room, and cleaned. And boxed up items. And threw things away. And made donation piles. And laughed. And cried.
And, most importantly: vowed never to accumulate this much junk EVER AGAIN.

The Nicknames

So, I don't remember exactly when we came up with this brilliant idea, but it was sometime after we decided to get two-way radios so the convoy could keep in touch on the road without having to deal with cellphones.
The rule was that it had to be an animal name and you couldn't assign yourself a name.
The Badger became The Badger simply because he had already been referring to himself as such.
The GOAT came about after listening to Five Hundy By Midnight podcast No. 542: Enter the GOAT. There was discussion on this episode of the VIP boxes to be offered at Jewel, each with a different theme. One of these rooms was to be known as the GOAT — or Greatest Of All Time. This moniker was assigned to yours truly by The Badger.
And Sugar Bear? Well, his name comes from the Elton John song "Someone Saved My Life Tonight." I am not really sure at this point why that was chosen, but here we are.
Thanks to The Badger for commemorating our move using his mad cartooning skillz.

The Invitation

One of the things that had always given us pause about moving to Vegas was the simple fact that we didn't know anyone there.
We know one other couple who lives there part time, and we have a longtime friend who lives in L.A. But we'd be leaving behind most of the people we had known and grown up with.
After our fateful September trip, we contemplated asking Sugar Bear if he would come with us. He had been considering other locales, and we thought maybe, just maybe, the transition would be a bit easier if we had another person with us.
So, on our way back from a trip across Missouri in mid-October, we popped the question: "Do you want to come to Vegas?"
Now, while he was on board immediately, Sugar Bear had never even visited the desert, and I insisted we go during the summer so he could really see what he'd be getting into. (More on that trip later.) We slowly started to become adjusted to thinking in terms of "when we move" rather than "if we move."
That New Year's Eve, The Badger, Sugar Bear, and I toasted to #FirstNight, the celebration we have planned for the night our little convoy rolls into Vegas. And I promised myself that would be the last time I'd ring in a new year in Missouri.

The Decision

During our trip to Vegas in September, a few things came into sharp relief.

1. It's just too much. There, I said it. There's too much to do in Vegas. We have many things we love doing so much that we feel like we HAVE to do them every time we're in town. But we also want to try all the new things that invariably spring up in the city. On this trip it was apparent that we'd reached capacity on our average 6-to-8-night stays. 

2. The Badger was tired of vacationing in Vegas, largely for the reasons mentioned above. This sentiment had reared its ugly head on a couple of previous trips, but usually it followed a hangover or bout with dehydration. But this time was ... different. 

We've always ventured past the strip, but this time we found ourselves driving through neighborhoods and developments. One of us (I don't remember who) saw a sign for open model homes and said, half-jokingly, that we should go check it out. When neither of us could come up with a better way to kill time until whatever plans we had later that afternoon, we parked and went in. 

It was super fancy and really beautiful and WAY out of our imaginary price range. We took their floor plans and walked out fantasizing about the cookouts we could have on the patio with the giant outdoor fireplace.

Then we went to another model home. This one was still out of our price range, but it was closer. The joking manner of the afternoon changed.

3. I really... really.... REALLY did not want to come home. I haven't told many people this, but I had a panic attack on our last night. It was my birthday, and we had had a really great day. But the tiniest detail was out of place at dinner, and out of nowhere, the anxiety hit.

We got back to the room and talked some things out. It wasn't a pleasant conversation, overall. But it was one of those that needs to take place. 

It was during that talk, and another the following morning, that the discussion of moving became real.

"Don't mess with me on this one," I told the Badger. "If you don't really mean this, we need to stop this right now."

Decision made.

We weren't going to be in that $500,000, six-bedroom house in Summerlin, but we were going. And it was going to be amazing.

The Intro

Badger and I (The GOAT) have been traveling to Las Vegas since our first anniversary trip in 2004.
"Let's go to Vegas!" we said.
"Just to say we've seen it," we said.
Well.
Twelve years later, here we sit with two Chihuahuas, twelve more Vegas trips under our belt, and a half-emptied house, which is about to go on the market.
This story has a bit of a delayed start - - we didn't want to count our chickens before they hatched - -  but we've privately been documenting all the baby steps up to this point.
So. Let's make some egg salad.