Transferring. Which, by the way, has only been mentioned as a possibility. But still, I must worry about it. (Except for last night, when my computer crashed and I was worried about that. It’s fixed now, so no more worries on that front.) I’ve researched housing, and it’s more expensive down here (Gainesville is more reasonable than Orlando.) I love the Gainesville office, but I also love the Raleigh office.

Gainesville is a nice town. There is quite a bit to do. However, the Barnes and Noble does not have a café, so there goes one of my favorite activities. Once you get out of Gainesville, there is nothing. There is also no Sephora.

There is in Orlando. Which is a big town with lots to do, and probably fairly easy to entice people to visit. Even my parents go there. Of course, it’s larger, and there are the tourists, but the parks are south of the actual city. I’ve not been to that office, so I can’t say anything about it.

Yesterday morning I was all, “No! Not even considering it!” Yesterday afternoon, I was, “Wait, Gainesville would be nice.” This morning I’m, “Well, maybe Orlando would be OK.”

Remember, none of this has actually been offered.

It’s fun being me.

First, Stewie and I picked nicknames for them. Jack is about 2 years younger than me, a native Vermonter. If he were a dog, he'd be a Jack Russel Terrier. Josiah is in the age group known as "my parents" (his son is Goose's age). He just transferred to Charlote from NoVa, but he is a native of Buffalo and huge Sabres fan.

So, Thursday some of the girls at work invited me to go to a wine bar on Friday. I told Jack that I'd not be doing happy hour with them. He decided he'd come with us (other guys were coming). Josiah came along as well. I had a wonderful time- I have not had much female interaction as of late. The boys looked bored.

They were bored. They didn't like the atmosphere, and Josiah is still complaining that he spent $12 on a glass of wine.

The girls were going to another bar. I gave the guys the keys to my rental car. Found some nice neighborhoods in Gainesville (I've mostly seen the college neighborhoods, which are as you would imagine.) We hung out and they dropped me off at my hotel.

Yesterday we went out to Cedar Key with another co-worker and his mom. We had lunch, walked around for a little bit, and then drove back. I enjoyed the town, but we didn't spend enough time.

After we got back, I took a nap. Then I went and hung out at Borders for a while. (The Barnes & Noble here has no cafe. And no couches. Is stupid.) Came back, read, watched TV, went to bed.

Josiah called me this morning (woke me up) to see if I wanted to go to breakfast. We went to breakfast, where the boys complained about how bored they were. I've not been bored at all. But then again, I've been known to spend entire weekends by myself.

Plus, the book I'm reading? Really good.

I talked to Cdub this morning. She’s been taking the boys while I’m gone. As a return for the favor, the boys are terrorizing her cat. This morning she informed me that she won’t be able to keep taking them because of the toll it’s having on Chazy.

I cannot afford to board them. Not for the periods of time we are talking about. Nor can I afford a pet sitter. It may sound as if I am an irresponsible pet owner, but of course, 5 years ago when I got the boys, I had no idea that I’d end up traveling this much.

I don’t know what to do. I have, as I see it, two options. I can make this an actual TDY assignment and move down here temporarily. Our project assistant is looking into that so that I can present pricing to the PM if need be. The other option is to take them up to Bobby and Stephanie’s for the remainder of the crazy travel. They’ve offered. They have 4 cats and 2 dogs, which is much more than the boys are used to. I won’t get to see them when I come home- they’ll be 4 hours away.

I’m very frustrated right now.

Update: Looks like moving down here won't work out- it's not enough cheaper that I'd be able to get a car, and, well, if I'm down here full time, I'd want a car.

On a road trip with two cats? I called my uncle last night, and they will take the boys. I know that they will be well cared for- Bobby and Stephanie love their animals. They also love my grandfather’s cat and dog, who they took in after he died. The boys will adapt. They can have their own room at first, or forever, whatever suits them.

They will live with 4 other cats and 2 dogs. Orion likes dogs. Jasper, not so much. However, since it’s Jasper’s fault that they can’t stay with Cdub, it’s hard to have sympathy.

He will not run the house there. Princess will not stand for it. In fact, I may give her a list of things to correct.

Am I wrong to mention this to the PM? I mean, since he is under the impression that since I’m single, this traveling is easy for me?

The road trip is changing, most likely. Instead of taking the boys to my uncle’s, it looks like I will be bringing them to Gainesville. (Florida) Where I will stay for the duration of the project. (And, to the seeming delight of my supervisor, possibly longer!) So, if you are going to be in FL, let me know! I might just come visit.

I think this will be easier on me. The constant travel is very tiresome. And also, I will have my boys!

I will probably be less happy about that after 8 hours of yowling.

I just got off of the phone with our project assistant. It is now looking like I won’t be heading to Gainesville for an extended stay. So far, the only furnished place she can find that will also take the cats is the extended stay hotel. Which puts us in one room together. For nearly three months. I don’t see it working. I’ve got one other possibility, but as of now it looks like the boys are going to my uncle’s. Which is, if nothing else, a shorter road trip.

So, last night I almost wrote an entry telling y'all how I was in fact taking the boys to Gainesville, because my PA had found me an apartment.

Well, good thing I didn't.

She called back today. First, because the people renting the place had decided that they could not, in fact, take credit cards. (Yesterday they had told her we could pay with the company card.) Then again because, oh, also, they wanted a $500 deposit for the cats.

Neither of these things were unreasonable, per se. What was unreasonable was that conditions kept being added. It make me uncomfortable, so I decided not to do it.

So, this weekend, we take the cats to VA.

My Uncle says he knows that I am not actually crazy, I just sound it lately.

Late Saturday morning Cdub and I set out with the boys for Virginia.

This was after a call from my uncle telling me we wouldn’t be able to get up his driveway, as it was covered with ice. He informed me that Peg was panicking, because she had ice in her driveway too, and didn’t want me coming in the front door.

I called her, and she was worried that we couldn’t get up the back driveway (True!), so she wanted us to park in the front, but call her first so that she could open the garage to let us in. She also told us to be careful driving on the ice.

Usually I take back roads up, but I wasn’t sure that they wouldn’t be icy, so I called TRgirl to find out how things were in Richmond.
Phone rings
TRgirl: Hello?
Watergirl: Hi. Question for you. Do you have ice at your house?
TRgirl: Yes. (pause) What kind of a question is that?
Watergirl: Well, Bobby and Stephanie and Peg have ice, and I am trying to figure out if I can take 15 or not.
TRgirl: Oh, I thought you meant ice cubes.

Cdub has a system for traveling with cats- she sets up a litterbox, food, and water in the back of her van. The cats are leashed in. I put Ri’s harness on before she got to the house, but knew I couldn’t put Jasper’s on without help. Which was very true.

We put the boys in their carriers and started off. We stopped for lunch and let them out. Well, we opened Jasper’s door and attached the leash, but he didn’t come out of the carrier.

Orion spent much of the trip in my lap. Jasper eventually decided to explore, which was going well until he fell off of the seat. (We did laugh, for we are mean.) We made a pit stop and switched drivers. Except that when I opened the driver’s side door, I discovered Ri on the seat sans harness. Unfortunately, I only had one had free, so I just kinda started yelling. Cdub said, “Shut the door,” and came and put his harness back on. At this point, Jasper had crawled into the litterbox, where he stayed for the rest of the trip.

When we got to Peg’s, we left the boys in the van while we waited for Bobby and Stephanie. (One of Peg's cats hates other cats.) However, when they got there, we decided to go to dinner, so we brought the boys in and put them in the guest bedroom. Jasper came out of the carrier, walked around and found the food and water (you could see the thought bubbles. "Food. Water. OK.")

We took them to Bobby's, where Ri was happy because he had a window hammock. Jasper was his usual nosy stuff. They were quarantined for the first night, but have been added to the mix. (Bobby and Stephanie have 4 cats and 2 dogs of their own.) There is still hissing and spitting going on, but that will work itself out.

But I won't see my boys until May.

I haven't been writing much because my days are like this:

Wake up. Work out. Work. Work. Work. Eat dinner. Hotel room. Sleep.

Except for the one night where we did stadiums. My right quad was sore to the touch for the next two days.

But, on the weekends, I get my own car. And I can do stuff! Saturday morning a group from work met up to play Ultimate. Why did no one tell me how much fun it is. All y'all are fired.

It's fun, but difficult to play, and there is much running. So, I'd like to play more, but I really need to get into better shape.

Afterwards, I headed out to Orlando for some outlet shopping. Well, mostly to just get in the car and drive, but the outlet shopping was a good excuse, and I knew the guys wouldn't come. I didn't get much, but no big deal there.

Today I met up with our PA and her sister here to go riding. Her sister has 2 Tennessee Walkers, and I got to ride Spanky. Sweet horse- I'd not ridden a gaited horse before, and it is very nice. He is for sale, but is not a dressage horse. Also, I can't really afford a horse right now.

My project manager is in town today. At 5:30 PM he called me into his office. He said, "After this week, you're going to go home, Jack and Josiah are going to come back, and you are not." I'm told it's a budget problem. I'm not sure I believe that. I was enjoying the project, I was enjoying working with the project team. I've been learning a lot. I've gotten to like it down here. I was completely gobsmacked. I think that I will probably lose my job. My boss had planned on me being on this project until the beginning of May. Now, I will have no work. I'm told they are trying to find something, but I don't know that they will. I liked this job. I liked the people. It's all over now.

Oh, and as an added bonus, I've been avoiding a situation at home. The travel has made avoidance easy. Now, I'm going to have to face it, somehow.

If I run away, don't look for me in Wyoming.

So, it looks like I’m not going to lose my job. Which, good. I also found out yesterday that many people on the project team are surprised that I’m the one being let go. No one is disappointed with my work. I’ve also realized that the kind of experience that I need I won’t get in Raleigh, so I have talked to some people about a possible transfer. It looks like they will have the work, the question is can I be put on the right teams so that we both benefit.

I was doing the whole networking thing yesterday, and was talking to our I&C guy on the phone. I told him what was going on, and then I told him I was looking for design experience, so if he heard anything let me know. And I told him I was willing to travel. He said, “That’s not the tra- word you want to be using. “

So, now it’s a wait and see. Which we all know is something I excel at.