But this opportunity was in what his boss described as a small, isolated town in northern California called Bakersfield and they'd tapped Jake because, well frankly, Mtn. Home was in the middle of freaking nowhere and they wanted someone used to that.
Once Jake called me and relayed the information, a quick Google search revealed that his boss was a little off point with his description. Bakersfield is in southern California and has about 350,000 people living in it. Many people do consider it isolated because it is 2 hours from Los Angeles and 4 from San Francisco, but as far as I'm concerned you can't be isolated when you are in a town that big.
My second search was on Target's website. There are 5 in Bakersfield, so as far as I was concerned, this was going to be awesome.
It wasn't a done deal though. We did Internet research which scared me to death. Worst air quality in the country. Most conservative county in California. One of the cities with the least educated populace (although I debate the merits of that little survey/study). The people who live here are far from enthusiastic about it. There's nowhere to eat. Nothing to do. The people aren't nice. Other Californians consider this the armpit of California, the joke of the state. And on and on. So we booked a trip out in February to see for ourselves.
The first thing you notice is the air, and you notice it because you can see it. Bakersfield is huge in the oil and gas and agriculture industries. Compound that with the fact that they are located in the valley, and you have pollution that can't leave or gets blown in from San Francisco and then can't get out. But I found all the other claims to be relatively unfounded (except for the conservative stuff, that's true). We visited all 5 Targets while were were there visiting.
So since we liked it well enough, Jake had to wait to see if he was offered the position and, when he was, negotiate with his new boss. This is the point that my brain turned to mush and I lost all focus on anything else. Only a few people knew, so I was secret keeping yet about to explode with anxiety and excitement. I've never lived anywhere else but Arkansas, so this was a thrilling possibility. Negotiations looked promising, then they looked dismal, and then, suddenly, it was done and Jake was leaving for California in two weeks.
There were other negotiations going on as well, the one where Jake wanted me to be a stay-at-home mom and homeschool Spencer and the one where I wanted to find a job and go to work. I agreed to give it a try for a year but then a job opportunity at the county library arose and I didn't feel as if I could simply ignore it, so after some chatting we agreed that I'd go for it and that we'd go through with the stay-at-home mom stuff if I didn't get it.
So that is how I find myself staying at home with my kids and living in California. I told Jake that I'd be unhappy staying at home and most of the time I find that I judged myself correctly. I greatly dislike hauling the kids to and fro constantly, not being able to go to the bathroom alone, and playing referee to fights all day. I'm a lazy homeschooler; we skipped school today and this was the last day in a short week, and our first week to boot. Because I'm not working, there is little, if any, money for baby-sitters. I miss working. I've become some yoga pant wearing, ponytail having woman that I don't recognize and I hate her. She drinks a lot of Diet Dr. Pepper and plays on the Internet too much and has no motivation to do anything else.
There is a chance that another opening at the library will come up soon and I hope so in the biggest way. Until then, I'm biding my time waiting for the one year mark to come so I can ship Spencer and Jack (because he'll be kindergarten aged next year) to school. Maybe I'll come to love this lifestyle at some point, I think it'd be easier on us all if I did.
0 comments:
Post a Comment