Change seems to be in the air.

(This may be old news to some of you, but I finally feel comfortable with sending it out into the ether for mass consumption now.)

Like some others (Furious Fet and The General), I've done a bit of introspection on The Big Picture. To a very large degree, this was rather unexpected - a sudden re-examination of the current situation sparked by a good friend and co-worker moving away. However, in the end, I believe it was a good thing. This soul-searching per se has really helped me decide that I really do need to move to some place different than the Mid-West for a while.

Although I'm convinced that this is the right thing to do, part of me thinks that I must be slightly nuts. The economy isn't exactly in the grandest of shape, my financial position isn't the greatest, I have a solid + decently paying position right now, and I just signed a year renewal for my apartment.

Still, many other far more experienced people than I have pointed out this very important fact: "There'll never be a perfect time." And they're totally right. Even though I've told my manager about my desire to get away from *here*, I feel oddly comfortable with the whole situation.

So if not here, where? Right now, I've been targetting Seattle as an eventual settlement area. Culturally, it's very different than where I currently am (which is fairly conservative and religious, even for a big city). Additionally, I think it'll offer me more opportunities in terms of amusements. Finally, some certain HOSERS like The Neon yukino and Lish just HAPPEN to live out there. (=

Of course, there's one teeny, tiny problem with moving out there: I need employment. I've been banging away at the usual job sites, slinging my resume to various places. I haven't had any response so far, but it's only been a few weeks. I imagine that it'll be a nice and long time before I even get real nibbles, but I'm cautiously optimistic.

The flip side to all this activity - looking for a new job, boning up on technical stuff, the heniousness that is work of late - is that I really haven't had a chance to take care of the smaller, yet still important things in my life: laundry, keeping the place in order, working out, etc. This weekend, I finally took the opportunity to catch my breath in that regard and get some of those things out of the way: I ran/walked about 3 miles, read Becoming a Chef. cleaned up loose paper scattered about the place, brewed goodly amounts of boreecha, laundered clothes not money and just vegged.

The sum of it just felt really, really good. I think I need to get back in the habit of doing those things to feel grounded and sane.