As I noted in a previous post, I basically found this job through an email from monster.com, though I did not respond to it right away. I believe it was actually about 2 months before I sent them my resume and I was probably spurred on by a bit of frustration and homesickness. But it was also that it was simply a good opportunity that I didn’t want to let pass.

For years I feel like I’ve watched what was going on in New Orleans, wondering when the city would catch up technologically. I’ve had this idea in my mind that what I was looking for was a chance to take whatever success I’ve managed to attain here and sorta transfer it there. Easier said than done. I’ve been waiting for years, sometimes feeling like it was all in vain, just waiting for things to line up correctly, and it’s been very frustrating at times. I’ve gotten mad at God, even mad at simply being from New Orleans. Everyone wants to go home eventually. Even the German guy I met at Enterprise Car Rental this morning. Why is it that when I miss home, I have to miss a place that is dysfunctional and now in the aftermath of a “natural disaster,” or, as they’re calling it, the Federal Flood.

So now that everything is happening (and progressing along quite smoothly, I should add) it doesn’t feel like a sudden move, it feels like the culmination of years of waiting and working toward a goal that was as specific as it was vague. I’ve always felt I would made my way back home, but sometimes I thought it wouldn’t be till I was 50 and the kids were out of the house. Maybe that’s just how long I have to wait till I can live uptown.

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while. I couldn’t really publish it till I gave notice @ work, but I’m doing that tomorrow, so now it’s safe:

4/25/07
In the post that I wrote on the day after Mardi Gras, I said “I can accept that I am where I choose to be.” What I meant by that is, if I want to be someplace else, if I am not satisfied with where I am, then I must choose to be somewhere else. I am in Milwaukee because this is what I have chosen. But I’ve decided that it is time for a change, and so I’ve chosen to move home.

Sometime in perhaps early december I saw a job posting pass through my Monster Job Alert emails. I get these things daily and rarely look at them, but for whatever reason on this day I scrolled down the email and saw an opening for Interface Development in New Orleans. I hadn’t ever seen this company’s name before, somehow, though it turns out they’re a premiere agency in the state/region. But I had a baby due, it was the beginning of winter and I knew I was about to get very busy at work, so I didn’t send in a resume. I did, however, keep them in the back of my mind.

I just searched back through my emails and found that it was 5 days after my post-Mardi Gras rant that I sent in a resume, Feb 26th. They were interested and requested my portfolio. I sent them a PDF and didn’t hear back for a month. Finally, on one of my few bad days at work, I happened to see this email… “we’d like to fly you down as soon as possible.” Woohoo!

I’ll continue with the story about the interview… soon.