First and foremost, let me wish all of our friends and family a very Happy New Year, and a belated Merry Christmas. It was hard not being able to see all of our friends and family in both Minnesota and on the East Coast this year, but hopefully next year we will be settled in, both physically and financially and can work it all out. We were celebrating the holidays with everyone in spirit!
Now that the apologies and pleasantries are out of the way. What have we been up to? Believe it or not we have been extremely busy and that has left us with very few adventures to talk about. Although we spent the first couple months exploring quite a bit, the snow and cold filled winter(though not as cold as MN) has kept us a little closer to the house (unfortunately, that meant watching the Vikings waste another playoff run). Our jobs have kept us busy enough to limit adventures as well.
Here is a shot of our deck during our first big snowfall. We got 13-16 inches in just under 36 hours.
As most of our friends and family know, we relocated to upstate New York for Jodie's job at GE. I was going to concurrently attend the Culinary Institute of America a few months after the move. In the meantime I would look for work to sustain our household income and keep busy.
Needless to say the current state of the economy did not assist much in that job search. Concurrently as I dug further into the financial needs to attend the C.I.A. I was shocked by the amount of money we needed to obtain in such a short amount of time. About six weeks into my job search I was contacted by the Director of the New York State Division of Veterans Affairs and asked to come in for an interview and Veterans benefits brief. It was during and after that meeting that I learned a couple of things. First of all, I had a job. I was hired as a Senior Training Technician for the Division. This puts me in the position of assisting to train all of our outreach folks throughout the state, as well as taking on some special projects in the law enforcement and higher education realm. Second of all, I learned that after I have lived in New York for a year, I am eligible for an additional, substantial education benefit to aid me in attending school.
As most of you now know, I accepted the job offer and am working and attending school part time in the Albany, NY area. Although I am dissapointed I have had to temporarily put off my school plans, I am happy to be working, and making progress on my other degree. The job is extremely rewarding, and is giving me an opportunity to use many of my skills from my work in policy and with Veterans in Minnesota. It is taking some time to get used to New York politics and geography, but it has been fun. It has been fun getting down to New York City for some meetings and conferences and I hope to get out to Western New York in the next few months.
I also get to work in the tallest building in New York outside of the city. Here are some shots from my office. The first being the first couple weeks on job, and second being from one of our "wonderful" ice storms we get here.
On a clear day I can see the Catskill Mountains to the South, the Taconics/Green Mountains/Berkshires to the East, and from the other side of the office the Adirondacks to the North.
Jodie's job seems to still be going great. As I write this, she is in a huge meeting with all of the folks she supports on a daily basis. This week has been extremely stressful for her, but I think in the end, it will all work out great. It seems to be a great fit for her, and she is challenged on a daily basis.
The other big thing going on in our lives is the continuous house hunting. After a few months of narrowing down our geographical area from about 150 square miles to an actual town, we are getting close. We have settled on the town of Wilton, NY. It is a small town in Saratoga County, just outside of Saratoga Springs. Wilton has very low taxes for New York, Great Schools, and it is close to both the town of Saratoga, and the North Country (Adirondack Park, Lake George etc.). We are excited to get back to being in a house and although Gunner is pretty happy wherever we are, he needs a yard. The plethora of toys Jodie buys him are not going to cut it forever. He loves the snow, and he needs a yard to bound through.
Since most of the friends and family who read this are like me, and probably have no idea where we are talking about when we say Wilton, NY, here is a map. Just in case Tyler Richter is reading this, the commute wont be too bad either, although it will be a little farther than now.
Well, I think that is about it for now. We do hope to make it back to Minnesota this summer and visit as many people as we can. If any of you happen to be visiting New York, Boston or pretty much anywhere in the Northeast, let us know. Everything is pretty much a train ride away. It would be great to see a familiar face. Take care.
AD
