September 13, 2017: Making Plans for Arizona Again

DuoLingo Streak: 11 Days

Wednesday.  I got up and worked this morning.  At noon I had a call scheduled with the team in Arizona to discuss the next steps in that process.  They have been out of touch for a bit as they have been dealing with visas and immigration lawyers and such.

We had our call and decided that it would be far more practical for me to just get out to Phoenix as soon as possible so that we can finalize details while I am out there and so that I can get right to work.  So the plan is for me to go out there next week and be there for the entire week.

It was late in the day when the tickets were finalized for my flights.  Because they took too long booking them, I am going out on Monday night instead of Sunday night.  I would have gone out over the weekend, but the CEO is going to be in California talking to investors over the weekend and won’t be back in Arizona until late Sunday night so I would be in Arizona all weekend with nothing to do if I went early, so not doing that.

So the final plans are that I am flying out of Dallas on Monday night, around eleven in the evening on Spirit and will arrive, only a few minutes later, in Phoenix.  So I will be pretty tired, but fine, and in bed in Phoenix around midnight on Monday night.  So very ready to work on Tuesday morning.

Then I will fly back to Dallas, also on Spirit, on Friday night at midnight and arrive in Dallas at five in the morning, which Dominica is not happy about. But it means that I get home, get a little sleep and still get nearly all of Saturday with the family.  So really minimizing the time away while getting almost a full week in Phoenix.  And Spirit made the whole thing only about $120 round trip.  Not a bad price considering they are the most comfortable airline to fly, as well.  They have the newest and nicest seats.

It was a busy day of calls and building servers, working on SodiumSuite, and doing extensive network testing.  I was working hard, all day.

School was short today and instead the girls did a bunch of reading of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone as part of their school time.  This is day two or three of them doing a little of that book each day.  They are starting to get into it.  I did not like the first few chapters of it, myself, so I totally understand having a hard time getting into the story.  The beginning is so dark and depressing.

The girls were busy playing video games this evening, so Dominica and I watched the Korean blockbuster zombie survival film Train to Busan.  It was quite well done and extremely sad.  Glad that we watched it.

Tonight we continued our bedtime story reading tradition and I finished reading the fifth Magic Treehouse book, Night of the Ninjas.  We are now into Magic Treehouse books that I don’t believe Liesl has ever read.  Luciana has never read any of them, so it is all new for her.  It has been so long for Liesl, though, that she does not really remember them at all, and especially not at this point in the series, so she is really enjoying story time, too.  And now we are into books that I have never read, so it is a little more interesting for me.  But I cannot wait for them to be into more adult stories.  I’m looking forward to getting into A Wrinkle in Time, Little Women, or Johnny Tremain kind of stuff.  They are getting closer and with Dominica reading Harry Potter stuff during the day for part of their school time, they are getting used to longer form stories.

So today was pretty exciting.  Everything seems to be moving forward in Arizona.  We will have a lot more details next week when I am there in person.  But at least there was a conversation and another flight and week on site means that things are going to get done.  We will get a lot worked out while I am there.  Things have been quiet for the last week, so seeing some motion here is very encouraging.  We are pretty excited about the opportunity, though.  It all sounds like something that is a perfect fit for me and the kind of situation that will be perfect for the family.  Just need to get all of our ducks into a row and get the whole deal into motion.