The good, the bad, and the luck of the draw
Yesterday Justin got a call from the Temp Agency he's registered with. He's been looking for work for a blasted long time now with no luck in Chem positions or office work. Another few weeks with no word would mean, for the both of us, that it was time to pack our stuff up to Seattle, where he would most likely still be living when I got back. There are more jobs there and his parents have just moved back. The call, in it's potent timeliness, was a surprise.

Justin got off the phone smiling. "It's a three month temp-to-hire," he said, "data entry at an insurance place. Full time, $9.50 an hour, starts Monday!" That's great, said I, but what about Glacier? His face fell... he had honestly forgotten. "Shit," he said. "Shit, shit, shit."

He called back the agency with his standard excuse; he told them that in his excitement (true) he'd forgotten that in two weeks he was supposed to visit the east coast for a family reunion and his grandfather's 89th birthday. Would the agency inquire from the company if it would be acceptable for him to take this week off? He said he was flexible either way but told them it had been planned for a long time.

We didn't hear anything from them yesterday except that they had left a message with the company. Three options hung in front of us: the slim chance that they might accept his compromise and give him the job, that he might nix the job because time at Glacier was more important than money (and hence move to Seattle), or that he might take the job and nix Glacier to save himself (and myself) from upending our life here for good.

Now, I don't know about you, but I think that's a pretty big decision to make when the chance that they might compromise seems so ungodly small. He waited and groaned. What would I do? I have no fucking idea, I told him. There's a measure in my brain that wants him to move, and a measure that wants him to stay. Him staying binds me here to this house and to this life but him moving draws me away from the permanence and security that exists in the possibility of a continued relationship. Someday. The more I think about it, the more I don't want my life here to go away but the more I'm thrilled by new possibilities. And, on some trite level, my brain said to me that an extra week of work in lieu of a fantastic Glacier trip was at least $400 worth my while.

But he didn't have to decide. As I was playing suburban goddess this afternoon, sunning my bikini-clad self on the lawn reading harry potter, listening to techno on the iPod and drinking ice water out of my nalgene, I failed to hear the "WAHOO!" come from our study window. What I did notice was Justin tackling me and yelling "YAY!", probably 10 minutes later when he was off the phone and done MUDDing. I thought he had just come outside to roll me for the fun of it and I was pissed because he'd scarred the crap out of me since I had my earbuds in. After I pushed him off of me he kept leaping around and told me the good news.

It'll all be here when I come back.