Exercises in Futility: Brave New Girl

Office job by ed7in5 via Creattica.com

Exercises in Futility is the working-out of the story of the last 3, or so, years of my life. A lot has happened: I moved over 300 miles away from my family for a new job that ended horribly, redefined myself as a person, fell in love for the first time (with that person turning out to the "the one"), and learned some hard life lessons that have shown me what is really important in this life. And if I stayed out all night, more than I should have, and met some fantastic, crazy new friends on my journey there, so be it! Let's listen in, shall we? Continued from Exercises in Futility: The Backstory 

For three weeks I worked hard and, more importantly, fell in love with Denver. The Mile High City was full of “my kind”. The beginning of my second week there, my brother asked one of his army buddies, Mick Slash,  to show me the city and get me out of my hotel room for a couple of hours. I can still remember how foreign and magical the, now so familiar, metropolis seemed as we merged onto the freeway.
The textured concrete sound barriers rose above us like sentries guarding a hidden kingdom. I looked up out of Mick's sunroof A real freeway, I squealed in my head, I haven't lived in a city with a freeway, or a city at all for that matter, since I was twelve! I was already compiling a list of reasons why I just had to move here soon.

Mick took me straight downtown to the City Grill, a blink and you'll miss it burger joint with a huge banner declaring that "Denver's Best Burger" waited inside. I knew I would be able to put the meal on my expense report, so I went crazy (for me) and tried my first beer (not my first drink), Blue Moon with a slice of orange. It was yucky...I'd stick to liquor in the future and I still haven't found a beer I'll drink, but the young woman who lived in Gillette would not have cared to even try something new...interesting, no? And though I wouldn't call it the best, the burger was damn good and the company was even better.

Turns out Mick is my brother from another mother. I was sure he and my older brother, whom I am very close with, were separated at birth. He had an almost identical upbringing, in Nebraska instead of Wyoming, and it soon became crystal clear why my brother had plans to move to Denver before he was deployed (He returned home safely about a year later. He was one of five relatives that have served in the war, so far).  After dinner we just drove around downtown for another 3 or 4 hours listening to DC Talk (we still knew every word from the Evangelical Christian days of our youth) and laughing till we cried. The way he talked about Denver made my mind up for me, I had to be here.

Back at the office, the "Handover Package" was coming long nicely and all I really had left to do was hassle a few more contractors for their missing documents. I shared an office with the oldest man/best mechanical engineer ever, that was also a temp, and a glamorous South African woman, who was an electrical engineer. This meant that I had Project Managers and other muckity-mucks in and out of our office and, therefore, exposure to all the right people. They would stop by my desk to snoop around only to see the totally competent job I was doing hole punching and assembling already filed paper work to put into binders (seriously people....). To my credit, I did take some serious initiative when tracking down our missing paper work, making calls on my cell phone b/c I didn't yet warrant my own office phone.

When no official job offer was forthcoming I decided to take matters into my own hands and straight up asked for a job. I asked the corporate rep from on-site, a Project Manager I found out, if the offer still stood to help me get an in here. He said he would ask around and luckily I'd impressed enough of the corporate management with my mighty copying and collation skillz that, even though they didn't have an immediate position for me, they had enough crap work  (similar to what I was doing now) to keep me busy until they did. I had to find an apartment quickly, since the company would only pay for one more week in a hotel. Luckily, the DNC was the following week and, with my hotel room price tripling, they sent me home for a week.  So, I had one week to look on CraigsList and I could go check places out the next, when I was back at work.

I put my big girl pants on and got to work making calls and setting up viewing appointments. As word of my move spread through my circle friends and family in Gillette, it was not uncommon to hear, "Oh, I could never move with such short notice - to such a big city - where I didn't know anyone, etc". The funny thing was, I never felt one moment of hesitation or fear. It was all excitement and determination to make the move and have it stick. The very first place I looked as was a large basement studio, mere blocks from the heart of downtown, for $525.00 a month (with utilities included!). It had a full kitchen, a walk in closet with built in shelves, a large main area with more than enough room for my "bedroom" and a "sitting room", 3 ceiling fans and stuccoed pipes running all across the ceiling. In other words, it was perfect. It was part starving artist and part industrial remodel and it seemed to have the excitement and energy of the city glowing out of every corner. It even had a pool! I looked at two more places that were way more expensive,  much smaller, and just didn't feel as right. I put in my application that Monday and on Wednesday I got the call telling me it was mine! I signed the lease Friday and moved in that weekend, with the help of my parents, on September 14th, 2008.

 to be continued...