Relocation or Dislocation?

That, my friends, is the question.  Actually, there is no question.  I just dislocated my shoulder earlier this week and am still on the relocation bandwagon. 

How did I, with my  extreme sedentary lifestyle, dislocate my shoulder?  BY CLEANING MY SHOWER.  I slipped forward while bending over to clean the bottom of my stall shower and put pressure on it at a weird angle.  After passing out and not being able to move it for two days, I finally went to the doctor who told me that I essentially have weird shoulder joints that are more prone to dislocation (and rotator cuff tears!) because of the abnormality.  She also added that I need to be careful with angles and should avoid activities heavy lifting.  NO PROBLEM THERE, MA’AM.  So right now I’m taking pain medication as needed and working on gaining my range of motion back and will be heading to PT in 2 or 3 weeks.  If my range of motion doesn’t come back in a few weeks, then I’ll be heading to an ortho for an MRI to see if I tore anything. 

I’m still on the hunt for a new job elsewhere as well.  Right now, my department at my current job has to make a 20% cut in budget next fiscal year and, while it doesn’t look that downsizing is immediately necessary, there’s always the risk.  However, other departments at my organization are getting slashed like prices on Black Friday.  And since I was the last hired two years ago in my department, my job search anxiety is getting a little more fevered.   Not to mention that dislocating my shoulder at home alone was a quick reminder that all of my family a few thousand miles away.

So far I have been contacted by a ton of recruiters but the only realistic jobs I’ve been contacted about are in Tampa and St. Louis.  The Tampa recruiter just asked for some more detailed information about a week ago and has been cagey about the positions I’ve been referred to but the St. Louis recruiter already has me set up for an interview.  After looking into the St. Louis position and the company at length, I really, really want it.  I don’t think I’ve ever prepared for an initial interview so hard in my life. 

And even though St. Louis is a little further than what I was originally thinking, it’s still a doable drive to where my family is in one day.  And it has some of the coolest housing choices I’ve seen (even though I’m probably just moving deep in the suburbs with an attached garage, full size washer and dryer, and garden tub).  It’s also not nearly as crowded as Houston, Dallas, or Atlanta and the traffic, while still bad, is less heavy than those metropolises or even MSP.  It’s also under a 4 hour’s drive to quite a few places that would really make a nice weekend trip (Chicago, Nashville, Memphis, Branson (I’m old…)). 

Anyway, that’s what’s been going on.  That and Minnesota remembered it’s supposed to be cold and the high today is -2.  I can wait to move.

Paper or Plastic?

I was doing pretty well on the cash envelope system for 2 or so months so I decided to take a month and see if I could budget just using the debit card.  The main reason for this is that I feel slightly uncomfortable carrying a giant wad of cash around and also feel slightly uncomfortable leaving it at home too.  But it’s also because I use a credit union that’s nearest branch is a pretty decent drive away.  I mean, there are ATMs everywhere, but ATMs can’t give the change I need to separate everything into envelopes.  So I thought I’d experiment for a few weeks and see.

The first two weeks were an experience for sure.  What I discovered is that, no,  debit card money is easier to spend than paper money and infinitely more difficult (for me) to track in real time.  It’s way easier to glance into my wallet before entering Trader Joe’s than to sit in my car looking on my phone to see my bank account and adding/subtracting the scattered deductions from my bank account.  So I went a little over the first two weeks.  The last two weeks I decided to try a hybrid where half of my money was paper and the other was plastic.  This might have worked but since I got sick and had to dip into additional funds for doctor bills, prescriptions, over the counter stuff, Gatorade, etc, I couldn’t really test it out fully.

Basically, I learned that I need to just pull out the cash.  I’ll likely be adding a bank (I plan on keeping my current credit union right now simply because I like them and it’s super simple in the age of direct deposit to manage a savings account online) once I move and I’ll make sure that this time I pick somewhere with a ton of branches.  

Speaking of moving, I’m still job searching.  I have a lot, like, upwards of 300, inquiries out there and I’m basically planning to take the first serious offer that comes my way.  I’ve been glancing at apartments, mostly in the DFW area, and it’s amazing what I can get for my money out there.  For what I’m paying for a basement studio without a bathtub or dishwasher in a nice but older neighborhood in Minneapolis, I can get a 800+ square luxury apartment in a super fancy area with up to two bedrooms, two full baths, in unit full size washer and dryer, and a dishwasher.  They also throw in things like stainless steel appliances and granite counter-tops but I don’t really care about those so much.  I just want a light, bright, spacious place in a nice area.  And a vent hood over the stove.  And windows that open.  You don’t realize how much it matters until it’s gone.