I'm a wanderer, yeahhh I'm a wanderer, I roam around around around

Dion, my dear, you must've written that song about the Brousi, just like you wrote "Run Around Sue aka Scoots" (at least in my 4 year old mind) about me.  Apparently, we are not destined to stay in one place for longer than a year or two before packing up our stuff and moving on to new adventures.  I was going to save the big announcement for this blog post, but El let the cat out of the bag on Facebook, so by now you're probably aware that we are going to be moving to Chicago, the home of deep-dish pizza, Da Bears, people on missions from Gahhhd, and yours truly.

Just to give you a recap of the past few months, El has been working INSANE hours:  I'm talking weekends, 7 days a week, night shifts leading into day shifts, phone calls at 3 in the morning kind of shit.  To put it delicately, he has had zero life the past few months, and his schedule has just plain blown.  Pair those regular job hours with the Air Force reserves gig, and we've seemed more "Brouse" than "Brousi" lately.  With our schedules both being so busy, we haven't been able to spend as much time together.  When we don't have to work, we obviously make the most of the time we have, but it's still been limited.  For example, on New Year's Eve, El got home from work at 11:30pm, just in time for the ball drop, but then we were in bed by 12:09 because he had to wake up at 4:30 the next morning for work.  With El working so much, I've been keeping busy with work, learning Italian and hanging out with friends.  For the past few months, I've been all bourgeois on Sundays by going to yoga, brunch, and then Trader Joe's for groceries; it's been my routine lately and seems to be an ideal path to propel me into full middle-aged woman mode.

Oftentimes, hard work goes unnoticed and unappreciated, but that fortunately wasn't the case for Elliot.  With great responsibility comes great opportunity, and he was chosen to go to a company sponsored management course in Texas in October.  While there, he met and networked with several higher ups, including the Vice President of Global Operations of Martin Brower.  A few weeks later, the VP requested El's resume from his boss, Scott.  About a week after that, El was invited to come to Rosemont, company headquarters and a suburb of Chi town, to interview for a position they were creating with him in mind.  While there, he interviewed with the CEO, COO, CIO, LMNOP, QRS, TUV, WXY, AND Z of the company, as well as a couple other big wig types, and learned more about this future position they had in mind.  Two days after he returned, he got a phone call offering him the job.  

Currently, El is the Assistant Transportation Manager for the Manassas warehouse for McDonald's distribution.  It's a grueling (see above) job centered in logistics, but it never was a "forever" job.  Obviously, with those hours it's not sustainable, plus he's interested in doing more than day to day operations stuff (I don't work in business; I don't gots no better word).  This new position, Operations Support Specialist, is in a group of four total, and involves "streamlining and operating global operations in the company".  Quote:  Elliot Brouse.  Me:  He's going to look at the world and plot how to take it over with McNuggets.  The position involves quite a bit of international travel, to interesting places like Malaysia, Australia, France, and India.  The good news?  I get to go with him when I can.  Australia is going to be a for sure joint trip, as it will probably be over the summer.  Malaysia's during the school year, and besides, I don't want to be brainwashed into killing the Prime Minister.  I am, after all, really really ridiculously good-looking.  Along with the increased travel, the job's an increase in prestige (and a nice pay raise, which is helpful), as El will be reporting directly to the VP of Global Operations.  To sum it up, this is El's dream job.

Obviously, I am very proud of him, and so happy that his hard work and our sacrifices are noticed and actually appreciated, but I initially took the news like a slug to the gut.  We've only been back in DC for a little over a year, but in that year I've rekindled my love affair with this city.  My friend Jess, a fellow TFA '06 alum and Chamberlain survivor, described our love for the city as being due to the fact that "we grew up here".  Not as children, obviously, but as professionals entering a new phase in our lives.  It was in DC that I learned how to manage a budget, pay taxes, support myself, learn my way around a new city, file a police report when our house was broken into, become acclimated to new cultures, and make a difference as a teacher while doing so.  I formed unbreakable bonds with people while living here, some within the past year, and the thought of leaving DC again has been a very tough pill to swallow.  There's something about the people, opportunities, history, and mild climate that has made DC feel very much like home, and it's always hard to leave home.   I've been on this "No beer, no drinking" fast for the past few months in an effort to lose weight, but the night we decided to move to Chi, I polished off two bottles of white all by my onesie.  Obviously that didn't change things, and the next day I felt like someone was tap-dancing in heels inside my skull.   When the fog inside my brain cleared, I reminded myself that this is the opportunity of a lifetime for Elliot, and that fortunately for us, we will be moving from one home back to another.  My family and best friends are still in the area, and I am truly happy to be closer to them.  It's been 11 years since I last lived in Chi, and 7 since I lived in the Midwest, so despite the obvious familiarity, it will still be an adventure for me and El to explore a city that feels like new.

So what are the logistics of this whole life change?  El officially started his new position on the 1st of the year, and he's going to go ahead of me to Chicago at the beginning of next month.  I'm going to stay in DC to finish out the school year and will join at the end of June/beginning of July.  I've already left in the middle of the school year twice, and I can't do that again.  Plus, we're in this gorgeous new school building and I absolutely LOVE my kids this year, especially the kids in my homeroom.  I can't leave them.  I'm starting to apply for jobs in Chicago, including at a few private schools in the city, but I'd prefer not to teach.  I'd ideally like to focus on my writing, specifically on the blog and the Latin textbook that I've been working on when I get a spare minute.  We're planning on living in the city though, and city living's not cheap, so I'll hopefully find something with enough free time to work and write.  We shall see.  That's something to worry about later, and I've got enough on my plate already.

Our apartment lease is up in March, but it automatically converts to a month-to-month lease, so I won't have to move into a temporary place before making the big move.  My parents have offered to let Elliot stay in their condo downtown or at their house in the burbs, so he'll have a comfortable place to stay his first few months in the area.  We've been saving for awhile now, and we've started looking at places to buy in the city.  We have a few areas on which we've been focusing, but right now we are pretty open to suggestions.

Although this big move is on the horizon, I still have plenty of time to enjoy DC.  Just in the past few months I've cheered on the runners at the Marine Corps marathon, saw Zoo Lights with Meghan, went to the lighting of the National Christmas Tree, and saw A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theatre.  There are still museums I need to visit, albeit few since I conquered most of them when I first moved here, brunches I need to have, and events in which I need to participate.  I'm here right now, not going anywhere for a few months, and it's time for me to make this town my bitch.  Gird your loins, DC, Brouses be ballin'....