The Adventure Begins

Hello everyone!

The purpose of this blog is to document John & Christy's new adventure. I'm John and Christy might be posting some stuff herself later. We're a 30-something, happily married couple who are embarking on our biggest adventure to date. We're moving from Indianapolis, IN to the San Jose/South Bay area of California! I'm Indiana born and raised and have lived within an hour's drive of Indianapolis all my life. Christy was born in Virginia but moved to the Indy area when she was a baby and has been here ever since. She has spent a summer as an exchange student in Barcelona, Spain and traveled in the US a bit more than I have but nothing quite this big.

We're moving because Christy applied to Cryptic Studios in Los Gatos, CA and got the job. She'll be working as a Writer, which is something she's always wanted to do and Cryptic seems to be a great company.

At first, the whole idea frightened me to near panic. But rather than running with the knee-jerk reaction I had at first of "Idon'twannamovetoCalifornia!!!!" I took a few deep breaths and looked at things rationally. First, it's northern California, not SoCal and if there's any part of California I'd agree to live in, it's the northern part of the state. Pictures of the area are just beautiful with plenty of trees and nearby mountains. It's also got moderate weather, with less of the extremes we have in Indiana. Being near to interesting places like the Winchester Mystery House and Japantown are real bonuses. Also, being in an area where one can get around primarily by walking, bicycling and public transportation will easily off-set the costs of gasoline while also putting us in a healthier lifestyle by getting us more regular exercise. I gained a lot of weight when we moved from Lafayette to Indy because we stopped walking as much and driving more. I'm looking forward to being in an area where one can bike safely as opposed to around here where you take your life into your hands on most roads. Combined with the increased pay and significantly better benefits, I found a lot of positives.

Of course, there are some significant negatives. Of these, the only important ones come down to moving away from our closest friends and family. This was almost a deal-breaker. Once again, I had to step back from the emotional knee-jerk to look at things rationally. I realized that we'll be able to came back over Christmas with only a little planning and savings. Then there's the wonders of modern telecommunications technology from cell-phones to email, blogs and Internet chat, voice over IP and instant messenger software, all of which allows easy, frequent, low-cost communication with friends and family as often as we'd like! Sure, there's a learning curve to take full advantage of it and do everything I want but such learning is a marketable skill in today's job market, a plus itself. So, yes, I'll be farther away from these important people but I'll still be able to interact with them frequently. It's not a case of never seeing them again, which was my root fear.

Combined with the state of the Indianapolis job market, economy and crime rates, along with Christy's previous employer's declining fortunes (at least as far as we can see), the benefits of moving outweighed the negatives and we had almost decided to go. Our last step was to turn the matter over to prayer and meditation and a couple of days to allow our intuitions to be heard. I received nothing in the way of warnings of danger or immanent threat. Thanks to my martial arts training, I've got an almost Spider-man sensitivity to danger and I got nothing there. I recognized there would be challenges and difficulties but nothing we can't deal with. I decided it was our best option and Christy agreed with me. Once the decision was finally made, I found myself feeling peaceful and ready to face the coming challenges. The doors are opening, the path clearly lies ahead and I'm ready to walk it with confidence.