Moving on is hard work!
18. Nov, 2006 
3 Comments
I barely have enough time to sleep these days as the clock ticks down on our time here in Canada. We’re living in a state of perpetual cleanliness while we wait for our house to sell. I’m telling you – this is no way to live! There are an insane number of details involved with the move – from figuring out how to get our dog there (there’s a travel blackout for dogs on Air Canada over the holidays!) to the tax implications of the move itself. Not to mention doing all of those little things like opening a bank account, getting a social security number and a credit card and figuring out how to forward our mail to another country.
At least the core details: where we’re going to initially live, how our stuff will get there, and who’s paying for all that stuff is taken care of by Microsoft. I’ve got a whole new level of respect for how difficult it must have been for my parents to move themselves (and me) to Canada all those years ago.
Hopefully someday soon I’ll be able to get back to work on RubyCLR.
In the meantime, I’ve been listening to a lecture series on my 100 mile daily commute to work. It’s called the Long Now and there are many invited lectures on topics that require a long-term outlook (and by long-term, we’re talking centuries). It’s somewhat dark at times – theytackle difficult topics like depopulation and the environment, but there’s more than a glimmer of hope in all of it. Highly recommended, and a welcome break from just thinking about technology all the time.
You have my sincere empathy! My older son was born in the US, and I’ve gone through moving a family, including small children and animals, although moving back to Canada (especially then) was probably easier than what you’re doing.
That perfect house state when you’re selling brought me shuddering memories also.
Yes, you’ll have a life again. I promise.
Thank you for posting the Long Now link. I like what I’ve found so far so much (including Long Bet) that it has me writing a post on it as well.
Vera
Been there done that.
Social Security is easy to get once your “Green Card” arrives from INS (assuming you are getting a Greencard, otherwise an H1B will work).
Credit Cards were very tricky to get here. In the U.S they do not look at your Canadian credit record so they you will be starting with a blank slate here, meaning your probably not going to be able to get a credit card right away. You can get a back account though, just make sure to apply for your social security card first, if not you can use the Canadian one to open an account. At least we were able to.
If you living in the Seattle area good luck on finding affordable housing. I hope you negotiated a fairly large salary because Seattle is not cheap to live in, nor is Redmond, etc.
It seems that ‘resistance *IS* futile’ and all the bright people are eventually absorbed by the Borg. Sorry to see you go…