I Guess We're Moving?

As of the date of this post, I am T-minus 11 days from having a complete breakdown.  On December 29th, Jeff and I make the "permanent" drive to Greenville, South Carolina to begin our new adventure.  Let's back up a little bit to explain how we arrived at that piece of the puzzle.

Way back in September, Jeff and I were enjoying a lake house with 20 of our nearest and dearest friends in Michigan.  We were sitting around a fire pit, roasting marshmallows, telling stories and drinking wine.  It was a perfect little evening.  Jeff received a text message from a friend of ours in Greenville, pointing out a job opening with his company, Canal Insurance. To make a long story much shorter, we weren't entirely sure it was serious, nor would we seriously consider it anyway.  Right? We sort of blew it off, but Jeff kept talking to his friend about it anyway, casually…just for fun. Right?  The next thing I know, we're talking about scheduling an interview and making an "exploratory trip" to Greenville, "just to see what they have to say, right?".  That quickly snowballed into, "I think they're serious" and "this is an amazing opportunity" and "should I take it the job?"..etc. Let's just say we didn't see it coming. We weren't looking to relocate, nor was Jeff looking for a new job. It all just sort of fell into our laps.

After a number of conversations about the pros and cons of moving, we decided to just take a leap of faith and go for it. This job was a dream position for Jeff, and who was I to poo-poo those dreams?  So what if it meant leaving my dream job? So what if it meant moving away from the only state I've ever really called home?  So what if it meant moving hours and hours from anyone we knew, including our families? So what if it meant living in a "red" state, instead of a "sometimes swing state"? It was an adventure, and as snarky as those "so what's" sound, I was willing to take that leap with Jeff. He'd have done the same for me (I think).  The thing I didn't expect in all of this was the time we'd spend apart.  Jeff accepted the new job offer and then had two weeks to get ready to go. His company needed him to start at the beginning of November, while I wouldn't be done with my job until mid December. That meant that Jeff would be moving to South Carolina without me, staying in a furnished apartment for two months and missing Christmas.  Oh, the tears I held inside at the thought of all of that.  So, sure enough, we packed his essentials into his car and sent him to Greenville at 7am one Saturday morning.  Little did I know that one of our neighbors watched that happen and thought I'd kicked my poor husband out of the house. That's what you get for being nosey, Mr. Neighbor.

Next came the daunting task of selling our house, in the winter, in a barely-recovered housing market. Right as I started that process, my mom and Carol (her roommate and best friend) came up with a great idea.. "why don't we just buy your house?" They'd been trying to move to Columbus for a while now, but they were struggling to find an apartment or condo that they liked.  They also needed some grassy space for their wolf.. err.. dog, Zephyr. Enter my newly available home with fenced backyard. PERFECT! We agreed on a price, got to do without paying a realtor, and closed near Thanksgiving. The pieces were falling in to place.

Jeff was able to come "home" (e.g. his parents' condo) for two days at Thanksgiving, and he'll be back again on December 27th.  That means that I get to deal with the moving company packing up our house and loading it onto a truck all by myself. I've already told Jeff that he owes me, big time. We have a photo-shoot with Kim and Eric and a Going Away Party downtown on the 28th, and then a luncheon on the 29th after our final Sunday at North Congregational UCC.. all before we pile in to my car with Bella and hit the road for Greenville, officially.  Then, we will stay in his apartment for a week, until our furniture and belongings arrive (hopefully in one piece).

Our new home in Simpsonville

While I don't yet have a job in Greenville, Jeff is loving his.  We bought a house in nearby Simpsonville, and I can't wait to get there and make it our own.  Most people have been asking me what Greenville is like.  You can certainly read about it online, by visiting either the City of Greenville's website  or by looking it up on Wikipedia.


Here are the basics:

1. Greenville is part of what is called "The Upstate", a part of northwestern South Carolina that also includes "10 counties in the commerce-rich I-85 corridor".  The Upstate is also the fastest growing region in South Carolina. 
2. Greenville is located halfway between Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC, on I-85, for those of you looking for a point of reference.
3. Greenville is often combined with Spartanburg as a "combined statistical area" or "CSA".  This makes it the largest CSA in South Carolina.  
4. Greenville has gained notoriety in various national publications, with CNN Money listing it as one of the "Top 10 Fastest Growing Cities in the U.S.".  Bloomberg named Greenville the 3rd strongest job market in 2010, and Forbes named it to it's top 20 list of best cities for young professionals. Additionally, the state of South Carolina has been repeatedly ranked within the top 10 fastest growing states and economies by the U.S. Commerce Department.
5. The population in 2012 was 842,853, while the population of the CSA (including Spartanburg) was over 1.4 million.  
6. Greenville is located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and sits in the Bravard Fault Zone, experiencing small, but generally rare earthquakes.
7. Greenville is considered "mild, subtropic" in terms of climate. The spring is mild, summers are hot and humid, fall is crisp and winter is generally short (Jeff says it's been about 45 degrees for the past week). Moving from Columbus where we've been getting about 2" of snow a day for the past week, it'll be interesting living in a place that gets 4.5" of snow per winter.
8. Greenville is extremely scenic, with waterfalls in the middle of downtown and lots of parks and outdoor activities in the mountains. It's only 3.5 hours to Myrtle Beach, so you really have the best of both worlds: mountains and the ocean.
9. Greenville is a very culturally diverse area, with my former company, BMW, bringing a lot of people from all over the world to work at the plant in Spartanburg. When Jeff was in town for his interview, he was able to put his German skills to good use!
10. There is not a lack of things to do, with a vibrant downtown, a thriving art and theatre scene and a lot of great restaurants within minutes of our new house.

Reedy River, downtown Greenville

Even with the anxiety I feel about leaving my home in Columbus, I'm excited to be on this new adventure with Jeff and Bella. I know that everything happens for a reason, and I can't wait to start finding out those reasons as we go.  Everyone is more then welcome to come for a visit. We'd love to have you.

In conclusion, am I still sad about leaving Ohio? Absolutely.  I am a midwesterner for sure, deep down in my soul.  It will be a serious adjustment living in a place full of accents and words I don't understand and poor driving… wait, that's kind of like visiting Michigan with Jeff sometimes. In any event, we've had a wonderful combined 10 years in Columbus. I'm still going to be a Buckeye, I'm still going to call it soda (which never fit in to Ohio anyway, to be fair), I'm still going to be a liberal, and I'm going to do my best not to pick up the accent.  Regardless, we're going to build all kinds of new memories (and hopefully expand our family) in Greenville. I'll keep you posted!