Congrats! I know what you mean about the imposter syndrome. I just started a new job, and was super worried. But having got here, seeing the work, doing it, I’m like, “why was I even worried?” I’m sure there’ll be something new, but given that the “base job,” is familiar, I have confidence I’ll be OK. And I’m sure the same will apply to you.

Enjoy your time off. I took 4 weeks off. I miss it already 😭

I’m a week into the new job. And so far it’s fine. In some ways, very different from my last job, but in other ways it’s very familiar to me. So far, the work doesn’t seem like anything crazy. It’s mostly stuff I’ve done before.

I’m having to commute again, which kinda sucks, but at least the commute isn’t any longer than what I used to do before I went full remote at previous job. At least by car. I still need to give public transit a try, though I have my suspicions that that’ll be longer.

And at some point, probably soon, I’ll be able to do a hybrid schedule, at least a couple days a week. So that’ll be nice.

Not gonna lie, after a month off of work, it was tough to have to wake up early again and work! I need to win the lotto or something.

Getting used to living in my new city. After 3 weeks of living here, I’m still liking it. That said, I haven’t gone out as much as I’d’ve liked because 1) I’m still trying to get things unpacked and situated, and 2) I’m a homebody hermit. Easier (and cheaper) to just stay home and chill.

Maybe that’ll be the reason I go back to visit: BBQ!

I finally moved! Made the 16hr journey from Kansas City to the Washington. DC. My dad and brother flew out last Thursday to help me load the truck and drive across the country. Got into town late Sunday and unloaded the truck on Monday. Still unpacking and setting things up, and of course getting my bearings, but so far it feels good. I will say that the drive through the Appalachians is stunning. Obviously not the Rockies, but in some ways, I think the Appalachians are more beautiful.

It was definitely a little sad leaving a city that I’d grown up in, that I’d been at for like 30yrs. As I passed through suburbs where I lived or went to school at, I was definitely tearing up a bit. I’d driven east out of the metro to visit St. Louis, Chicago, Columbus, and beyond many times over the years. But this time I wouldn’t be coming back “home.”

I was the last of my family to leave the area, and while I have a few friends there still, we’ve grown apart as we’ve gotten older as they’ve got their own families and such. As such, unless I move back, I’ll probably never return. Or at least, very rarely.

Anyway, I still have like 10 days before I start my new job, so in the meantime, I’m just relaxing and enjoying it. Hopefully this move will be worth it. I think it will be.

I think we’ll be good. Clay Chastain isn’t involved!

…yet.

I finished reviewing the whole thing about an hour ago. Looks good; went ahead and signed it! Of course, when I go on to the resident portal to pay the first month rent and such, it has the wrong amount -.-

I text messaged the specialist – because no joke, that’s their preferred method – and told him that once he fixes it tomorrow, I’m ready to pay. Let’s see if that gets done in a timely manner.

Welcome to Beehaw!

So I finally got this stupid apartment complex that I’m trying to move to respond to me. Had a couple questions on the lease, but the most important was that I was supposed to get like 2wks free rent, but the lease didn’t show that. They sent me the lease last Wednesday, expecting me to sign within 24-48hrs, while promising to “answer my questions promptly” but then it took them 4-5 biz days to get back to me. I emailed, called, and texted every day. I told them that I’m not signing anything until I get my questions answered. I was getting worried as I already put down a small deposit.

When they called today, I was half expecting to have to argue with them, but luckily the leasing specialist said “Sorry about that; I’ve sent you a new lease with the concession.” And it was there. Still need to review this new lease in its entirety, in case they added anything that wasn’t in the first lease. Which has happened to me before elsewhere; I had the apt managers redo a lease twice, because they kept messing it up. Only signed it on the third try. Don’t know if they were incompetent or trying to pull as fast on me; honestly, probably the first given how that place was run. Anyway, always read over your entire lease, even if they just corrected one little thing.

Hopefully get this signed by Friday. Once this is finished, I’ll be able to book a truck and fly some of my family out to help me.

OK, but what’s the neutral news?

Safe travels!

Still waiting on the reimbursement. It ended up being over $1700. I’ve been following developments on the Delta subreddit and some people had even higher, eyewatering amounts of expenses, due to traveling with families or being stuck abroad. There was one person who said they were stuck in Scotland and maxed out a credit card for $7500 on last minute airline tickets on another carrier and was of course livid. But a lot of others are reporting being made whole, plus getting compensatory SkyMiles and/or flight credits.

What I would love to come out of this whole thing, now that it’s happened twice in 2yrs, is better regulations on the airline industry, particularly with consumer protections. So much of the stress and anxiety was because no one knew if Delta was going to reimburse. Just require it in cases of delays of over 3hrs. If people knew that the airline was going to reimburse ahead of time, they probably wouldn’t have spent days in crowded airports, running out of food and diapers for their kids and all that. They can at least be frustrated in basic comfort, with the ability to shower, sleep in a decent bed; a bed, at all! Which helps A LOT. I was a lot more chill about things because I was able to get a hotel. And even if Delta wouldn’t pay for it, I could afford it. Not everyone has that privilege.

We’ll see.

First off…I’m home! I made it! \o/

Anyway, Public Enemy No.1 this weekend has been Delta. I know several other airlines also suffered from Crowdstrike-induced outages, like United, American, Spirit, and Alaskan (along with probably other airlines across the world). But by Monday, everyone but Delta, seemed to have their shit together. Delta and its subsidiary Endeavor Air were leading cancellations and delays around the world and domestically, by far. You can see on this page cancellations and delays for Tuesday and a few days back. It’s crazy for Delta. Though I just realized American had high delays still, too.

My understanding is that Delta – and probably other airlines…except maybe Spirit because, well, it’s Spirit – will reimburse for “reasonable expenses” for hotel, meals, and ground transportation. Which is great. Because I have at least $1000 of all that. Two Uber rides from the airport on Sunday to a hotel and back to the airport on Tuesday was almost $200 total! However, it gets real dicey with booking a ticket on another carrier, like I and many others ended up doing. That was almost $500 since it was last minute. Delta’s policy is to not reimburse for that. Though we’ll see how they respond. The US DOT has already opened investigations into Delta.

And while the DOT may not be able to legally require to Delta to pay for customers’ tickets from other airlines/busses/trains, the DOT can probably exert a lot of pressure to do the right thing. Maybe the fines will be less if Delta does reimburse. And of course, Delta has a lost a lot, lot, lot of goodwill and reputation in this. In the US, Delta is considered the top, most premium airline. I started using them some after the Southwest meltdown in 2022. “Voting with my wallet” and all that. Yet when it comes down to it, in an emergency, they’re no better than Southwest it turns out. Shameful.

I was able to get my unused portion of my Delta ticket refunded back to my credit card. But now we’ll see with everything else. Wish me luck.

And good luck and safe travels to anyone else who’s still trying to get home or wherever. Things with Delta are looking better for Wednesday, so looks like they should be back to regular operations soon.

Well the extra time on Saturday and Sunday morning was fine. But then it turned into a rolling delay fest for about 10hrs. I was at the airport at like 10am on Sunday, flight was supposed to leave a 1:30p, and it was finally cancelled around 11pm. So I’ve been here for an extra two days, without much other than my laptop, phone, and 1 extra pair of clothes that I always bring on my carry-on (my checked baggage made it home Sunday night/Monday morning, go figure).

But at least I was able to find a reasonably priced hotel. And a ticket out on another airline, which I’m boarding in about 10min.

Delta is going to be paying me back a lot of money…I’m up to about $1500 in unexpected travel expenses.

OK, I’m back at the airport in Seattle. I should be boarding my flight in like 10min. That’ll get me to Denver, then one more flight and I’ll be home!

A 3 day trip has turned into 6 days. And that’s cost me an additional $1500. I didn’t have it as bad as some, who were stuck in airports for days, or stranded abroad, as I at least got out to hotels. But it’s still not great. Since Sunday, I had one extra change of clothes in my carry-on (my checked bag made it home before I did). It’s Tuesday now.

Even though I ended up buying a ticket on a different airline, I was still constantly checking the website and FlightAware to make sure it wouldn’t get cancelled/delayed. After 10hrs, on Sunday, of rolling 30/60min delays on my flight, before they finally cancelled the flight at like 11pm, this feels a little like PTSD. Like I’m anxious to just get on the plane get the hell out of this airport.

Seattle is awesome, but I just wanna go home.

Thanks for that! I’m definitely hoping to take the Metro in most of the time. The first time I drove in DC back in 2010, I vowed, “never again.” I’ve driven in many cities, even in Puerto Rico once, but I thought DC was the worst.

Obviously moving there, there will be times I have to drive around, but to the extent I can avoid doing so, I will.

I’m in Seattle for a little vacation. Went to the “Bite of Seattle” at the Seattle Center today. That was unexpected, as my brother and I just wanted to go to the Space Needle. Instead, we walked around the festival grounds, got some beers, and listened to some of the local artists rocking out. We also met up with our parents for a bit who are vacationing up here, separately, too. Bit of a nice surprise for our mom. This was my first time here; it’s a cool place!

Now I’m trying to get home, which is proving a little tougher due to IT issues stemming from Friday. My airline, Delta, has been heavily affected. I was supposed to go home Saturday, but flight got cancelled. Now I’m supposed to leave today, Sunday, but I’m getting nervous. Feel like my flight will get cancelled again. Or my connecting flight home will get cancelled, leaving me stranded in another city So yeah. Nothing like a relaxing, chill vacation ending in some mild anxiety!

Ah well, I’ll get home eventually, one way or another.

Sorry to hear that =( At least she’s got two interviews lined up quickly, and yeah, hopefully one of those will turn into something.

Best of luck to you both.

If I may ask, how did it go? Hopefully better than expected for her?

Oh for sure. Like in my current city (Kansas City), public transportation is so pathetic. A person has to have a car here. There’s just no way to survive without one. And I live in the city, in the urban core.

While I fought paying even $50/mo for parking on apt property, I always thought it was funny when people complained about the price for parking garages/lots downtown. At one point not that long ago, it was like $2-5 on nights/weekends. There are barely any parking meters around. And, as far as I know, there’s no parking permits required for street parking. And it’s plentiful. But people still bitched and moaned about “not enough free parking.” Because they didn’t want to pay and/or have to walk more than a block from their car to their destination. Sheesh.

But in my soon-to-be new city, DC, it looks like someone could get away without having a car? I won’t be living in DC proper, but pretty close. So I’ll see.

I think if I had to pay the city to park on the streets, I’d strangely be more OK with that? But having to pay my landlord for parking privileges seems ridiculous because I’ll already be paying them out the nose for rent and such.

Oh well, such is the price for owning a car.

Definitely outrageous. In my current city, I’ve only ever paid for parking access at one place. And it was only like $50/mo. Which I still fought! I think only in the final year did they actually start making me pay for it, but at a reduced rate, like $25/mo.

I’ve definitely been thinking about getting rid of my car. I did ask the leasing agent if monthly parking was annual commitment or not. And they said it’s not. Or rather, it could be easily removed from the lease with no lease-change fee.

So maybe I stick with the car for the first 6mo to a year, learn how to get around, explore, see if I can go carless and fully rely on the public transit system (which I’d done before over in Chicago). I’d hate to get rid of the car ASAP and then realize that I do need it more than I thought.

Car is not even 4yrs old and it’s held it’s value remarkably well, according to KBB. So I’d potentially get like 95% (or more) of my money back if I did sell.

Back to work. With the US holiday being essentially a 4day weekend, plus getting back into town from a weeklong biz trip the week prior, didn’t do a whole lot of anything last week, other than sleeping and gaming and occasionally looking at email/Teams… So it’s a bit hard to get back into it.

I think I’ve settled on a new apartment in my soon-to-be new city. It’s expensive. Parking alone is like $120/mo (street parking requires a city permit). But it is what it is. It has what I want, particularly being close to a subway stop. Maybe I pay out the nose for the first year, then once I have my bearings, learn the area, I can find something cheaper elsewhere.

Dealing with apartments is a pain in the ass. I live in an apartment now and have lived in a few different apartments for the last 9yrs. So it’s not like I have no experience. But god, some of these places makes it very difficult to talk with a human. No, I don’t want to chat or text or have a phone call with a chatbot or AI assistant. No I don’t want to start the application process online before I get my questions answered. I just have a few questions; call me, please. Luckily someone – a real someone – finally called me today.

Also, what the fuck is an “administrative fee” at an apartment, and why is it so high? I get having an application fee of like $50. I get needing a deposit. But a $500 “administrative fee?” Have never come across that before. And this isn’t the only place I’m looking at that has it. As always, just another way to wring money out of folks.

Hopefully I’ll have this all settled within the next week or two.

Otherwise, back to FFXIV. Taking my time with the new Dawntrail expansion.