Last time I wrote a post, I was living in Rhode Island. Since then, I have relocated to the Seattle area, along with my hubby & kids. As you may recall, we moved to Providence, RI in May of 2011, which was not so very long ago.
Two cross-country moves in fourteen months? Yes.
We moved to Providence because my hubby, Sam, who is a video game engineer, accepted a job with former up-and-coming MMO developer 38 Studios. It was a great opportunity for him to work on a project that, while maybe not groundbreaking in the genre, would have taken existing MMO conventions to new heights of gameplay and aesthetics. And it was a great opportunity for both of us to meet some really amazing people who we are going to be friends with for the rest of our lives. If nothing else, moving to Providence was worth it just for that.
Fast-forward to May 15th, 2012...one day before Sam's one year anniversary of joining the company. 38 Studios failed to make payroll and a few days later it came to light that the company had also defaulted on a loan payment to the RIEDC. A lot of drama and heartbreak and political mudslinging ensued, which has been reported on extensively, so I am not going to rehash all the details. Gamasutra did a good job of covering the drama from the employees' perspective, and you can read about it for yourself here if you are curious.
On June 15th, Sam was in California finishing his second week of interviews with game studios up and down the West Coast and I was home in Providence trying to get our house ready to put on the market, trying to find a way to cope with leaving the friends I had made over the previous year, and doing a horrible job at both.
On July 15th we had brunch with our best friends, said good-bye and then boarded a one-way flight to Seattle. We're now camping out at Sam's parents' house until our stuff gets delivered to our new place in Kirkland next week. The following week Sam will start his new job at Valve, and the kids and I will start the long and exhausting process of unpacking, settling in and making friends. Again.
Going from the first inkling that something was wrong to having picked up and fully relocated ourselves to the complete opposite end of the country in just two months is a lot to deal with. I wish I could get excited about being here, and I'm sure I will in a few more weeks, but for now my head is still spinning and my heart is still aching. Our best friend couple from 38 Studios are moving to Warsaw in September, which will put them very close to the opposite side of the planet and the opposite end of the day from us. My other best friend from Providence has lived there all her life and has no reason to go anywhere else, since she and her husband aren't connected with 38 Studios at all. We have a number of other dear friends among the ex-38 crowd who are also staying in Rhode Island or moving to the Boston area. We're also leaving behind some of our favorite cousins in northern New Jersey, who we were really happy to have reconnected with over the last year. The silver lining, of course, is that we now have a whole bunch of people to go visit in that corner of the country, but that doesn't begin to make up for the fact that we won't get to see any of them more than once a year for the foreseeable future.
Don't get me wrong, Seattle has a lot going for it: my in-laws are here, which is wonderful for many reasons, and our proximity to them means we will see more of the siblings and cousins who come visit regularly. My brother and his wife live in the area, which means we will see a lot more of them and we will also see more of my dad, who will be able to come for more frequent and longer visits. My best friends from college (who introduced me to Sam, incidentally) live in north Idaho, so we will be able to see a lot more of them than we have for the last few years. I have another good friend from college who visits the area several times a year and a friend from high school who now lives & teaches here. There are a number of ex-38ers moving to the area, some of whom we are pretty good friends with. And we are that much closer to all the people we miss in California, whom we will get to see a little more frequently now.
I'll post an update about how awesome everything is here once the dust settles and we get unpacked and organized. Meanwhile, to my friends and loved ones in New England, California, and all the far-flung corners of the world: know that I am thinking of you and wishing you were all closer.
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