For the past two years, Ravi's job with AT&T had been gently suggesting we relocate to Dallas. "We're okay," we kept saying, gently suggesting they stop asking. Little by little, his work team was relocated. By the spring of 2018, everyone he worked with was in Dallas.
He got to a point where he was frustrated to go to his office near Seattle, since he didn't have a spot in the office where he belonged. He didn't have a community. I think he often got bored.
In June, AT&T acquired Time Warner. The layoffs swept throughout the company. It seemed no one was safe. When Ravi dodged the layoffs, we decided Dallas may sound okay.
I started researching houses and fell in love. The ceilings were high and the facades were stunning. Home prices were sometimes 40% of what we were looking at in the Seattle area, for so much higher quality homes. Dallas seemed like the Promised Land.
When Ravi agreed, the move was sudden and ambitious. Breaking our lease was twice as hard and four times as expensive as we expected. We sold most of our belongings. We only had about 6 weeks before he started work in Dallas, so we even moved into my mom's house for the last two weeks. It sounds complicated, but it was actually easier logistically.
Our last hoorah in Washington State was Halloween night. I booked an AirBnB in Ocean Shores. It was Egypt themed. It was really freaking cool. It was an A-frame villa and the ceilings were done with tulle and string lights. A 6-foot-tall statue of Anubis greeted us at the door.
I tried to do this Halloween-themed cocktail: the spider bite. It tasted like sh*t. No, thank you. Very expensive ingredients to drink 1/3 of a really gross cocktail.
My mom, dad, and their friends dressed up as Steampunk. They didn't actually know what steampunk was, so we argued about that for a few days, but I don't think we ever really settled it. Ravi and I were Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog. I either chose Miss Piggy because she's fabulous, or because I'm quite a bit more "voluptuous" then I've ever been.
I put on a little dress and burgundy fur stole. I made myself some felt ears. I found some old pearls and some old red-bottom platforms. I even attached a snout with some newly learned prosthetic techniques and materials. For Kermie, I spray painted some very attractive brogues from Goodwill (they were way too nice to be painted green, in retrospect). I made him some eyes, bought him some gloves, and hooked him up with some green hair gel. I loved this costume. It was super simple and super fun.
We went to Quinault Beach and Casino for their Halloween party. I was heavily intrigued by the prize money. My parents' group made the final round for the group contest, which was awesome. Ultimately, a group of very tall men dressed as KISS won. They came with groupies, even, so I understood that win. Ravi and I made the final round for couple contest, too. We were beaten by Frankenstein and a woman that somehow had her head in a fishbowl the whole night. They probably deserved it, too.
After two weeks of tasting my dad's grilling experiments (all of which were excellent) and drinking our weight in beer (several times over), we packed a cooler of snacks and set out at 4 am on an adventure to the new world.