Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Wanderlust: we ... are ... taking the Taylor Twins on the road ... Moving from SF to Seattle!

Whoa nilly - it's time for a change.  Well, change is hitting us at this time.  Recently I decided I needed to "expand my corporate horizons."  I love my company - amazing team, great products, and a phenomenal industry path (aka, we're moving on up in this technology world beating the big guys).  That said, I realized I can't move up within the company - we're small (50 people) and marketing isn't going to grow in the foreseeable future.  Also, I keep getting tired of trying to explain what "open source web middleware" means to my family.  So, over the past few weeks I embarked on an interview journey to find a new perfect company - I wound up getting 4 offers: a retail company, a GIANT in software, a online HR company, and a perfect-fit-for-me company (whose name I'll make public some other time).  During this interview odyssey, we were also in the process of buying a house and getting evicted (seriously, does everything come in multiples now?...)  Fast forward a few weeks and the house we were in escrow on fell out and our apartment dreams of living in SF were no longer ideal (two boys in just under 1000 square feet is not ideal).

So, we're moving to Seattle.  Yes, Seattle!  Here's the deal - the world kind of pushed us to a place where a) we were going to be homeless, b) I wanted to accelerate my career while being a GREAT mom (nothing less than A+ - just like my nanny (a constant A+)), and c) our boys would have room to roam. 

Here's the tough part - we have nowhere to live in Seattle yet after my business trip to New York next week, we're supposed to move in ONE day (yep, nuts?).  We also have no daycare, and no knowledge of the area.  But, I have cousins there and my old college roommate lives there - rad.  Also, Matt's company is going to let him work remote - awesome!

So, the isms will continue.  Here's my favorite funny for now - the hipsters (Seattle really is the home of hipsters):










Pop quiz, which is SF and which is Seattle?  Here's the deal (and my new favorite line from Matty), "our jeans are too loose and our bikes have too many gears to live in the (insert hipster hood) area."  Side-note, I actually secretly love hipsters.

4 comments:

Jill said...

Congrats! I've lived in Seattle for 11 years. My hubby and 5 month old daughter live on Capitol Hill amongst all the hipsters! (There really isn't a better neighborhood - it's expensive but this is where we want our family to be!)

Amber said...

Hi Jill! We actually are looking at that area - we're looking at everything (Capitol Hill, Queen Ann, Green Lake, Ballard ...) Is your daughter by any chance in daycare? Would you be able to recommend them? I'm having the hardest time finding a new daycare ...

Thank you!

Erika said...

Amber - Hi, found your blog not too long ago doing a search for twin blogs (I've got identical twin girls, turning one this weekend). I've been in Seattle for 10 years, and did the childcare search for my 3.5 yr old son more than 4 years ago. There are a bunch of downtown daycares, but with long wait lists. Try childcare.org; you can register with them and they give you a bunch of daycare options (I think it's a nominal charge). My kids are part-time in a neighborhood daycare - we're quite pleased with it (we're in the Maple Leaf/Greenlake neighborhood). Good luck and welcome to Seattle!

Jill said...

My daughter gets to stay with her grandma right now, so we are lucky there. I did check out the list Erika referenced and found it mostly helpful though it's poorly formatted; you can search by zip code which is nice. There are so many great neighborhoods in Seattle; it's hard to go wrong!