Only I would do this

Who would drive 14 hours straight for a job interview, then drive 18 hours back; get the job with an offer better than anticipated, only to say, “no thanks”?

Me.

Ok, I said a lot more than “no thanks”, but yes.

If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen all the mountain and snow pictures with “captain’s log” as the title. You inadvertently got to follow along with my endless driving, and hopefully didn’t lose your mind too much as you did. I’ve been on the hunt for awhile, and have really been looking far and wide for the right state, right city and right job when I thought I might have found it in Salt Lake City, UT.

Random spot, I must admit, but I had my reasons…least of them being the fact I’m not Mormon…I know, go figure. A non-Mormon wanting to live there. But it’s pretty. Really pretty, and I wanted a bigger city that would take me out of California. I have to get out of California, it’s time.

I have other states and cities I’m interested in, but a company in Salt Lake were the first to contact me, and an interview was set for later that week. Flights were too outrageous to consider that route, last minute and all, so driving became my only option. At least it was a beautiful drive for most of it, but the length! It was 4 hours longer than I expected. And I was tired.

I made lots of stops along the way, one of which was a casino in Elko, NV to sit on the bathroom lounge’s {carpeted} floor to charge my phone for awhile. That was fun. I kept freaking out all the women that would walk in and not see me at first.

Ironically the day of the interview, everything went wrong. My alarm clock didn’t go off because it was still on Pacific time. My shower turned ice cold 4 minutes in. My coffee was disgusting and I only got 1/2 a cup. I met a girl to look at her place only to have it be a bad fit. I stopped for breakfast 15 minutes after the restaurant stopped serving it.

One thing after another and my mood got lower and lower and it wasn’t even 11 yet…with an interview in 30 minutes, this was not a good sign. Naturally, I got on the wrong freeway, went the wrong way, and lost the 10 minutes I was going to be early. I was forced to call to say I was going to be late.

Who drives 14 hours to an interview only to be late to it?

Me.

Of course I was still in my jeans from the morning, and had to frantically pull over a half mile away from their office to change in my front seat. It was a finer moment of mine.

Two minutes late. *sigh* I nailed the interview… what can I say, I’m good. …and humble. Afterward, I had to go to the mall because my favorite jeans, the only jeans I brought for this very quick trip, ripped and was ripping more by the hour all the way around the back to my butt.

Not good.

I make it in their mall and after over an hour of awkward walking around and futilely trying on jeans, I land on some “ponte” pants at Ann Taylor. Finally! I walked out wearing them and my day improved! I realized throughout that day that Salt Lake might in fact not be for me. I wasn’t in the best mood, but nothing about the city wowed me and didn’t leave me wanting to come back, let alone stay.

Talk about a dilemma when I just interviewed for a job. With each hour that went by on my long long drive back to California, it was more and more apparent I didn’t want to live there. So when I had my friends texting me saying the company was calling them for references, I was getting a bit nervous. In the middle, they called me but I wanted to hear back from my friends to hear what they asked, so I didn’t answer.

A few hours later, they called me again, and offered me the job with a better offer than I thought they would. I was surprised! So much so, instead of immediately turning it down like I planned, I asked for a day to think about it, and proceeded to freak out for the next 2 hours texting, emailing and talking it out with friends and family. Finally I prayed about it and by the morning, I knew I still couldn’t do it.

I explained to her why, and she understood completely. We parted on good terms, and I am now back to figuring out where I want to live. Where the next job offer will come from. And I’m okay with that. So back in California I stay for now. Focusing on school and enjoying this time with my parents for a little longer. Something right will come along and when that does, everything will come together nicely.

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