Life in the Triangle

In 1999, my wife Kathy and I moved to The Triangle Area of North Carolina from California. Interesting area, the Triangle. Here are some of our experiences.

Google

Saturday, April 01, 2006

Let's move 'Back East!'

Have you ever noticed when some people talk about where they or their relatives live it's Back East, or Out West? It's never the other way around. It's not Out East or Back West, because the assumption is that if you live in the West, you're originally from the East, and if you live in the East, then "out there" is Out West.

"Where is your daughter living now?"

"Oh, she lives out west!"

"Really? Do you think she'll ever move back east?"

Anyway, Kathy and I lived in Pennsylvania for over twenty years before we moved "Out West" to California, so when it was time to consider moving again during the late '90's, we decided to head "Back East."

We didn't really want to return to the climate of the North East, having "been there done that" with the snow and ice. So we looked along the Southeastern seaboard to find a place to live.

I did job searches for Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, but found little opportunities to make good use of my skills. Then I tried North Carolina, and BAM. I was hit with all these job opportunities, specially concentrated in this area called RTP - whatever that was.

"What the heck is RTP?" I asked Kathy. She had actually heard of Research Triangle Park, having shipped packages to this NC town while working in the Silicon Valley.

"It's some big industrial park out in North Carolina," she answered.

"Well, they've got a ton of jobs out there, so I think I'll check it out," I said.

"Go for it," was her unhesitant response. Kathy was actually kind of getting weary of California, and had somewhat of a "been there done that" feeling for the West. Honestly I think she just missed her family "back east" and wanted to return to the land of normal after ten years of "out west" living.

Plus, we wanted to be able to afford a house once again. We hadn't owned a house for about twenty years, West Coast housing prices were through the roof (pun intended,) and paying rent for ten years really takes its toll on trying to build a nest egg.

So right there, I said if RTP had something to offer me job-wise, then we were moving to Raleigh, North Carolina, sight unseen.

Labels: , ,

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home