2019 – April part 1

April.

What always sounds like a nice phrase to me is April showers. With the impending doom of my time drawing near at Intel I have been applying all over the place. One of the places we have considered returning to is Arizona. Not because we don’t love the Northwest, but it (the state) has really been good to us. We have had our kids in the state, we have some sort of roots there as well. Financially it has always been a stable place for us too.

I applied at First Solar. It’s a company based in the Tempe area. It would be a good opportunity for me and the company seems legit. I’ve been talking to them for a few weeks and they want me to come out for the final round of interviews. They offered to pay for my trip out and any expenses – never have I ever experienced that before. On to Phoenix! First I had to get a nice suit that I would wear for the interview. Then it would be the normal grooming haircut etc and making my way out. Elijah decided to pose and smile while I was having Sky take some photos so that I could see how I was looking.

Southwest flight. I took the day off of work from Intel and make it a long weekend. While at the airport I tried the “Portland Coffee Roasters” coffee which was amazing. I also loved the cups they had. On the plane, Southwest got creative with their crackers and had them specially shaped like a plane. Before long I was landing back in Arizona.

I got out of the airport, got to my rental car, and made my way to the hotel. The Tempe Mission Palms hotel by Hyatt – was the location that First Solar had booked for me. I took a trip out to some old stomping grounds that night. Ended up running into Lori (my first girlfriend back from high school days) but she didn’t seem to notice, or at least if she did she stared right through me like a stranger. What an odd feeling to be invisible and not known. Back at the hotel I ordered some room service, explored the grounds a little, and then got ready for bed with some interview prep.

Before entering I took a photo, you know – to remember the event. The interview seemingly went well. They were talking about how soon I could start but noted that they could not make any offers until they had a few other final interviews. I don’t know about you – but when a company is pulling out all the stops for you and trying to get you to join their group, you feel pretty good about things. That evening I took the trip back to Portland. Look at the parking for (2) days – $48. Ouch! I was reimbursed for it all. It really will be nice to have a transition from one job to another – without any lapse in work.

Back in Portland, we met up with Gramps and Nonnie a few more times. We had this lurking feeling that it may be our last time to live in the Pacific Northwest and we wanted to make sure we got a ton of time with them. Also took the kids to the Tulip fields again. Before you know it we were at another Blazers game cheering on our team that was highly ranked getting ready for the playoffs.

One day I got a call from Sky- “the kids broke the back fence” WHAT?! “Yeah, they broke it and did so to talk to some other kids on the other side. Oh man – I was livid. We found a way to put it back together without it looking like it was broken and while we were doing that the kids decided to throw a party in the kitchen by throwing flour everywhere. 😐

My parents came out and we got more photos of everyone together while creating a few more memories in the process. Voodoo donuts had a mobile food van that came to work at Intel (see the pink truck below) so I had to get one, especially since they were free. Since we heard back from First Solar that they were picking a candidate that had a degree instead of me, we decided we would make the best of the rest of our time in the PNW. Let’s see the sights as much as we can and enjoy what we can.

We went to a free community concert at the Arlene Schnitzer Hall and took touristy pictures of Portland. Went to Abby’s pizza (a local restaurant) and even found more art around the city, this time Blazer-themed. We capped off the week with a church we were going to miss dearly.

Time is running out. It’s like one of those sand-glass-timers – I could see the time moving quickly.

just Pray

note: this post was published on 08/26/22 but moved the publish date back to the middle of April 2019 to keep chronological order.