Beantown Bound

One crisp winter afternoon, the world issued a challenge.  It said, "I bet you won't get engaged, plan a wedding, uproot yourselves, move halfway across the country, take on a dual-degree graduate program at one of the most difficult schools in the universe, and get married, all at the same time."

My internal monologue in response went something like this:
Excitable Part of Brain: "Challenge accepted."
Rational Part of Brain: "You sure about this, big fella?"
Excitable Part of Brain: "Shut up, and start packing."

And so we were off.

One 2-minute phone call from this guy (Don Rosenfield, LGO Director).  

Life changed forever.

Moving sucks.  There's no way around it.  However, moving is more palatable when the light at the end of the tunnel is accepting a fellowship at MIT/Sloan.  Karen and I must have repeated this to ourselves at least a thousand times while we were packing up everything we owned, quitting our cushy jobs, and leaving our friends/family for a city in which we knew not a soul.  It really is scary, but nothing in life worth doing is easy, right?

Our moving priorities stacked up something like this: 1.) Find a place, 2.) Find Karen a job, 3.) Everything else.  Honestly, it all went much more smoothly than I think we could have ever hoped.  During the LGO Open House, which is an extremely helpful weekend for admitted students, we had tons of opportunities to explore the Boston/Cambridge real estate market and network for jobs for significant others (SOs in MIT parlance).

Because of our dog, Gus, we ended up breaking down, venturing into the 8th circle of hell (where the Boston rental agents live), and hiring help to track down a place.  When you move to Boston with a dog, you'll find that if at any given time there are 15,000 available places that you like, approximately 4 of them will allow you to have a pet.  Of those, 2 will allow that pet to be in excess of 6lbs.  A basic rule of thumb I'd suggest is that if you've ever accidentally sucked your dog up into your vacuum cleaner, you won't have a problem securing housing.  Otherwise, give in, pay the egregious fees the agents charge, and let them do the legwork to find you an apartment.

"Uhhhh... Yeah, sure, he's small... ish."

By the time May rolled around, we had signed a lease on a great place near Harvard Square in Cambridge, and Karen had networked/interviewed her way to 2 or 3 fantastic job offers; a feat I still find to be quite impressive, given the hiring climate out there.  We were finally ready to head off to Beantown, MIT, and what I hoped would be the experience of a lifetime.

A few parting thoughts on moving:

• Don't ever (ever) rely on Budget Truck Rental.  For anything.  Ever.  The morning I was scheduled to leave Pittsburgh, I get a call from Budget at 8:30AM that went something like this, "Duhhh... We don't have a truck here for you.  Sorry.  Here's a 1-800 number for somebody that can maybe help, but they don't open until 10AM."  Thanks, Budget.  That's not stressful at all.  They made me call three different 1-800 numbers throughout the course of the morning, sent me to a truck depot 45 minutes out of my way (where it turns out there was no truck), and ultimately informed me that there existed not a single available vehicle within 150 miles.  Maybe I could just *wish* my belongings to Boston?  Anyway, one quick phone call to Penske had me sitting in a big, gassed-up truck within an hour.  After this experience, I'll be a Penske customer for life.  In fact, after LGO, I may pursue employment at Penske if for no other reason than to utilize my newly honed MIT Sloan MBA skills to help bury Budget Truck Rental.

• About a week before we left Pittsburgh for good, some of my closest friends took me on a bachelor party/golf trip to Phoenix, AZ.  This was an amazing experience, afforded me one last hoorah with some of the best friends a guy could ask for, and sent me off to Boston with a nice warm/fuzzy.  Thanks again, guys.  See you all at the wedding this August!

My friend, Tom, and a ridiculously huge cactus.

I apologize for the length of this post.  I'm going to make an effort to keep them shorter in the future.  I guess I just had a lot to say about moving.

Cheers!