Summer of Confusion

Late last year was an eventful time. I moved to Wilmington, NC from NYC (huge transition)! My childhood friend, who also is originally from New York, moved down there back in May, loved it, and suggested I come visit her. Meanwhile my last job ended in April, and nothing else was coming through. In addition, family problems were increasing and so I obviously was undergoing major stress. With that said, I figured why not? What have I got to lose? So I did pack up, took a bus and ended up staying with my friend in her two bedroom apartment. It was going OK for a while, but again, still no real job opportunities were coming and she needed my help paying the rent... oh boy!!

In November I had attended a few pre-holiday events in the area, free ones of course! This particular one was a champagne tasting at this lovely wine shop in the neighborhood. Previously I met a very nice guy at this wine shop, chit chatted, and he mentioned he was going to attend (I already signed up).

We met again that night, and amazingly enough, we hit it off well. After that evening we spent a lot of time together, most of the time at his place. So I figured to bring him with me to my friends apartment to introduce him to my friend and a mutual friend who happened to be there. A very lukewarm reception, possibly a bit jealous, my attention was given more to him than them ultimately. I decided to speak up and let her know that I don’t have the money yet to pay my share of the rent, and that’s that. In the meantime, Jerry offered to let me stay with him since we were getting along so well, so that’s what I ended up doing. Still to this day I feel my friend was only caring about the money factor (she is on disability and only can work from home, yet she was having financial problems in a different way).

On to a different topic, Jerry’s position had ended in December; massive layoffs were occurring. Uh oh! So again stress, but now it was both of us this time. Hanging tough through this situation, he happened to get a call from the HR Department with the same company, but different division. This position would be located in Kentucky! Wow, there goes the Wilmington lifestyle. He had three interviews with them; for one he flew down to Kentucky while I stayed put in Wilmington.

About two weeks later, we stopped at our local brewery and there was a guy selling crystals. Now as for myself, I am a bit superstitious and I figured to buy a few quartz stones, plus others that represented good luck. Literally five minutes later Jerry got the call! He got the job! They were going to cover the majority of the relocating expenses as well!! Awesome news.

Psyched, but there were other major details, he was a homeowner and had to put his house on the market. Also, a puppy and two cats were involved! So this caused some more stress, it wasn’t going to sell at the asking price so had to go lower. Issues with a few applicants, etc... wow, we had to be moved in already since he was about to start in a few weeks. We didn’t even search for an apartment yet! So we drove down to Cincinnati, on the border of Kentucky, we searched both areas for a while. Ultimately we got accepted to move into a townhouse complex in Cincinnati, not a far drive for him to get to work in Kentucky.

Now the other situation, my grandma fell ill back in March of this year and my mom constantly asked me to come back to New York; she needed my help. Grandma had congestive heart failure, in addition to other ailments. Of course it’s my family, I couldn’t say no can’t do it, so Jerry said you have to go back and help them out. He paid for my flight and was extremely supportive of me doing this.

I was in New York since July and luckily Grandma's health improved drastically since being released from the hospital. She had the support of me, my mom, and two home health care aids.

So now I am back here in Cincinnati since Saturday. Our relationship is even stronger now than ever since I have been gone. I think besides my grandma's health issues, we needed this temporary break.

Happy to be back!! True story. 😊

P.S. My friend and I have remained distant, connected yet distant.