Moving Forward

So, it has been a pretty eventful past two weeks! After some consideration, I accepted the out-of-state job last Monday, and gave notice at my current job last Tuesday. Admittedly, they seemed a bit surprised (probably because they just promoted me the week before), but I actually had no trouble telling them at all. I have no regrets in leaving my job. Leaving my city, however, is harder. Guy #3 sent me flowers at work that day with a very sweet note attached. It made me cry. He is such a good guy. Aside from the recent developments with him, I'd just started to be really good friends with a whole group of other people that I really like. I will be sad to leave them behind, but I have to move in about 2 weeks, right before Christmas, so I'll be ready to start my new job in January. Somehow I feel slightly numb about the whole thing, like it hasn't sunken in yet, but I do think my new job will be really cool, and I'll be a lot closer to family.

In the next two weeks, I must: wrap things up at my job, find a moving company, finish my Christmas shopping and send everything off in the mail, move to my new town, figure out travel plans to my Christmas destination, and say goodbye to my friends! I will be very busy.

Meanwhile, I can still have something good for dinner. Tonight was parmesan crusted tilapia, baked potato, and crisp green salad with Goddess Dressing (love this dressing! it is the only dressing I ever buy from a store).

Parmesan Crusted Tilapia

1 tilapia fillet

1 tbsp. parmesan

1/2 tsp. paprika

fresh ground pepper

few leaves of fresh parsley, chopped

olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Put a potato in to bake if you plan to have it with your fish. I usually microwave the potato for 2-3 minutes before baking to expedite the process.

Drizzle about 1 tbsp. olive oil in an ovenproof pan. Place fish fillet in pan, and turn it over in the oil so it is lightly coated. Choose the pretty side to be face up. Mix together parmesan, paprika, pepper, and parsley. Sprinkle mixture over top of fish to form a light crust. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the fillet. Fish will be juicy and tender with a light cheesy flavor. Enjoy with baked potato and fresh salad.

Crossroads

So, I retract my previous statement. After months of speculation and finally deciding that Guy #3 was gay, I discovered that he actually is not. He called me up recently and asked me if I wanted to see a play -- which I thought nothing of, since we've hung out platonically before -- but when I agreed, he suggested also going to a wine bar beforehand and said he'd come pick me up. Hmm, I thought.. that sounds a lot like a date. So, I finally asked Guy #2 -- "is he gay?" -- and Guy #2 was like, "well, we've always been friends, but I've never been sure about that. In fact, it has been the subject of conversation, but we never figured it out. You should go with him and find out!"

So, I went. I mean, I do enjoy hanging out with Guy #3, so I thought I'd give it a shot. We had a really nice time. No awkward pauses in conversation, the play was great, and we went out for drinks afterward. The only problem is that I have the same problem that made me turn him down earlier in the year (yes, he asked me out months ago and I told him I was not interested in dating anyone, but also wasn't sure if he had meant it to be a date at the time or not) -- the reason being that I have been seriously thinking about changing jobs, and that might mean leaving the area, in which case, it would be stupid to get into a relationship that I'm just going to leave behind. So, I told him the truth -- that I was interviewing for another job out-of-state. I felt bad telling him this after we'd just had such a pleasant evening, but I think I would have felt worse if I hadn't told him. We are still "friends".

This week at work, I was unexpectedly given a promotion on Monday morning, which was pretty great, but then I was also offered this other job on Monday night. So now I have to make a decision, whether to 1. stay at my promoted job -- which, btw did not come with a raise :-( -- where I have not been happy in order to stay in the city that I love, or to 2. take the new job with an even better title and way better working situation in a less desirable location. I think I'm going to take option 2, but it is not without some pain in leaving the nice little life that I've built for myself here. Sigh. I guess you can't have it all, but I will miss it here a lot. The new job would be really cool though, I'd be working with some really nice people, and I'd be much closer to family (as in 15 mins vs. 4 hrs). The location issue is that the job is in a tiny little run down town and I'm worried that it will be hard to find friends and potential guys to date there. But I think I'm going to take the leap. AHH!