Today has been an absolutely fabulous day. It really was. I think it was the best day since Troy left. Things have all just gone really well today and I’m very happy. Well, aside from me running my car into a pole this morning. lol. I turned too sharp into my parking spot at work and scraped the back wheel well on the pole that holds up the parking cover. I left a dent and a lot of paint transfer. Oopsies. lol. I think Troy was more torn up about it than I am. I think my only real response to it was ‘Well, crap, that was dumb.’ lol. I love my car, but really, it is just a car.
Everything else today was just really great. Work went well, I got a lot accomplished and my boss emailed me last night (i got it at work this morning) to tell me that she really appreciates me and all the work I do. That made me nervous for a minute because my boss usually only does that when she wants something, but then I remembered the huge project I did for her on Monday and realized she really was grateful. It was neat. Kinda gives me hope that I can keep my job when I go to Malaysia.
And now to Malaysia. Troy called this morning and we were able to talk for about 45 minutes. That is the longest we’ve talked since he left! We usually only talk for less than 5 minutes because one of us is always at work or sleeping. I’m getting up when he’s leaving work and he’s getting up or heading to work about the time I get home. My job is pretty lenient about him calling when I’m at work because two of the managers and about half the attorneys were in the military and there are several military wives that work at my office. I’ve never had an opportunity to avail myself of that leniency before now and it made me appreciate that I have a job where I can talk on the phone and complete my work. So, it was a nice conversation this morning. We were able to get several things worked out. Well, last night, too. We were chatting and emailing back and forth last night while I was writing my blog (which is why it was a little disjointed in some parts) and he was able to give me more information. It’s such a relief to have information. I feel so much more at ease and peaceful about the whole thing now that I have information. I’m the kind of person that doesn’t like to make decisions or take action without all the details, so this whole endeavor has been a challenge because so many pieces have been missing. We still don’t have all the details, but we have more than we did before, so we are making progress.
What we figured out last night was that Troy is coming back here on the 15th of September, will be here a week to debrief and get all his stuff here finished and then he leaves on the 21st. And that is when I will go, too. I was going to stay and work through the beginning of October, but he said I will need to come over the same time he does. And since his company is paying for my ticket, I guess that is when I will go. So, I have until the 15th to get my apartment packed, stuff sold and my job figured out.
Part of me is still hesitating to turn in notice to my apartment complex and talk to my boss because Troy’s bosses still haven’t signed the contract with the Malaysian government to do this project. Troy said he’s 99.9% sure it will happen, but until it does, he won’t receive authorization to acquire an apartment. And this is my cause for hesitation. I also feel like I need to move on it because I have to give a 30-day notice to my apartment complex and if my boss says I can’t work from Malaysia, I’ll need to give notice and start training someone to do my job. Troy said one of the partners is going to be in Malaysia next Wednesday to go over the contract at that it could be signed as early as Thursday. I really hope it is signed Thursday because that will give me more time to either train or work out kinks in the work-from-home thing. I guess I should give notice at my apartment complex tomorrow. That one won’t be too huge a deal if the whole Malaysia project falls apart. The new management is pretty nice and they’ll either let me stay longer or let me rescind my termination of tenancy. If they don’t allow either of those, I’m not without options. Troy would help me out and there are plenty of people in my ward who would be willing to assist, so I wouldn’t be completely thrown to the wolves. So, I will bite the bullet. Tomorrow I will call them and give them verbal notice and will drop a letter in the box after I get home. I can’t do it now because I don’t have a printer. Well, I do, but it’s broken. I keep meaning to tear it apart to find out what the problem is, but I’ve just been too busy with other things. I guess I could do it this weekend, but I really need to pack. lol. Now that I’ve started packing, I find reasons to avoid packing. I really hate moving, but this is a great opportunity and I feel really good about it now.
Anyways, this morning, Troy and I were able to talk about the whole apartment thing. I’ve been looking at places online and it has been a challenge. All the cheap places I’ve mentioned have been in bad neighborhoods (Troy and a coworker drove around one day to look at some of the cheaper apartment complexes) and most of the other places I’ve looked at have been too expensive. Troy said his work approved two apartment complexes for their employees and while I love the layout and the communities, they are REALLY expensive. I found a few that are somewhat in my price range and Troy keeps telling me he’ll help me out. He told me last night that his work is upping his cost of living adjustment from the RM8000 for a single person to RM9500 because I’m going with him and he said he’d give me the additional RM1500. That would pay about half my rent, so that is very helpful. Today, though, we came up with a better option. Troy found a duplex apartment unit that would be perfect. It’s practically two apartment units in one! The top floor would be mine and he would live on the bottom floor. We think there is either a door at the bottom of the stairs or the top, but we aren’t positive. If there isn’t, we discussed either requesting one be put in or doing something ourselves to make it more separate. It went unspoken, but I’m pretty sure we’re both on the same page that the top floor will be off-limits to him. His being allergic to cats does have a good side, apparently. lol. I’ll have my own living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a study. The only thing we’ll have to share is the kitchen and the balcony. I talked with my mom about the arrangement and she is pretty happy about it. She said she was really worried about me living there and she feels a lot better knowing I’ll be close to Troy. She said she likes that it will be separate living spaces on two different floors. I think she also likes that if anything bad were to happen, they’d have to go through Troy’s floor first and he’s not going to let anything happen to me.
The only thing left to worry about is making sure we get a place where Sadie can come, too. I had a bit of a meltdown Monday about Sadie. I was super worried about her not being able to come because most of the apartment places I’d emailed had said they wouldn’t accept pets. I was talking to my mom about it and telling her how I’d forgo Malaysia before I’d get rid of Sadie. She’s been with me through so much and I’m not going to abandon her. I had asked both my mom and my sister if they’d be willing to take her while I was gone, but they both said no, so I was really stressing about it. My mom had suggested one time that I ask my ex-boyfriend if he’d be willing to take her for the year and a half I’ll be gone. Uh, no. He may like Sadie, but I don’t trust him at all. He’d either use her as leverage to be a butthead or he’d get rid of her as soon as I was gone. So no way am I trusting my baby with her. When I was talking to my mom on Monday, she made the mistake of mentioning taking Sadie to an animal sanctuary. I lost it. I started doing the whole hyperventilating crying thing. There’s no way I’m giving Sadie to any type of shelter. I sent Troy a voxer (walkie talkie program) message and told him I couldn’t find anywhere that accepted pets and told him that he’d better not suggest I give Sadie away. He’s teased me about that before. But Monday he didn’t. Well, mostly. He likes to tease me about a lot of things, but when I’m crying, he’s really good about being supportive and offering solutions. He sent me several messages back telling me not to cry and they we would figure it out. I told him I wasn’t going to go if Sadie couldn’t go with me, but that I really wanted to go and I didn’t know what to do. He sent me a silly message about how everything will work out and that Sadie would be able to come. He said she would love it there and then listed all the animals that would enjoy having Sadie there. And then he mentioned one would enjoy having her in his tummy. lol. It made me laugh. He’s really good at making me laugh when I’m stressing out or upset about something. I cry a lot when I’m stressed, so he’s learning how to handle that. lol. Poor guy.
Anyways, though, he said this morning that if the apartment we were looking at doesn’t accept cats, he will look around for the same setup somewhere that does accept cats.
This setup will be good because if I can’t keep my job, it will free me up to get my Medical Transcription license and then start school in January. If I’m not able to do distance learning in January, I will still be able to do Medical Transcription instead of getting a job in Malaysia. I also really want to do what my brother did in Thailand there. He taught English in an orphanage and I think that would be a really neat experience. So, since Troy’s company will be paying the rent and the utilities, that will free me up to find an orphanage to work in. If I can’t do that, I’m sure there are other places with volunteer opportunities. Troy and I have talked about that quite a bit and he’s very supportive of the idea. I’m really excited about the idea because I think it would be an amazing experience to teach children English and learn their language. I really hope things work out so I can do that.
Well, it’s 10:36 and I should go to bed. I was up blogging and chatting with Troy until 1am this morning and then I couldn’t really sleep, so I should get to bed. I’m kinda surprised that I felt so great today with having hardly gotten any sleep, but I think having those stresses off my shoulders has helped a lot. I just feel so much more positive and hopeful about everything now. I’m trying really hard not to get my hopes up too much, because things have a tendency to fall apart quite often and I don’t want to be way let down, but I can’t help it. I really feel like this whole adventure is going to work out. I’m scared and nervous about living in a new country, but those feelings are being drowned out more every day and being replaced by peace and excitement. I felt like doing a happy dance all morning and that feeling has carried over into tonight. I hope it lasts the rest of the week because I love feeling this way.
Anyways, goodnight world.
