Big news

Well, it's time to make it official: the Frozen Barrus Family will be slightly less frozen in a few months.

We're moving to the Salt Lake Valley.

The impetus for this change was Mandi's desire to get a master's degree in Opera Performance, to further her career goal of getting paid to perform and teaching on a university level.

The problem with this plan is that there is no opportunity to accomplish this goal in Idaho Falls. So we decided to move.

Mandi made a list of schools she'd like to attend, and gave me a list of the cities these schools are in.

Houston, Phoenix, Knoxville, Oklahoma City, Norman, Kansas City.

So I began the job search. I sent resumes to newspapers, magazines, radio programs and other random places where I felt my talents as a writer would be useful. I combed listings on journalismjobs.com and local job search sites in these cities. I wrote personalized cover letters for countless job openings. I talked with friends who had connections to jobs I was qualified for. This went on for months.

In the end? Bupkiss. Only two places even sent me back a response to my application, and both of those were automated.

I had known the economy was bad before I started my search, but good grief the situation is grim.

Along the way, we decided I should start looking for jobs in Utah, considering I had more connections to jobs there than anywhere else, and the University of Utah has a pretty good music program for graduate studies.

Still nothing.

Realizing we needed to move somewhere to start gaining resident status and avoid paying out-of-state tuition, we discussed the option of working from home for my current company, Harris Publishing. My boss, Brady, had spent two years working from home in Colorado a few months before I was hired, so I knew there was a precedent. In addition, there is very little I do at work that can't be done at home, and what meetings there are can be easily handled over the internet.

With that, I approached Brady and asked him what he thought. He said if it was a choice between losing me and letting me work from home, he'd choose the latter, and told me he'd speak to his boss and boss' boss.

A few days later, Brady and I met and he gave me the green light. I'd technically be classified as a freelance writer, but my pay would be the same, so it worked for me.

While technically this new arrangement meant we could live anywhere on the planet, Brady wanted me to stay within driving distance in case I did need to come back to the office for a big project or similar situation. So Utah it was.

Since then Mandi and I have been looking for housing in the Salt Lake Valley, as Mandi wants to be involved with the Hale Center Theater and eventually, the U of U.

My thoughts on the move are generally positive. Last month I celebrated my five-year anniversary of living in Idaho, which is far longer than the time I spent living on my own in Utah, both before and after my mission. And while southeast Idaho is basically Utah North, it's still different.

The biggest positive of the move is being closer to my family. My siblings are pretty much my best friends, and while Brooke is in Massachusetts and Matt is now in Rexburg, 6 out of 8 ain't bad. And then there are the many, many aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents who live along the I-15 corridor between Ogden and Provo... I'm excited to be able to visit them on a more frequent basis than the "we'reherefortheweekendsohowrethingsgreatwegottagobacknow" arrangement we've had for the past few years.

I'm also excited about getting back to the mountains. While it's not exactly Kansas here in Idaho Falls, there's nothing even close to the majesty of the Wasatch Front. They are home to me, as much as I want to deny I'm a typical Utah Mormon. :)

And then there's the aforementioned "Utah isn't as frozen as Idaho" factor. Sure, it snows in the Salt Lake Valley, a lot, but the roads get plowed and sometimes it's 50 degrees in January. When the snows come here, you don't see concrete until the spring thaw. It never gets warm enough to melt the snow off the lawns and driveways, so if you don't stay on top of your shoveling, you have a 3-inch solid layer of ice to deal with until May. It's bad.

So overall, I think this will be a good change. Moving stinks, and I am really dreading the packing-up-and-cleaning process, but it'll be worth it.

I'll have Mandi post her thoughts later.