26 November 2010 Here We Go Again

About this time one year ago we were getting ready to move to the UK. AC’s employer had made us a fabulous offer: go and live in Brighton for a minimum of a year. We’ll send you over, store your stuff in the US, and help you find temporary housing in the UK. When you’re ready to come home, after a year or more, we’ll bring you back.

It was an offer we did not think about refusing. AC’s team was in Brighton and he’d been traveling there every couple of months anyway. Sam and I had accompanied him twice. We liked it, despite the sideways rain. And Brighton seemed to have a vibrant Home Ed scene (and so it does.)

We said yes. We purged our belongings. We sold our car. AC sold his motorcycle to a colleague. We gave up the lease on our house. We said, “See you in about a year!” to our dear friends in the Bay Area. We planned to come back in 2011, but also figured that we’d probably stay about 18 months, taking us through a second British summer. Sam and I left California in December and stayed with my parents through the holidays while AC wrapped things up at home. The plan was to land in the UK in early January.

Best laid plans.

I chronicled it a bit on this blog: the immigration paperwork to make it legal for AC to work in the UK as an employee of the UK entity of his employer took a lot longer than expected. Nearly two months longer. Sam and I ended up spending the first part of 2010 in Pennsylvania and then finally in early March the three of us, reunited, finally made the move to Brighton.

The belongings we’d shipped to ourselves–mostly clothes and books and toys and bicycles–left CA in February and arrived in Brighton in mid April.

In early June AC received some shocking news from his employer: they were going to cease all UK operations and close the Brighton office. UK law, however, stipulated a 30-day “evaluation” period, so it wouldn’t be official until July. AC was assured that he would still have a job, but that job would be in San Francisco.

We reeled from that news for a while.

July came and what do you know the company evaluated that yes indeed they would cease all UK operations and that the Brighton office would close on the 30th of September. AC was now told that he would be relocated to San Francisco and then he would have “some months” to either find a new role for himself in the company or find a new job.

We figured, quite correctly it turned out, that the latter was the more likely scenario.

In the meantime, AC and three of his Brighton colleagues started a new company–a development studio called Singing Horse Studio. I’m not even going to try to describe what they do–check out their website (and AC’s jaunty hat!)

At the end of the summer when AC received the written compromise agreement there was nothing in there about a job in San Francisco and, lo and behold, it turned out that he, too, just like his British colleagues was “made redundant.” His final day would be November 30. The company would, however, pay to relocate us back to the States, to pretty much wherever we wanted.

So it was time to decide. This was one of the hardest decisions we’ve ever made. We weren’t ready to leave the UK. But we also weren’t willing to forfeit the relocation, which comes with a hefty price tag. And we’d never meant to be ex-pats for longer than a couple of years.

We decided to return to the States. We made the decision over a couple of “orange and lemonades” at a pub called “The Office” in the North Laine of Brighton. We decided to return to the States and ask to be relocated to Charlottesville, Virginia.

That’s right. Cville: where we went to graduate school, where we used to own property, where we were married, where our closest friends still live today.

We wanted to land somewhere we could live frugally. We wanted to land on the east coast so that AC can continue his collaborations and frequent travel to the UK. We wanted to land in a welcoming community that would support us through what may be a challenging time.

AC is going to give Singing Horse a go. The plan is for him to set up the US entity of the company and also travel back to the UK every other month or so to work with the team face to face.

I will continue to write and try to sell my writing. I will also seek out tutoring opportunities and probably launch my preschooler French class for a third time. And we’ll continue to home educate Sam. Cville, too, seems to have a vibrant homeschooling community.

After 6 months or so we’ll evaluate. If the income isn’t there, then AC will go on the tech job market and then who knows what will happen or where we’ll go. Best laid plans, you know.

At the moment we’re not planning. We’re packing and purging. On Monday the movers come and pack our stuff for the ocean voyage home.

I keep thinking… wait… didn’t I JUST do this? Oh right, I did.

It’s an emotional time. We are devastated to leave Brighton so soon. We made lovely friends here. We are torn up about not returning to the Bay Area. We left lovely friends there. The bright spot is that soon we’ll see our beloved families and friends in Pennsylvania and Virginia. That does cheer me, it really does. But it’s hard to see it through the piles of stuff I need to sort. The crap I need to throw away. The grief I need to fold into my heart.

Here we go again. Three weeks from today. There are going to be tears with this one. Just like all the others.