My life so far

I may as well use this entry to bring everyone up to speed with my life. Last year, my desire to live and work in New York became the most important thing to me. For years and years, I'd entertained the notion of ditching the UK and heading off to NYC but I never really thought it was possible. Then a very good friend of mine made the transition. And it got me to thinking and examining my possibilities. So I saved all my vacation time and last March I took a 4 and a half week trip to NYC. Part of the reason I took such a long trip was to also see if I could make any connections for later employment. Through a sheer fluke, I managed to. Some very good connections at that. But they all said the same thing, that a month wasn't really long enough and I should come back for 90 days and do some proper networking.

So I did. I quit my job, borrowed money from the parents and in July of last year, I set off to New York to find myself a job. The connections I'd made earlier in the year didn't come to fruition and with the clock ticking, I had to formulate a plan B and a plan C. Plan C, with literally seconds to spare, paid off. The job I quit was in theatre box office and I found a company (who shall remain nameless) in NYC who wanted to branch out and start selling London shows and hotel packages. Perfect. I had two interviews with them, the second interview was the Friday before I left NY the following Monday. At the end of that interview, they said that they should have clearance from head office in enough time to get me back to NY for Thanksgiving. That was on October 14th. Fine.

So I should be done and dusted, living in NYC for 3 months now, right? Wrong-o. Said company also told me in the second interview that they'd hired foreign nationals before and they always paid the legal fees and then took it out of the salary they paid them. Perfect. And completely untrue. On December 13th, two months after the second interview, they finally made me a preliminary job offer, dependent on my passing their reference and background checks. On January 12th, they withdrew the job offer as they were not "allowed" to hire foreign nationals on the visa I would initially be on. Luckily for me, I had done extensive research on the visa and its requirements, so I knew more than they did. So I spent most of Friday 13th (how fitting) on the phone with them, their head office and my lawyer, sorting everything out. I finally managed to make them reconsider and they have started the initial paperwork for the visa but they STILL haven't made me a firm job offer, in case their corporate office won't approve the initial paperwork. By Feb 6th, they hope to be able to move forward with it all officially. When they made me the preliminary offer in December, they wanted me to START on Feb 1st.

And so that's where I am. I have been sleeping on a friend's couch, thoroughly testing my and her patience. Of course, it was only supposed to be for a few weeks, and it's dragged out into several months. I haven't been able to go find a temp job as I have never had any timeframe given to me once the initial Thanksgiving date expired. Well, they gave me the Feb 1st date, but by the time they gave that to me, a Christmas trip to see the parents who retired out to Spain was already booked and paid for. I didn't come back until Jan 3rd. Well, hopefully they get themselves in gear and we can start moving forward. That way, I can be in NYC on or around my 31st birthday. Watch this space.....