Moving... Where?!

After a long day at work that started with a meeting at 8:00 that went all the way until 5:00 when I finally signed off so I could head to a work/team-party-happy hour for a couple of hours, I finally got home at around 7:30. I was tired. My feet hurt. I was itching to get out of my work clothes. I wanted to get on my computer and check my e-mail.

And en-route to the computer room, my phone rings. I groaned inwardly, trudging back to the hallway where my phone was, and saw it was my sister.

"Hey," I greeted her, trying to mask the exhaustion in my voice.

"Hi," she greeted back. "You're--are you--hey, um... So you know... Do you have a minute?"

I paused at the flustered, halted words, uneasily sinking into my computer chair. "Sure," I agreed slowly. "What's up?"

"Well," she began, in her quick, excited ramble. "You know I'm in Juno, right?"

Of course I knew she was in Juno. She had been terribly excited about being flown out to Alaska for a job interview all throughout brunch on Sunday. "Yes," I agreed. "For your job interview, right?"

"Right!" she confirmed eagerly, as if relieved I had remembered. She went on quickly. "They offered me the job!" She proceeded to tell me, without barely pausing for breath and in a shaking voice that made me wonder if she was hyperventilating and going to pass out in the airport, that they had offered her more than she had expected in pay, had offered to pay her moving expenses, were offering her a house to live in for a few months while she found somewhere to live, and oh-by-the-way, they wanted her to start tomorrow. "And I just don't know what to do," she finished, her voice trembling and quivering with emotion. "I just... I just don't..." She laughed, almost hysterically. "I don't know what to do."

I stared at my computer screen, wide-eyed, taking deep breaths as if to compensate for the ones she wasn't taking. "Well," I began slowly, "start packing?"

She laughed, a mixture of amusement and horror echoing through the phone at me. I blinked at my screen, trying to figure out what to do. Trying to channel my father, who had always sat there silent and calm, a steady rock whenever I had approached him in emotional states.

"I told them I couldn't commit to anything," she told me, her voice still shaking. "It's... It's so far away. And... it's all happening so fast. I just... I don't know what to do."

I must have heard, "I don't know what to do," at least fifteen times in our ten-fifteen minute conversation.

She eventually hung up to board her plane, and I turned to fill my husband in on the most recent turn of events. I then called home to check on my parents and make sure my mom, who is exceptionally close with my sister, was okay. (She was.)

So, there you go. My sister, who never believed she would ever get the job, and who always dreamed of living in Alaska, has killed two birds with one stone and achieved the impossible on two accounts.

And I say, good for you, dear sister. Congratulations!