So, did I mention that the only other Financial Analyst in our office is also resigning, a week after me? Yeah, all project/ad-hoc work has screeched to a halt and we are now in full on process documentation mode. [sarcasm] Whoopee, my favorite activity! [/sarcasm] We may get the first replacement in as soon as next week, which would be awesome for knowledge transfer purposes. My boss had been warning the higher ups that this was coming (one way or another with my planned departure in August) and they needed to be prepared with backfill, but heel dragging has resulted in a fairly critical situation. We shall see how it plays out. I feel bad that my new departure date is so close to my co-worker’s d-day, but I know I’m doing the right thing for my family and myself and that is what is important. The world is not going to stop spinning, business will continue after I leave.

I’m really starting to sweat the release of Wharton R2 decisions. Mainly because I’m trying to book my interstate move & storage and I need to tell them whether it’s going to Chicago or Philly. I’m going the full service mover route and since they jack up prices in the summer, I’m going to take advantage of current prices and do the interstate move on the front end, and then keep my stuff in storage until I’ve secured an apartment in city TBD. The nice thing is, when you do the interstate move, the window for delivery is pretty big (7-17 days during the summer) but if my stuff is stored locally in Chi or Phil, the delivery window shrinks to 2-3 days. Way more convenient. When I was pricing just an interstate move a couple of months ago, I budgeted $2500-3500. Now, with 4-5 months of storage tacked on it’ll be more like $3500-4000. Yikes…there goes a big chunk of my year end bonus, the rest I’ll save for first months rent & school expenses. I know some people are of the “sell it all, travel light” mentality, but I really like my furniture and have some nice pieces, a couple of antiques from my grandparents that are important to me. I’m sad to part with the money, but it’s better than parting from precious items.

I’m still setting aside a little of my bonus for fun stuff. Normally, I’d buy new wakeboarding or snowboarding gear, but this year I’m getting satellite radio. With a 1000 mile drive to the Pacific Northwest on the near horizon (I'm pretty much driving from Mexico to Canada), and a 2000-3000 mile drive to either Chicago or Philly later this summer, I’m thinking satellite radio would be an excellent investment. Now I just have to decide between XM or Sirius. I’m leaning towards XM because they carry all MLB games and they have a deal to carry Pac-10 football & basketball games. This is an important factor for me, so I can follow the Mariners and the Cougars when I’m not in Washington. Any readers who subscribe to either service, feel free to leave a comment with your experience/recommendations.