from crumbs to a whole loaf

Things have finally started to get better. Everyday for the past 6 months my morning ritual was to check my email to see if any of the search bots I setup on various employment websites ever found anything for me. Occasionally the bots would find things relating to Freddie MAC and APPLEbees - stoopid webbots. On occasion I'd get emails from recruiters who have the "perfect job" for me. 99% of the time they were part-time, 6 month contract, entry level, phone jockey jobs in South Florida. Don't waste my time! Don't you people actually READ the resumes you find? The other 1% were jobs that were way beyond my skills. The job search plodded on tediously for 6 months like this.


Then one day out of the blue I got an email from a recruiter in Tennessee with a Mac System Administrator with a very attractive salary range. Even though it was out of my home area of Jax, I had to at least look into it. Several emails and phonecalls later and I've got a phone interview with the owner of the business. He asked a lot of technical questions - which I fully expected - and I answered them all to the best of my ability. There were a few that I didn't know the answer to because I had never been exposed to those particular technologies. But I gave the questions thought and gave an honest answer of "I don't know". I was afraid that I said "I don't know" too many times and that would put me out of the running.
I heard back from the recruiter and she said she heard great things about the interview! The next step was for them to contact my references and verify my certifications. All my references gave glowing reviews about me (I owe you all several rounds of beer!). Soon I found myself lined up for a 2nd phone interview. This one was less technical and more about me as a person. I hate talking about myself because it always makes me feel arrogant and I'm bragging. But at the end of that interview he said that it sounds like I'd be a good fit for the position.

A couple days later the offer was extended. We're negotiating the salary now.

I am nervous, anxious, scared, excited all at once. My fiancee is too. This is big. We're getting married in a week (!!) and then we're going on our honeymoon to Washington, DC. On the way back we're going to take a slight detour and drive though the area to scout it out and meet people. Then when we get back home, I have to pack up a lot of my stuff and drive back up there again to start work! OMG! just the thought of trying to orchestrate the relocation makes me wanna crawl into a hole in the ground and beg for someone else to do it all....
... but it's not mine yet until the salary has been negotiated.