Day 1: Escape Velocity

To start the new year, I resigned my position in professional racing. It was a suprise to some, but seemed long overdue to others. An excellent experience in what started as a dream job, that career had run its course. I have taken to calling NASCAR my post-doc: lots of domain experience, lots of hairpulling, and a limited engagement.

A headhunter put me in touch with a very exciting tech/finance company in NYC. The process of meeting company->company meeting me->offer->acceptance happened very quickly. There will be more on this later, but the opportunity is comparable with the most successful small companies in Silicon Valley. Of course, this necessitated a move to New York.

Like most change, the difficult part was getting the ball rolling. Once I announced my decision, only ten days of work remained. Without a job in North Carolina, there was no reason to stay in Charlotte, so I ended my lease as well. My sparsely furnished, small apartment was a good indication that I didn't intend to make racing permanent.  NYC would be a big change from Charlotte. A plan hatched in my mind.

I have moved across the country several times. NYC would put a premium on space. The floor space for a desk or couch would be hundreds of dollars per month. I remembered how the moves will filter out waste in life, if you can just decide to leave the baggage behind. In this case, I decided to take it to the extreme -- get my life down to what I can fit in my car.

"That's not such a big deal", you might say. "Lots of people own only a car's worth of junk." *cough* college students *cough*  The thing is, I drive a Lotus.  It may be the roomiest, most practical Lotus that you can buy. However, it's still a very small car by US standards. Things will need to get very, very simple.

I shipped off some very personal, but non-essential, items for my family to keep (books, pictures). Next, I sold every piece of furniture that I owned. I kept nothing that wouldn't fit under my arm. Couches, chairs, tables, TVs, and appliances made their way to craigslist. I donated what I couldn't promptly sell. I had to borrow a bigger car to go to goodwill. After two weeks, my apartment had become two backpacks, two duffel bags, and a handful of hanging clothes.

All the furniture I wanted to keep

At this point, things got very interesting. My numerous moves had taught me two unassailable truths. First, it sucks to leave a job on Monday and start the next on Tuesday. There is never enough time to get comfortable and make the transition smooth. Second, NYC is freaking cold in January. Avoiding these, a happy Donour makes. Using careful consideration (and 365-sided die), I pushed my job's start date to the beginning of April.

Now that my life is distilled to luggage that I could fit on a southwest flight at no charge and an exotic sports car, I have roughly 80 days of vacation and nowhere to live. I do have:

1. small personal savings that will allow me to eat, occasionally
2. one of the most fun to drive cars ever made
3. residence in the world's most drivable country
4. unsuspecting friends and family

Until I get to NYC at the end of March, I will be living almost exclusively out of the Lotus. No,  I won't be sleeping in it. There will be no camping or filling glovebox with hotel shampoo bottles. However, I am hauling all that I have chosen to keep around with me -- four bags and an an undiluted driving experience.

All the clothes I really needed