Houston Bound

Brian got this in his work email overnight:

“Dear Fairfax Home Based Expat:

The following announcement was made today regarding the decision to relocate the Fairfax Headquarters office to the new Houston Campus.  We wanted to ensure that you were aware of this announcement.  Questions you may have regarding your personal implications should be directed to your functional Supervisor.”

I guess it’s finally official. When we left Fairfax we knew it was likely the last time we would be there. Nothing was announced for the Fairfax office, but there was an obvious LACK of an announcement. ExxonMobil had announced their intentions to build a mega complex in northern Houston to consolidate locations for their Texas employees. It’s been a while, but my vague recall of numbers was something like it being built for 8,000 employees. There were 6,500 Houston based employees.  Rumors of closing the Fairfax office have been around far longer than we were in the area. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to read the writing on the wall. Of course it took nearly two years to officially declare it to be so, but we’re Houston bound again in Dec 2013. Or June 2014. Or whenever we finish up this Singapore project.

We’re not surprised in the least. We’re sad to know officially we can’t go back to Fairfax. It’s shutting a door to a life I loved. Still, until we settled in Fairfax, we were very, very happy in Houston. We had full intentions to return when we left but the allure of four seasons and a land of politics won out.

I’m looking forward to:

Tex-Mex food

Big trucks

Parking spots big enough for big trucks

Texas pride

Houston Rodeo

Country music

Owning two cars again

Cheap houses!!!

Managing our own rental property

Home Depot and Lowes on every corner

Warm southern people

Dragging my rusty Spanish up again and using it

Brian is looking forward to:
Riding his motorcycle year round - I haven't blogged about it yet, but he's working on getting his license here and it's LOTS harder here than in the states but he figures it's worth it

Then again, maybe we’ll get another cool assignment.  China? South America? KL? Australia? Europe? A traveling fool can always hope, can’t she?