I was extremely nervous about moving to Tampa, but I didn’t want to give up the job opportunity that dropped into my lap.
The job offer was more money and a great promotion with a good title. It was the job that I wanted and I wasn’t going to say no even if the job was in Tampa, Florida. I moved all the way from the Midwest and things were a lot different when I arrived. I moved in the middle of April. The temperature at home was only 52 degrees, but the temperature in Tampa was 85 degrees. It felt like it was much warmer because of the intense humility. About a month after I moved to Tampa, I had my first stroke of bad luck. I was in my apartment on a Saturday and I had a stack of paperwork to complete. I was frantically running behind schedule when the AC stopped working. The air was crisp and cool and suddenly I felt the air get warmer. It was a dramatic shift and the indoor temperatures started to heat up quickly. I thought it would be a smart move to turn off the air conditioner. That only made things much worse. I had to call the apartment maintenance staff and no one was in the office on Saturday. I called the emergency line several different times before someone answered the phone. I went without AC for at least 3 hours before the Tampa Bay service provider arrived. That was the first time I had problems with the air conditioner, but it wasn’t the last.