That one week in Austin where everything went sideways

I moved to Austin 3 months ago thinking I'd land tons of freelance work in the tech scene. For the first 2 weeks it was great, I had 3 gigs lined up and felt like a genius. Then came the week from hell where 2 clients ghosted me and my laptop died on a Tuesday. I spent $400 on emergency repairs and had to work from a noisy coffee shop for 4 days straight. The AC in my rental also broke during a 100 degree heat wave, so I was sweating through calls. Has anyone else had a relocation go completely off the rails in the first month?

4 comments

4 Comments

sethm581mo ago

Did you ever try the public library? I had a similar laptop meltdown my first month and their free wifi and quiet desks saved me.

kim_davis1mo ago

Libraries are fine but can we scale back the drama a little? Locked out of everything for three days sounds like a personal problem, not a library miracle. You probably could have called your email provider or used a friend's phone to reset passwords if it was really that urgent. Sitting in a quiet room isn't exactly life saving, it's just sitting. People act like libraries are some hidden cheat code for adulting, but it's literally just a building with desks.

charlie1981mo ago

Man that coffee shop grind is brutal lol I had a similar week where my car died right after moving.

joseph_bailey1mo ago

Libraries are underrated for this exact reason. My second week in Denver my internet went out for 3 days and the library saved me. The real kicker was when I realized all my passwords were saved on my dead laptop and I was locked out of everything.