Adventures In Relocation, Part 1...

New gig. New city. New and terrifying ways to question my sanity.

Day One:
(3pm) After countless issues and many (MANY) crying jags, I arrived. Five hours after my airplane lands, I'm not so sure I'm diggin the newly assigned job & manager switcheroo, lack of LA sunshine greeting my arrival or how little the new boss seems to listen to or even really like me all that much. *Sigh*. I can still run back home with my tail between my legs and forget all about this utter "I LOVE Southern California and I'm ready for a change" foolishness.

(6:30pm) New boss too swamped to throw me a bone (not so good). Chatted semi-intelligently with cube neighbors (who, unbeknownst to me at this point, are the founding members of my oddball team). Dinked around checking emails & printing Y! maps until it was time to leave. Walked outside to smoke my well-deserved cigarette and was struck dumb. The peaceful, tranquil, incredibly well-landscaped beauty of the building's designated smoking area was completely unexpected and jolted me out of the one-man pity party I'd been hosting all day.

Picture gently swaying bamboo trees, 30-40 ft. high, making a hypnotic swishing, shooshing sound in the breeze. They ringed a courtyard beyond a industrial style sculpture that looked like a big warehouse door. Dotting the lush green landscape and courtyard were green umbrella'd tables, palm trees, aloe bushes, a stepped fountain that sprang to life at random intervals (which startled the cigarette out of my hand and into the fountain, grrrr). This may actually count as the first entry in the "Pro" column; which is, at present, woefully dwarfed by the "Con" column entries. I'm not a pessimist... I'm not the person to ask if the glass is half-full or half-empty because I'll challenge your assumption that there is even a glass at all.

Let's just say I'm capable of skeptical cynicism and just leave it at that.