This morning I woke up from my 7th night, and started my 8th day in Washington D.C. Obviously I’m not going to give a week-by-week blow-by-blow, but a first weeks is a significant event. This post is simply a blow-by-blow, and This Thursday I’ll post my takeaways for moving to an entirely new place (opposite side of the country, entirely different client, entirely different transportation options, entirely different work structure, etc)
A quick recap is
- Sunday: Took off from Phoenix with my two backpacks of stuff, both carried on to the airplane myself. Landed in Baltimore, took the bus to D.C. Spent the day getting set up in the Hostil and had a meeting that night.
- Monday: Hostil was great. Elevator a bit suspect, but worked every time but one. Encouraging, right? Headed into the office. Spent day one getting situated. That night headed to spend the night on a couch provided by my sister’s friend’s cousin. He was awesome to let me stay there.
- Tuesday: Made it through day one, now real work begins. That night we had a Staff Reception, met Newt and Callista and a lot of
the staff that is on the road with Newt. Reported the next morning by the Huffington Post as a ‘Top Secret Fund Raiser’. Encouraged to be called a ‘well-healed under 40-er’. Got lost on my way back to the couch from the Metro. - Wednesday: Long day. Was informed that couch privileges are being unexpectedly revoked due to a group of friends coming in earlier than expected. It’s a one room apartment.
- Thursday: No problem. Washed my clothes and packed up my two backpacks (which include a sleeping bag). Head into work for the day. Get a call on a sublet I was inquiring about, borrowed a co-worker’s car to go check it out, decide to get it. That night head ‘home’ with my two backpacks of stuff. Before heading ‘home’ however, my boss had a debate from 9-11pm, and then some more work to be done after that. So my first night in my new ‘home’ didn’t start until 1am. But feels good to have a place to stay.
- Friday. Work, work, work. My new ‘home’ is one mile from the Metro, and I’m only two stops from work. So now I get to start and end my day with a nice walk. Thinking of getting a bicycle to make the trip. But for now I’m good with walking. The wind chill of a bicycle might make it worse. :) It’s an interesting shopping strategy however. A grocery store is on the way ‘home’, but I don’t want more than I can fit in my backpack for the mile walk, so it looks like shopping will be a daily thing, just an item or two at a time.
- Saturday: More work! Being it is a Saturday, I didn’t get in until 10:30, but didn’t leave until 10:00pm.
- Sunday: Today! Was going to go to church with my friend Corey, but he is sick, so I’ll join him next week. Big new ‘get-it-done-NOW’ project at work, so decided to do a bit of exploring around my new ‘home’ and hop the Metro to get to some Starbucks that I can work from. (Campaign ran out of cards that are needed to get into the office so I can’t get in unless someone else lets me in) /sad face So here I am at Starbucks, taking break from work, and popping out a new post.
