Transition

I forgot how nice it was to be off on weekdays. The house is slightly less neglected than it was before because I'm actually here in the daytime. Granted, I've been working on posters off and on, but also sort of cleaning intermittently. I'm reading that Eat, Pray, Love book that I keep hearing about, too. I picked it up on the way back from Rome and I'm just now starting the India section. I agree with the critics that say she complains too much, but I still like her writing style and the overarching point of the book, which is her journey of personal discovery. Go figure...

Tomorrow I'm going to lunch with some old Momentum people and going on a shopping spree! I still can't believe my team gave me a $150 gift card as a going away present. Sh*t, I didn't even get a thank you card from the company that laid me off! Some of my friends there took me to lunch, though.

I'm always surprised by some of the people that do nice things for me on my way out. For example, someone brought me lunch from Chick-Fil-A on Tuesday, my last day! It was the person that I carpooled with to Toastmasters, but not someone that I talked to much otherwise. Awkward guy wasn't even there on Tuesday, by the way. Maybe I'll find another creeper at my new place to keep up the tradition...but hopefully not. It's statistically less likely at a smaller company.

The gift card is a perfect example of why it was hard to leave the insurance company. Even though I was bored to death most of the time, they really appreciated everything I did for them, no matter how small. They even praised my great work ethic, which baffles me. That was nothing! If I was working at my Momentum speed, I could have come into my insurance job like once a week. Maybe I don't even know what a bad work ethic entails. I guess I should have taken naps. I actually prefer to work at work, though, which is why I like the challenge of crazy deadlines. Sometimes, I would fake a crazy deadline at Midwest just to make it more interesting.

My year and a half at Midwest really did as much as it could do for my career, though. This move is another step in the right direction. Oh, this is the new place. Joel calls it "Four-orce," which seems valid, based on the spelling. They just changed their name/site, so there's not too much on there yet. They're making a big push towards the user experience of a website, so they have a new testing lab and "Usability Scientists." It seems like a pretty good idea.

This all came out of nowhere, but I think that's a good sign. This new place seems to really want me there. It recently occured to me that I had kind of given up on looking for/recognizing "signs" altogether, actually. Maybe I was afraid of what they might tell me or that I would read them wrong. Since my career is getting back on track, though, I am reassessing everything. As I have been reminded so many times before, often the key to navigating life is simply knowing when to let go and when to hold on. Except, it's usually not simple at all. All things considered, floating with the current has gone pretty well so far, but when does it become necessary to fight the tide?