Areas of Unrest

QOTD: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." - Yogi Berra

Reading: Douglas Mawson, The Home of the Blizzard

Listening to: Nick Lowe, Dig My Mood

Decluttering accomplishments: threw out more old magazines

6 June 2002 - California Here I Go

I got the job.

I got the phone call on Tuesday and I've held off telling all but a few people until today because I thought it was fair to tell Milo first. He was back from Colorado today, so the cat is out of the bag. He knew I'd applied, so it didn't hit him as a major shock. His biggest concern was how to fill my current position and he asked me to write up a job description and make a few phone calls to see who might be interested. I had a couple of thoughts on people who would fit the position well. The difficulty is that the major reason someone would take the job would be in order to get a promotion. I can't really recommend it otherwise, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that the responsibilities one gets the most recognition for are generally the ones that technical people think of as the least interesting. Not that I've been horribly unhappy with the job. Most of my frustration has had to do with specific people and I know how to handle that. The people skills will be important to my replacement. And, actually, they will be vital in the new job.

Anyway, I've been in a mental flurry that alternates between being excited and panicked. I'm happy and thrilled and then I have these "what have I gotten myself into?" moments. It didn't help when one other person I told reacted by telling me that I'm going to hate it. This is somebody who I've long thought had remarkably little insight, so I'm not sure why her remark annoyed me so much. Other people have been happy for me, for the most part, and I am flattered that several of them commented on how much I'll be missed.

The prospect of moving to the D.C. area is another thing I am both anticipating eagerly and dreading. Moving is fairly awful no matter what, though the corporate relocation benefits help. The company has lots of resources to help with transfers, particularly as our Washington presence has been growing steadily for several years. I found a copy of a guidebook for newcomers to Washington at a bookstore and have been flipping through it. I know I want to be fairly close in and definitely reasonably near a Metro stop. The job is in Arlington, so commuting by mass transit is quite feasible and decidedly more pleasant than driving. I've been reading a bit and I've got ideas on a few options, but still need to do more research. For example, are there any nasty paperwork and tax implications if one were to live in Maryland and work in Virginia? Should I look to buy right off or rent for a while to figure out where I want to settle? And why did Ari Fleischer have to go and get himself engaged just before I move near him?

There's so much to do. I know this will be stressful and I expect the emotional roller coaster to continue for a while. But I'm confident it will all work out in the long run.