#50 ! ! ! ! !

Thursday, February 23

Today I am thankful for...what, exactly?  Can't really pick one thing today.  Life is good.

It is snowing in Illinois right now, and 4-6 inches should fall by morning.  I'm supposed to land there around 10am, while the airport tries to catch up with 500 cancelled flights from today.  And it's Friday to boot.  Tomorrow is going to be a madhouse in O'Hare.

It's been a god week at work again.  I'm being considered less and less "the new guy" or "the outsider".  What's new and interesting here is that I get to make my reputation based only on my performance here.  There is no history, no solid preconceptions.  Nobody here (except the guy who hired me at my last job over a decade ago) knew my name until the interview.  They know I did this job for a different company, they kinda know a certain set of skills and experience.  I'm not the junior supervisor here.  I'm actually one of the more experienced ones, and I get to be more of a leader here than I had the chance to be before.  It's exciting.

In other news, I get to see my house tomorrow night.  I hear it's a different place, but Katrina has not sent me one picture, despite me posting a picture every single day since I've been in NY.  Don't seem fair, do it?

As for the pics today - there are geese here, just like in Oregon.  This one was blocking my way as I was walking from the hotel to the shoe store.  And the rainy parking lot is an interesting story.  Or shows a different interpretation of statistics.  I've heard (I did not verify) that upstate NY has about the same number of days of sun as Portland.  In the 3 weeks I've been here, we've had 2 rainy half-days, and lots of sun.  We've had some overcast days, but they seem to be brighter than Oregon overcast days, I don't know why.

Now, I need to leave for White Plains in about 8 hours, and I still haven't finished packing.  The plan for this weekend is to leave my entire clothes closet in boxes at my desk at work.  I'm taking my company laptop, clothes for the weekend, and 3 empty suitcases home.  Traveling light.  If I can get out of O'Hare on time, I'll be on the MAX by 3, and home by 6.  Time to get busy.