I guess I'm not going to be homeless afterall...

In the last couple of weeks I've been stressing out because I knew that my stay in the corporate apartment was meant to be a limited one and that my time here was quickly running out. As suspected, my NYC apartment doesn't appear to be closing with any speed (big surprise) and I haven't really found a condo that I've fallen in love with anyway. So given all of the above, I decided to give in and take an apartment in the complex where I'm currently living for a six-month lease. It's going to really, really SUCK paying two housing costs at once, and it is because of that reason that I opted for just a one-bedroom (sorry Julia!). Besides, I don't want to be running around buying furniture for a temporary place anyway. So, it's a relief to have at least this one issue resolved, even if it is only a temporary solution. Plus, I can always renew my lease there, if it came to it. Now I have to figure out the logistics of getting my stuff packed up and delivered up to New Hampshire next month. Kind of hard to deal with all this stuff (not to mention all of my father's estate trust financials and crapola) while trying to also work a full-time, busy job!

ARGH!!!!

So, I'm sitting here at work and it's pretty quiet because a lot of people have gone home and there is this ASSHAT a couple of aisles away on the floor popping & snapping his damn GUM. So RUDE!!! I hate people.

Alright. So it's been freaking forever since I've written. Okay so, sue me. Sheesh.

Anyway, things have been busy and clipping along here in New Hampshire. Lets see what's new.

I drove down to NYC last weekend to pick up some more stuff, tie up some odds & ends and to see some friends. It was the longest drive thus far in my new car and it went relatively uneventfully. I actually enjoyed the drive, to be honest. I really love to drive and can't believe I'd gone so many years without even having a license (no less a car). Driving on a bit of a trip is also made more pleasant by that wonderful invention that is the iPod. I'm not much of an audio-phile, but even I can't imagine my life without this thing. Work, driving, whatever, it sure makes life just a little bit more pleasant. Everyone should have one.

Anyway. Ditzy move #1: As mentioned before, until the past couple of months, I hadn't driven or even had a license in years. I grew up and did most of my driving in NJ (when I last possessed a license) where they have this strange law that self-service gas stations are illegal (it's weird, but it's NJ). Anyway, I haven't done a ton of gas pumping over the years, so I'm a bit clueless. Since I've gotten my car, I've been using this Mobil station up the road and so I've gotten used to that. On my trip down to NYC I stopped at another type of station (a Shell, I think). Anyway, I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to use the stupid pump. So there I stood like an idiot while the station attendant squawked at me over this loudspeaker. Of course, since I couldn't understand what she was saying through that thing, I kept having to go back inside to hear what she was trying to tell me. Sheesh. Well, I figured it out eventually and managed to get the Hell out of Connecticut.

Let me right now advise anyone who ever plans to drive to NYC to, at all costs, avoid driving in Queens. Seriously. It is the weirdest place and the most frustrating driving experience imaginable. First of all, if you live on (for the sake of argument) "123 Drive", there will also be a 123 Street and a 123 Avenue and a 123 Road, and so on. And all of these various 123-whatever incarnations are not necessarily right next to each other. And then, good luck trying to get from point A to point B. I got off the highway and ended up going down one road in the direction opposite where I needed to go, and every turn I made only had an option to turn me in a direction even further from the way I needed to be going. I ended up driving down these narrow, confusing streets screaming at the top of my lungs inside my car, "I HATE this fucking place!!!!" SHEESH!

Ditzy move #2: So we finally manage to get turned around and end up parked outside my apartment. I grab all of the bags I have in the front seat, my iPod, Lola's leash, etc. and get out of the car. I realize that I should probably be a little closer to the curb and so I get back in the car to move it a little closer when I realize that I don't have my keys. WTF???!!! So I look everywhere, on the floor, in between the seats, in all the bags, under the floor mat, on the street outside the car. No keys anywhere. Luckily, I have a spare with me and move the car accordingly, but the missing keys at this point are a complete mystery. I bring the dog and all my stuff inside and then go back outside to look again for them, to no avail. I continue to search for them all weekend and don't find them until we are ready to leave on Monday morning, when I am laying Lola's blanket across the back seat and leaning over to tuck it around the seat, I see the keys lying under the passenger front seat. Sheesh.

So, within about 5 minutes (literally) of being back in my apartment in Kew Gardens, I was treated to the sounds of: 1) LIRR trains rushing through the neighborhood 2) a car alarm 3) some assHAT driving past with that loud heavy, pumping noise of the hip-hop de jour blasting out of his car speakers (probably what set off afore-mentioned car alarm) 4) the obnoxious neighborhood punks screaming and yelling (as per usual) out on the street. Just a normal afternoon in the Queens neighborhood, but two months of living in NH had desensitized me to it all. Wasn't really missing life in NYC at all in that moment.

Anyway, I had a very nice weekend seeing people. Paul & Luminita at their apartment on Friday night. Ken & Ellen for Wings & Beer at Blondies on Saturday afternoon. Cathy & Jerry w/ Lola's friend Jake came down to visit me late Sunday afternoon and then Carolina & Janos's for dinner and Sopranos on Sunday night. Michelle was also there and I was lucky to be in town when our friend Krupski was visiting, a NYC stop in between his many travels all over the world (trying to figure out where he is ultimately going to call home). It was great to see everyone, but it also felt weird to be there. Especially to sleep in my bed, sit on my couch, reside in my apartment. I almost felt like I would be getting up on Monday morning and taking the LIRR into Old Company again. Just a weird, limbo feeling, I really can't describe it, but I didn't like the feeling much. I'm a tiny bit sad about selling my apartment, but I think I will be relieved and feel a lot better, once I've closed and everything is finally moved out.

Ditzy move #3: Last Tuesday night Lola was bugging me to go out. Usually in the evening when this happens, she just needs a quick pee, so I've lately been in the habit of just running her out the back door of the apartment building, without bothering with a leash, etc. She'll run into the field, pee and run back in. On this night I grabbed the keys off the table, went out into the hall with the dog and the door to the apartment closed behind me before I realized that I was holding the keys to my NYC apartment in my hands. Doh! Of course the door locked behind me and I stood there with a dog with no leash, wearing floppy, threadbare, old sweats and this enormous sweatshirt thingie (and no bra, of course) and no way to get back into my apartment. In the middle of New Hampshire (in the middle of Winter) where I don't really know anyone. So after standing in the middle of the hallway freaking out for a couple of minutes, I rang my neighbor's doorbell. It took a while, but the poor guy finally came to the door in shorts, tee-shirt and bare feet. I apologized and explained my situation (and the fact that he had the misfortune of being my closest neighbor) and then we tried to figure out what to do. He looked around for some kind of apartment management number and then I had the idea to check the yellow pages. I called the number listed for the apartment complex, there was an answering service and they said they had to page someone and had to have a number where to get back to me. My neighbor was nice enough to give them his phone number -- all of this was happening while Lola is running willy-nilly in and out of this guy's apartment (she just can't resist an open door). So Lola and I then went out to the vestibule of the apartment building to wait for someone to show. For two hours. In that course of time we got to see a lot of people coming and going, most of whom Lola enjoyed greeting. Lola was also lucky enough during this time to encounter a friendly beagle who was very happy to chase her around for a bit. Anyway, after I had completely given up all hope of getting back into my apartment that night, the guy finally showed and let me in. He had to take my license to make a photocopy and told me a number of times that I would be charged for this (well, what options did I have at that point???) I wonder if he expected a tip? I considered giving him one, but on the other hand, I did sit there for hours waiting. Anyway, it all could have been worse, I could have locked myself out when taking the dog out for the last pee of the night at 11 or later. Now that would have been a disaster. Sheesh. Anyway, I was desperately happy to get back into my place at that point. I promptly filed the NYC keys away in a drawer and set up my door so that it can't lock behind me again.

Last week I had the opportunity to sit with the traders on the trading desk here at New Company and listen in to the buying & selling & stuff. It was pretty interesting and a glimpse into a world that I had previously had little access to. The traders I am dealing with for my project have now requested that I be given an actual desk on the trading floor to give us all better access to each other. I think this will generally be a good thing for the project, but it also means that I have THREE desks here at New Company. Talk about not knowing whether I'm coming or going.

I've looked at a number of condo townhouses over the past couple of months, and thus far, nothing has really bowled me over. My search up until this point has been somewhat lackadaisical because I know that my apartment closing is still going to take a while, but just now I am beginning to feel a bit more of an urgency. I saw a couple yesterday in a complex that I admire, yet none of these could I really imagine myself living in. This is just such a hard and important decision and I really feel pretty clueless about it all. I have no experience in real estate matters, so I'm finding it a bit overwhelming. I think I'm going to look into getting a six month lease on a rental in the meantime, so I can relax a bit and not worry about being homeless at least. It's going to be stressful paying two housings costs for a while (NYC + NH) but there's really nothing I can do about that other than hope that the closing happens soon.

Well, that's all I can think of for the moment. I'm sure I've missed something, so I will chime in, when it comes to me.

I'll say it again, it's great having a gym inside my office building. I just wish I could avoid the whole locker room experience (and I like the gym in the other building much better, would like to work out some way to go to that one instead). So, I went to the gym again today and it was quite a bit more crowded, I wasn't even able to get on the elliptical. Although, that might not be such a bad thing as it forced me to do the bike and the treadmill instead (better to get a well-rounded experience, rather than doing the same thing everyday). Anyway, I felt great afterwards. I have to try and keep this up.

On any unrelated note. Am I the only one who thinks women who wear sandals in the Winter (in New England) are freaking weird???

I've been very bad

about keeping up with my blog lately.

Anyway, I haven't had a ton of stuff to say. I like my new job, it can be difficult and stressful, but no one can say it isn't challenging anyway. Now that I am settling down into a weekly routine, I am trying to carve out specific blocks of time during the week where I can get real, practical work done. There are so many meetings and conference calls and detailed emailing and otherwise conversations about the project and strategizing, etc. that I find these specified blocks of time essential for actually accomplishing some concrete work. Now that there seems to be a certain routine to the week, this has become a little easier. We have a weekly "working meeting" on Thursday afternoons where we meet with our "client" and with the business (our end users) to review what has been done that week, where the project is headed, action items, concerns, requirements, problems, etc. And the spotlight is really on me here because I have to drive a good portion of the meeting and also demo reporting changes and updates that I've done. Sometimes the meeting can be fun, if the users start to get excited and they kick off a round of brain storming that really gets my creative juices flowing. But sometimes the meeting is just painful. This past Thursday was one of those such meetings. The conference room was stuffed to the gills with something like 15-18 people (some of whom I didn't even know) and I was trying to demo a bunch of stuff, but I was dealing with a wireless keyboard and mouse, was logged onto my machine through the conference room PC and my screen kept getting frozen, so I was never able to really accomplish my demo. In the meantime, the natives were restless so I just talked through what was supposed to be my demo while becoming more and more nervous with every word. It was horrible. But I got through it somehow. My manager said to me afterwards, "good job" and I just laughed out loud. He's just so nice and always positive, but I knew it was a disaster. Oh well. It was a relief once it was over anyway.

So, I joined the company gym a week ago. For $190/year I can go to any gym location (they're all over Boston, and other locations, in addition to having a gym in each of the buildings here). I didn't go at all last week, but I finally did go for the first time yesterday. I actually blocked out the time on my calendar here, set the time as "busy" and worked out in the middle of the afternoon when the gym was pretty empty. I then stayed later at work in the evening to make up for it. I only did a half an hour on the elliptical, but it was surprisingly hard for me(or maybe not so surprisingly). It's been that long since I did any kind of consistent working out. Anyway, I'm thinking that if I can do this a few times a week, and then get myself walking more on the weekends, that this will at least be a start. I was thinking if I can continue to do the afternoon workouts, I can maybe do an additional workout after work, either at one of the gyms here, or at the apartment complex. Even just a half an hour a shot will add up quickly enough. And can I say how wonderful it is to have a gym actually in the building where your office is? Used to be I would run out to the gym on my lunch hour in NYC and it would be this harrowing sprint across Seventh Avenue, up the long, sleazy, urine-soaked block on 33rd street and across all the craziness of Herald Square. Now I can just walk downstairs without even putting a coat on, with my ipod and blackberry in hand (and can thus answer emails while I'm down there too -- gotta love technology).

Over this past weekend I got to see all my cousins for dinner. Two of my cousins live close to me here and my third cousin (who lives near Albany, NY) was down visiting his brothers. I first met two of my cousins at a local bike shop. One of them is thinking of getting into bicycling because he's having some knee trouble from running and his brother has a lot of experience and so was helping figure out what bike would be good for him and what equipment he would need. Of course, it's never a good idea for me to spend an afternoon in such as place as I start getting fancy ideas of what new toy I can buy for myself. (Must. Buy. A. Condo.) Afterwards we then drove on to the restaurant where we met both of their families and my other cousin and his family. It was a big, old, happy family reunion, the likes of which I haven't had since my mother passed away four years ago. All of my cousins wanted to know when my father plans to visit. In a way, they feel particularly connected to him because amongst us all, he is the one remaining parent. I hated to tell them that even when he lived one state away he never visited me. They shouldn't be holding their breath for a NH visit from him.

My cousins were all also very impressed with my decision to make this huge life change and move up here. All were completely amazed when I said that I don't miss NYC at all. I really don't (at least not yet), I miss the friends I have there, yes. I even miss my apartment a bit. And I miss my own furniture and my books, etc. But the city, not really. I will always have a deep love for NYC, but I sure as ass don't want to live there any more. I think the only way I could tolerate living in NYC is if I had A LOT of money, could afford a big and solid (i.e. not hearing your neighbors) apartment on the Upper Westside near Central Park and could also afford a weekend/vacation home AND still have enough money left over for traveling AND investing and for restaurants and toys and whatever. Those are the circumstances in which I could live in NYC again. Not bloody likely in my lifetime, but there it is.

Anyway, speaking of NYC, I've decided to drive down there this weekend. I'll see some people, retrieve some stuff, return my cable equipment, find some technical manuals that I need that are stashed in my apartment somewhere, etc. I'm looking forward to it.

Oh Yeah

I bought an ice scraper/snow brush thingie today. Finally. Stop & Shop had them.

Things About Driving that are Different since the Last Time I was a Driver

* SUVs (like, everywhere)
* Air Bags ("10" and "2" is no longer the "ideal" hand position)
* iPod/iTune technology (sweet!)
* Mapquest (still want a GPS someday though)
* Cell Phones: it's amazing how many people I see driving around with a phone held up to their ear. Although, there is one positive to the ubiquitousness of cell phones, I can sing along to the iPod and people can assume I'm just talking on a hands-free cell phone call (you just have to watch that head bobbing, etc.)

Things I had forgotten:

* How much tail-gaters annoy the crap out of me.
* Constantly amazed at how few people actual signal to turn or switch lanes.
* How easy it is to speed (and people were telling me to buy a turbo, have enough trouble keeping to the speed limit as it is)
* How much fun driving a stick is (except in Boston bumper-to-bumper traffic)

And Today...

Is one of those days where I want to run screaming from the building (while tearing my hair out). STRESS and confusion. ARGH!

Today...

I signed up for the gym at New Company today. Now let's see if I can make myself go and use it. No spinning there though, although they told me that it's coming soon.

Weird weather tonight, coming home it was sort of raining, sort of snowing, sort of icing. Between the weird globs of falling ice/snow/rain, the headlights and the reflective surfaces, it was really hard to tell where I was in the road. It was a strangely stressful drive home, I almost felt a little drunk & disoriented.

I still haven't bought an ice scraper thingie for the car, so I went outside just now and drove the car around to the back to put it in the car port since the weather is kind of weird and I'm not sure how much snow or ice is supposed to fall tonight. I usually just leave it in a parking place outside my apartment, the car port is all the way around the back and on the other side of the building, so I don't usually like to park it back there. Anyway, I took Lola with me for a "ride", she was such a freak shaking in the back like she's thinking we're about to move again or something. In the meantime, the "drive" was literally 1 or 2 minutes long. Freak. Walking back to the building from the car port, I almost fell on the asphalt four times (in all of about 50 feet). Totally black ice everywhere, I'm so glad I don't have to drive anywhere tonight.

At work they've migrated our reporting software over to a new release and now a bunch of stuff is really screwed up. The front-end html interface tool is now completely different from how it worked with the older release. Not only am I now going to have to learn how this new interface works, but it seems that I can't even open the html files we've created with the older release without changing some fundamental properties. I have no idea of what the impact is going to be on this work and I can anticipate that there will now be a new complicated element to my job that I'm going to have to deal with. Ugh. So right now I'm dealing with two different development environments and I'm beginning to feel a bit crazed about it all. It's always something.

Ahhhh... So Glad It's Friday

Things are going along well, but I really am so glad it's Friday. And, a long weekend to boot! (at least I think it's a long weekend, I've got to check and make sure we have Monday off here). I'm just so tired by the time I reach this end of the week, and I think I'm also a little mentally over-taxed by Friday too. Yesterday we had a meeting with our client on this project that I am working on and we were going over all the enhancements and progress that has been made during the week. I can talk about all the reporting and functionality, etc. 'til the cows come home, but when bond traders and various money people start shooting questions at me about data and calculations, etc. I kind of get this deer in the headlights thing going on. I mean, I take the input I get from the business and from the datamart people and what's been done so far and go from there. But I don't know enough about the business and the data yet to feel really confident and it the scares beejezus out of me.

ARGH!!!!

Some... dude is pacing back & forth by my desk talking (loudly!) on his damn cell phone! So freaking rude. TG I have my iPod with me.

It's So Weird

It feels so weird to drive my car around, I went so long without a license that I now have this strange, guilty feeling that I'm doing something illegal.

Getting There

Yesterday morning I was working away and making some progress on this reporting program that I'm writing. I had been responding and contributing to various team members consistently, my new car was sitting outside in New Company's parking lot and I realized all of a sudden that, wow, I'm actually happy. Or at least getting there. I feel like I'm getting a bit of a handle on the job, I'm getting along well with the team, I'm speaking up in meetings, I have my license and a car now and my money situation is not desperate (for a change) and I really like this area that I'm living in. So I feel that things are beginning to come together nicely.

I should say that I was happy until I found out that the chick who supposedly was buying my apartment in NYC has been jerking me along for the past five weeks and it turns out that she doesn't have the required deposit after all! ARGH! So now I've lost a lot of critical time in this process. The good news is that I already have another offer for the same price, but who knows when this closing will ever freaking happen? Dealing with the management company and co-op board alone can take forever. Seriously.

Okay, this is just... In.Sane.

After having my little loaner Suburu for the past 24 hours (sidebar: I even drove myself to a Target, the first time I had ever been in one!) I drove it back to the dealership and ended up leaving with a brand new car. A 2006 5-speed "steel gray metallic" Forester. I didn't really think this was going to happen so fast, but there you go, yikes! We're supposed to be getting this gi-normous snow storm tonight and I don't even own so much as an ice scraper! (Guess I should have picked one up at Target). Oh well, at least there is a car port that I can use around the corner. Anyway, so now that I'm home I can sit here and start to freak out about the money and second guess my decision to get a new car. Well, at least I won't have to rely on the Taxi Guy any more (although I really should give him a call and thank him for all of their assistance to me over the past few weeks).

Oh and my stick-driving skills are pretty damn rusty (after all, it has been at least 10 years, and I think actually it's more, since I've driven a stick), so I need some practice. I'm pretty rough at the moment (at least I didn't stall or back-slide anywhere on the way home, so I guess that's something).

Speaking of Taxi Driver, a couple of the taxi guys at various times have invited me to join them for karokee night at a local chinese restaurant! Can you just see me hanging out with the taxi guys doing karokee??? Too funny.

So, two of my immediate goals have now been accomplished:

* Get driver's license -- check
* Get a car -- check

Now on to the next thing.

What a Week

I'm so glad it's Friday, I'm just exhausted. Each week I seem to be a little bit busier in my new job. This is a good thing as it means that I am getting more and more involved. So, the highlights of my week:

Got my NH license! (as stated previously) This was such a huge relief. The whole process was a whole lot more pleasant (I'm sure) than the experience would have been in NYC. First, I didn't have to get a learner's permit. In NH (if you're over 15 and 1/2) you can just go ahead and drive, as long as you are accompanied by a license NH driver over the age of 25. Weird. So, I was able to drive around with Driving School Lady right from the start. When you go to take your test, you take the eye, written and driving test all in one shot. The guy who gave me my driving test was so nice, he just sat there and chatted with me the whole time while I just tooled around on some of the surrounding streets. He didn't even bother to write anything down while I drove and when I was finished, he handed me a piece of paper and said that he didn't even mark off any demerits for anything. Such a jubilant feeling to know that I now once again have a license.

Went to Boston for meetings. My group had this all-day meeting/seminar/class in Boston on Wednesday, so Julia & Joe kindly invited me (and Lola) to stay at their place in the South End. So, that was very nice of them and it made the trip easier on me (and Lola got to play with their dog, Cassidy). I just love Boston.

Meet the Team. Having the meeting in Boston gave me the opportunity to meet and interact with the team that I am now a part of. A lot of these people I had not even met yet, so it was great opportunity. All of them just seem really great and I feel very lucky to be a part of the group.

Lots o' Meetings. Lots & lots of meetings this week. There are generally a lot of meetings anyway, but there were even more so this week. I think I'm getting used to it. A couple of the regular meetings I have to be a significant player in, so I am making an effort to be a strong contributor, I hope I'm doing okay (I'm speaking up a lot anyway).

Take a Drive. So, as I mentioned earlier, I picked up a car from a local Suburu dealer to have for overnight. It was such a great feeling to just drive around by myself in a car. I felt... normal. I didn't even really go anywhere, stopped at a pet store on the way home to pick up some things for Lola, stopped at home to take her out and then I went to the grocery store and home again. But it was wonderful. The Suburu guys said that I can bring the car back anytime tomorrow, so I have to think about where I really want to drive around here before I do so.

Oh yeah, and I now (finally!) have internet access at home!!! Thank GOD

Anyway, things here are settling down and I'm settling in. Work is still scary, but I'm getting used to things and am hopefully becoming more of a contributing member. I have that license, now the next step is to get a car. Then I can start concentrating on getting a home. So things are a little bit more comfortable. Little by little I'm making progress here.

A Car to Borrow

This local Suburu dealer is giving me a car to use overnight and I am so unbelievably excited about it, that it's actually kind of pathetic. What a freak I am!

I Have a License, I HAVE a License, I FINALLY Have a LICENSE!

I can't believe that after all these years & years, I finally have a driver's license again. I can't tell you how great it feels. And it will feel even better once I have a car to go with it. At least this past decade or so of drama can finally be put to rest (and I now no longer have to go through the whole damn long story to people on why I don't have a license. That certainly is a story I am completely sick of telling.)

Oh and Another Thing

My father called me last night and asked me if I had "made any friends yet". What is this, summer camp??? I felt that same old guilty feeling that I had when I felt that I had to lie to my "parents" (to protect them or me, I'm not sure) about what a good time I was having when I first went off to college. Yeah sure Dad, there's a party every night.

This & That

Not having a car is beginning to wear me down. This weekend I started to get really depressed about it. I know that it is a temporary situation and that it should change (for the better) relatively soon, but the longer this situation goes on, the more depressed I'm going to be. This morning I was in the cab almost all the way to work when I realized that I had forgotten my corporate id badge. So, we had to turn around and go all the way home for me to pick it up and then all the way back. It cost me a total of $40. Sucks.

I received an electric bill for my NY apartment over the weekend and, even though I hadn't even been there for three of the four weeks the billing period was for, the bill was $64. Sixty four dollars for my little two-room apartment to sit there in the dark! The only thing that should really be running is the refrigerator! I mean, WTF??? So, I called Con Ed and they said, "well, our rates just went up 30% because of hurricanes this year and stuff." Yeah, but. Thirty percent??? Sheesh!

On a lighter note, I went to see a bunch of condos yesterday. I saw a lot of them, some I didn't like at all, a few that I kind of liked, a couple that I liked and one in particular that I really liked. It's probably a little too early for me to be looking at places and getting excited about what I see since I do not even have a signed contract on my NY apartment yet. And we can expect the whole process of closing on the co-op to take another few months at least (damn blasted co-op bastards). But still, I really liked that condo! It was in this nice complex that was spread out over these hills, the back on the unit overlooked woods (so you're not looking into someone else's bedroom or something), there are all kinds of walking/running trails over the property AND it has three bedrooms. I liked it a lot. I'm not sure if I'll even qualify for a loan though and, if I do, how much of a mortgage I can get. Plus there is this stupid business of waiting for the co-op to close. ARGH! I guess I started looking too soon. I just wanted to start to get a feeling for what is out there, for what money, and what I like, what I want and what I definitely don't want. Plus, I don't have a whole helluva lot of stuff to do on the weekend anyway and I can get the real estate lady to come pick me up.

Lastly, the consultant who is working on this project with us here at New Company told me this morning that he is being reassigned next week. I am kind of freaking out because he knows what he is doing here, he knows the data and the environment and the project and I'm still learning all this stuff. AND I met the guy who is taking his place this morning and I'm just not sure what kind of replacement he'll be. I haven't really had any time to talk to him, so he may be fine, but I'm worried. Apparently he not only has never worked on a project at New Company, but he is also new to the vendor company as well. He is here to work on a couple of concurrent projects, I think, my stuff is only a piece of what he is here for, so it's not like I could have any influence anyway, but I'm a bit worried. I don't mind saying.

No Internet

So, I was hoping to have internet access at my apartment by tonight, but the part the management company left for me to hook the modem up with the cable is not going to work - ARGH!!! So frustrating (I'm writing this via BlackBerry).

Anyway, I otherwise had a pretty good day. Had an appointment w/ Driving School Lady and, in addition to all the driving around and practice parking, she took me to the local DMV so that I could talk to them about what I need to show them to prove NH residency. So, we then also took a trip all the way up to a Town Hall a few towns away to get a letter of residency. With this now in hand, I should at least be all set in that regard. We're going to shoot for next Tuesday for me to take the test.

Managed to also get some work done this afternoon. Each day I feel a little more comfortable in my new job, in my new position. I'm still out of my comfort zone, that's for sure, but I'm beginning to feel a little more comfortable in my new role.