Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Settling In
Well, it's been awhile since I've posted. I expected as much since I just moved halfway across the country, changed duty stations, and changed jobs. As I said in the previous post we left (after 10 years!) the first week of June. Took us four days to drive across the country to the D.C. area. Long days and hotel beds...nuff said! On the bright side I did get to visit with my big sister who lives in southern Virginia.
So, I got checked in to my new unit at the Pentagon, got a great house (at a good price) in the area, and started trying to navigate the mass transit/commuter quagmire.
Some bad things:
Gas prices - 3rd highest in the US after CA & HI;
Commuting - one hour commute on bus/rail as opposed to walking 2 blocks to the shop, thank God for mass transit as the highway commute would be longer;
Churches - they're very different in the North, after 10-plus years at a big, friendly congregation we are struggling to find somewhere where we can fit in and continue to grow and serve;
Unpacking - boxes everywhere.
Good things:
New job, new training, new people, high-visibility, travel;
Schools - my kids will be going to some really good schools now. (There's a reason Louisiana is in a tie for last place in education!)
Purging - after 9 years in one house we accumulated a lot of stuff. Got rid of a one-car garage full of stuff before the move and getting rid of even more as we unpack.
Looking forward to my new job, even though it means tons of training as it will be a lot of stuff I've never worked with in my career field. Should be interesting and exciting since I'm not only learning some new comm gear but I'll also be providing direct support to some very high level folks within the DoD. Not to mention the added bonus of lots of travel around the globe.
I'm sure it will get routine after a while but right now just coming in to the Pentagon to work every morning is the coolest thing I've done in quite a while.
Hopefully I'll be able to get back to more steady blogging now that things are settling down. ¶ Tuesday, July 18, 2006
So, I got checked in to my new unit at the Pentagon, got a great house (at a good price) in the area, and started trying to navigate the mass transit/commuter quagmire.
Some bad things:
Gas prices - 3rd highest in the US after CA & HI;
Commuting - one hour commute on bus/rail as opposed to walking 2 blocks to the shop, thank God for mass transit as the highway commute would be longer;
Churches - they're very different in the North, after 10-plus years at a big, friendly congregation we are struggling to find somewhere where we can fit in and continue to grow and serve;
Unpacking - boxes everywhere.
Good things:
New job, new training, new people, high-visibility, travel;
Schools - my kids will be going to some really good schools now. (There's a reason Louisiana is in a tie for last place in education!)
Purging - after 9 years in one house we accumulated a lot of stuff. Got rid of a one-car garage full of stuff before the move and getting rid of even more as we unpack.
Looking forward to my new job, even though it means tons of training as it will be a lot of stuff I've never worked with in my career field. Should be interesting and exciting since I'm not only learning some new comm gear but I'll also be providing direct support to some very high level folks within the DoD. Not to mention the added bonus of lots of travel around the globe.
I'm sure it will get routine after a while but right now just coming in to the Pentagon to work every morning is the coolest thing I've done in quite a while.
Hopefully I'll be able to get back to more steady blogging now that things are settling down. ¶ Tuesday, July 18, 2006
