I was reminded today of my failure to blog recently, so here I am.

Today was my tenth day at my new job. Two weeks worth. It still feels totally new.

The positives:

1. I'm busy. There's plenty of work to do. No time for boredom. From the very first day it's been non-stop. The days go by really quickly.
2. Most of the work is interesting and varied. I've done HTML, traditional ASP, ASP.NET, JavaScript, VBScript, and SQL. I've worked on the company Intranet plus web sites for The Seattle Symphony, the San Francisco Ballet, the University of Washington, The Sydney Opera House, The Kimmel Center (in Philadelphia), the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Houston Ballet, Stevens Pass ski area, and Canlis restaurant.
3. Free coffee.

The negatives:

1. It turns out I'm really not crazy about being a contractor. It's only for a few months, and I am hopeful about staying on in a full-time role, but I feel sort of remote from the other people who work there. I suspect that they have seen a lot of contractors come and go and are just not interested in investing a lot of energy in getting to know me. There are a few exceptions, some really nice people who've been really friendly. But for the most part I am not finding people eager to get to know me. Part of it is that I miss some of the people I worked with at Premera. But I have to remind myself that it took some time to get to know those people, too.
2. It's warm. I sit in the balcony, and I guess warm air rises. Maybe at some point they'll move me downstairs where most of the other software developers sit.

So far, the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. So it's good.

I do get to see a few of my Premera friends every week for the class we're taking at UW Extension, so that's good too.

Some not so good things: I'm not finding the time or the energy or the inspiration to do any writing. And I had to take another break from playing bridge after about six consecutive weeks of disastrous games on Wednesday nights.

Well, it's good movie season. Yay! And next week is Thanksgiving. I am sad I'm not getting to see my family next week, but I'm looking forward to hosting here, with some Premera friends.

To the one or two fans of my blog, sorry to keep you waiting for a new entry. I'll try to do better...