Continuing Adventures in California

If you have seen the movies "Stranger Than Fiction", you know the character spends much of the movie trying to determine if he is in a tragedy or a comedy. I feel the same way after these last few weeks.

The previous post described how the idyllic and picturesque drive devolved into a grueling and occasionally scary push to get to California on time.

Monday morning, we wake up and I get ready to go to work. At about 8:30 AM, with a half an hour before my start time, I pull my shoes out of my suitcase and the sole has been completely ripped asunder. Kelly and I look at each other in shock. "I know where the Target is." I say. She says "Let's go." More high tension driving as we drive to Target, I run inside while Kelly keeps the car running in the fire lane. No business shoes in size 13.... so I grab a pair of 12Ws and hope for the best. I make it to work promptly at 9. (Those shoes worked okay for a couple of weeks, but I gave in and bought new ones today... just one more hidden moving expense).

If you have noticed a recurring them of bright ideas gone astray with this endeavour, you haven't heard the best part. Rather than try and fit all of my clothes into the already crowded car, I decided to ship them. Two boxes were loaded with about 40 lbs of clothes each. Only one of which has arrived in California. The brown truck company has been searching their facilities for the missing box for over a week now. All of my work pants, work shirts and many other items are in a 20" by 20" by 20" box that apparently has impressive stealth technology.

Combine that with the difficulty of being separated from my wife, knowing that she is overwhelmed with the challenges of school, getting the house ready and still working. As happened in grad school, the time zone difference exacerbates the feeling of distance. By the time I get home from work, it is really late back home.

The new job has been good, though it feels a bit overwhelming at this point. My boss has told me that I have a month to learn as much as I can before I am expected to take over projects myself. The complexity of what I have to learn is daunting. Imagine that I was asked to learn everything about the road system in the United States, from interstates all the way down to surface streets. After my month of learning, my task might be "smooth traffic though such-and-such intersection in western North Carolina". All I can do is try and get a feel for how the types of roads interface and what kind of diagnostic and repair tools we have. Like I said, good, interesting but exhausting.