After a month spent galavanting around Europe like someone deep in the throes of a mid-life crisis, I finally returned home and started my new job this past Monday. So far so good, but there are definitely things I have to get used to (like having direct deposit again! you have no idea how much you take magic money for granted until you’re forced to go to an actual bank every two weeks). Everyone I’ve met has been really nice/disturbingly excited to hear I’m a tech writer, and it’s been great seeing a lot of my former coworkers in the same place (I’ve already resumed my usual method of greeting one guy in particular by walking up and kicking him).

So, what’s the low down?

The Good:

• Fun people, fun product, tons of potential to get all up in here doing all kinds of different things
• Free parking! I was super worried about how I was going to get to the office – it’s a two-bus minimum with no parking lots nearby – but there’s free parking under the building! That is amazing, and I GET TO SCOOT TO WORK!
• I sit two seats down from a pug:

PUG omg so cute and puggy and also there’s my foot

• I have nested nicely, and my desk is tastefully ridiculous
• Seriously, people get *really* excited when I tell them what I do and what team I’m on. I wonder if I should worry.

The Confusing

• I desperately hate not knowing things, and as this is my third day on the job, I don’t know a damn thing. I am impatient to become some sort of expert in something, and will be frustrated with myself until that happens.
• I am a perpetual One-Off, so I’m not getting the traditional onboarding experience .. because there’s no one I can shadow to absorb knowledge.
• I can’t find a fridge (but I brought my own, so I’m good)
• NO ICE CUBES ANYWHERE
• I don’t know where to pick up my Mandatory Work Puppy
• I have no walls! No one has any walls. How do I decorate things if I have no walls?
• After a month in Europe, I think I forget how to do words
• How can I keep my drink cold if there is no ice? :(
• Open concept offices are kinda loud

The Bad

• Sitting this close to a pug that is not mine is pure torture
• Fluorescent lights are the devil
• WHERE ARE THE ICE CUBES

I have high hopes for doing good stuff here .. fingers are crossed!

functional!