Today wrapped up day two of my new job at the Seattle start up Pelago
, where I am working on the data team. I am very excited to be working for this company, I am surrounded by really smart passionate people and that is just the best thing for me. I have already been working on really interesting things that have me thinking in new directions and stretching parts of my brain that have be used, but never to this extent. I like that I am outside of my comfort zone, and my whole goal is to be as much of a sponge as possible. The work enviroment is really fun and laid back, and people still work really hard in this kind of enviroment. It is just a huge change from what I used to see – I can’t even imagine wearing my suit into this office and never will. I wore jeans and my chuck taylors to work today! It is really different, I am still figuring out what makes me comfortable.
Our new Dell computer came today at home and I am still enjoying my first hour of pleasurably faster, well, everything. Vista is actually really cool on a computer that is powerful enough to run it, and everything looks beautiful on the gigantic monitor. Kevin is de-cluttering the house and I suppose I should be helping, but I am not very motivated. He is talking about putting our condo on the market after looking at houses on the east side this past weekend, but I am not really interested in going through yet another major transition in addition to getting married and changing jobs, at least not just yet. He thinks that this de-cluttering has to do with staging the house to show – but really I think it is just about living better. No two people were ever better suited 820 sq. ft., mainly because neither one of us is here all that much.
I finally broke down and got a Gmail account yesterday, since most everyone in the office uses Gtalk to message each other. I actually really like it, it is much more user friendly than Hotmail/MSN/Livemail (whatever they are calling it these days). I think I am slowly being weaned off Microsoft products, although my new machine at work does run Vista.
The next big purchase thing I need to figure out is what phone I want to have, since I really need to upgrade to some kind of smartphone that has email and a web browser, at the very least. There is the iPhone of course, and also the Blackberry, Treo, and some other stuff. I am tempted to just go for the iPhone since I know I would have so much fun with it and I experience excruciating gadget envy whenever I see Blake or Andrew with theirs. I really should just do it – my hot pink LG Chocolate phone is all scratched up, and besides having a pink phone is so, like, 2006. hehe. I also would really like to have an MP3 player. I know this is really weird, but I have never ever owned one. My phone now can actually be an MP3 player for a fat fee – but we have iTunes on our CPU and I’d rather just upload my songs to the iPhone.
The only other big purchase that I am looking forward to is, eventually, having a car again. Basically what I decided when I left my job at Expeditors was that, since I was living downtown, I might as well let my Dad take over the payments on the Land Rover so that my sister could take it with her to college at Washington State University. I feel badly because the car has recently started to have engine trouble and I know it is a hassle for them, but he also had the car for a month while I was on vacation and even took it to mechanic so I don’t feel like I was dishonest, it’s just unlucky. He should have looked at the consumer reports. Of course, it was already partially his liability, since we were both on the deed together – now it’s just his sole liability. On the flip side, I am very happy to be rid of it. I am not sure what kind of car would be practical and enjoyable yet, I feel like I lean towards something with good performance – but I also like having a larger car that is a bit luxurious and can seat more than two people. I think the solution to this might be a BMW M3 convertible. 🙂