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1 month anniversary
Aug. 28th, 2006 11:03 pmLast week was my 1-month anniversary of working at the Census Bureau as part of their Immigration Statistics staff. The job has been pretty good so far. I'm working something called an "alternative work schedule" that bunches 80 hours into 9 workdays so that I get every-other Friday off, but that also means I'm usually out the door by 7 AM and not back till 7 PM most weekdays. Not that I'm complaining, it just doesn't leave a whole lot of time during the week for other things. The work itself has been good, I was expected to hit the ground running and have done that to a pretty decent degree, I think. The Census Bureau has a *lot* of smart people working for it, so no matter what your problem you can usually find someone who's an in-house expert on it, but it also means that I know a lot of stuff goes *whooshing* over my head since I don't have some of the more technical jargon down yet. I'm just trying to contribute and keep my head above water while getting up to speed. We're moving into a new building at the end of September, which should be quite nice once they get everything there operational.
Donna's getting back from a week-long vacation in California on Tuesday, then we're heading off to Maine over the Labor Day holiday to pick up her dad, who's going to be living with us in Maryland. After that's all done, hopefully we can settle into more of a routine. There's still boxes lying around the house, but I emptied out and sorted a bunch of them this weekend so the place is looking more lived-in, I think. Am hoping to get to the beach sometime before the end of September, but that may just have to be a Saturday bus ride to Atlantic City to meet my Mom.
Have I mentioned how nice it is to be close to my folks again? The tolls driving up to PA are eye-opening - the bridge across the Susquehana charges $5 for a 3-minute ride across, for example - but its still worth it to me, especially after 4 years living in CA and almost 10 years in Ohio before that. Being 3 hours away really isn't that much, comparatively speaking.
The particular place we're living in, Waldorf MD, reminds Donna of what the San Fernando Valley was like when she was growing up there: not really rural anymore, not yet suburban but rapidly becoming that way. There's still a lot of green space, but new developments seem to be sprouting up all around. In another 5-10 years it may not be nearly as pleasant in terms of low traffic and density, but for now its a lot better alternative than some of the places we initially looked at in northern D.C. and Virginia. My commute is pretty good by D.C. standards, I drive about 5 miles to a park-and-ride and take a commuter bus which stops right at the Federal center where the Census is, so I basically step out of the front door of the house at 7 AM and get into work at 8 AM. Could be a lot worse.
Unfortunately we arrived back East too late to get any kind of gardening crop in before Autumn arrives, I hear the place we're living in is really good for tomatoes and cucumbers. We'll have to test that out next year.
Donna's getting back from a week-long vacation in California on Tuesday, then we're heading off to Maine over the Labor Day holiday to pick up her dad, who's going to be living with us in Maryland. After that's all done, hopefully we can settle into more of a routine. There's still boxes lying around the house, but I emptied out and sorted a bunch of them this weekend so the place is looking more lived-in, I think. Am hoping to get to the beach sometime before the end of September, but that may just have to be a Saturday bus ride to Atlantic City to meet my Mom.
Have I mentioned how nice it is to be close to my folks again? The tolls driving up to PA are eye-opening - the bridge across the Susquehana charges $5 for a 3-minute ride across, for example - but its still worth it to me, especially after 4 years living in CA and almost 10 years in Ohio before that. Being 3 hours away really isn't that much, comparatively speaking.
The particular place we're living in, Waldorf MD, reminds Donna of what the San Fernando Valley was like when she was growing up there: not really rural anymore, not yet suburban but rapidly becoming that way. There's still a lot of green space, but new developments seem to be sprouting up all around. In another 5-10 years it may not be nearly as pleasant in terms of low traffic and density, but for now its a lot better alternative than some of the places we initially looked at in northern D.C. and Virginia. My commute is pretty good by D.C. standards, I drive about 5 miles to a park-and-ride and take a commuter bus which stops right at the Federal center where the Census is, so I basically step out of the front door of the house at 7 AM and get into work at 8 AM. Could be a lot worse.
Unfortunately we arrived back East too late to get any kind of gardening crop in before Autumn arrives, I hear the place we're living in is really good for tomatoes and cucumbers. We'll have to test that out next year.
