This is going to be one of those posts that seemed to be way more common back in the Alaskan days, but is all the more necessary today.  Just randomness.

I mean, there is stuff to talk about, lots of blog worthy stuff.  But there are specific things going on that just need updating and rather go on and on across multiple posts, I thought I would just throw the quick pointers out for y’all.

For starters – big news – I accepted an offer for my Boston condo.  It was a little under my asking price (at just about 98% of asking); and that bugs me because I made a point to price it at well below what I wanted.  Still, it’s off the market, and with a closing date of Feb 17th, I will only have to carry a second mortgage / rent check one month.

With working in Pasadena, I had a few questions on if I went to the Rose Bowl Parade and/or game.  No and No.  Not that I didn’t want to, but that is a little bit more work to make happen than I was aware.  It’s a pretty busy place on Rose Bowl day, getting places to watch the parade fill up the night before and folks sleep on the sidewalk to save a spot.  Parking is non-existent.  Maybe by next year I will actually have a plan.

I entered my fourth week at work today as well … which I did by taking New Hire Orientation.  If you are wondering why I wouldn’t have gone through that, say, my first day … well … turns out on my first day I was the only one hired.  And they didn’t bring on anyone else since then.  So I joined 15 other people starting today as the ‘expert’ in the room.  Just in case this makes you believe JPL isn’t hiring that much, they have 46 people coming on board next week, and likely another 30 by month end.  So … little bit crazy.

Good news was the orientation came with some more official tours and meetings with some of the big names on lab.  So we got a good amount of stories, history, and background to certain things.  Enough that it gave me a few blog worthy posts for the future for those interested.  But for today … just the updates.

One thing that was difficult in that orientation and when meeting people generally since my arrival is answering a question that should be much easier than it is.
“Where are you from?”
To clarify, its a different question to me than ‘where are you coming from’, but just saying ‘Boston’ is not something I like to say either, because then I get Boston questions.  I could say Alaska, but I ‘lived’ in Boston for longer than I lived in Alaska (by only a few weeks, but still); and there have been two moves since then.  I sometimes tell people I am from Wisconsin, which is where I grew up and probably what they were asking about.  Heck, I should say I am from Kansas, since the longest part of my adult life was there.  But even that sounds distant and wrong these days.  It’s a hard fact that I have been really from nowhere for a while.  It’s hard to convince people you are stable along that lines too – since of course, recent history suggests otherwise.   Probably this is all because I want to say I am from Alaska still … It always leads to the better conversations and cooler stories.  I even sneak it into other topics just to talk about it.  Like put it out there like this.
Them:  Is your dog full breed?
Me: Yes, I actually got him from a breeder in … well, before I say, just know this is totally going to change topics … I got him when I lived in Alaska
Them:  Wait, you lived where?

But other than that tough question, things are going well.

Blog more when I get a chance.