Your Federal Tax Dollars At Work

I am now three days into my new job, and I have to do a short recap of how my week has gone so far. This won't be a terribly long post (at least relative to some of my other posts), but I had to talk about my new gig a little.

I wrapped up orientation today and got to meet several of my new coworkers on my team. One of the first questions a woman on my team had asked me was whether I followed football, so naturally my response was, "Religiously." We're going to get along really well.

But that's not the fun news. My first day there I found out my department's summer picnic is Thursday, so tomorrow I get to come to work in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip flops. I only have to be in the office for a couple hours before we head to the cookout. Since I don't have any network access yet, I can't exactly do anything while in the office anyway, so I get paid to sit around and play on my phone before heading to the picnic.

The real kicker is that my department has been packing up their work and preparing to move to another building down the street. Almost everything is sitting in boxes in between cubicles, and the movers are taking everything Friday, so our department will have off Friday, including me. Bottom line, I'm getting paid for a full week when I'll barely be at work for three and a half days. If that's not a sweet deal, I don't know what is.

Can every week at my new job be like this one? That would rock.

The Only Bad News Is That Supermarkets Don't Sell Beer and Wine in Baltimore

Patience truly does pay off.

Wednesday brought about some truly excellent news for me. I GOT A JOB OFFER. And it's with the Department of Health and Human Services in Baltimore. I'll now really be working for The Man, with all the rights and privileges there. When I got the call with the offer, I was in shock for a few moments after the conversation had ended. I could finally sleep comfortably, knowing this whole stress would be ending. And it's obviously a company where I wouldn't have to worry about being squeezed out in two years again. I called around my family and close friends and told them all the good news, and we're all going to be celebrating this weekend, starting tonight.

Obviously this means several things, most notably that I'll be moving back to Baltimore by the end of the summer. It's for the best since all my family and friends live in the area anyways. Virginia's certainly been good to me, and I sure did love the fact that all the grocery stores sold beer and wine in them. I made some great friends in the area, and I intend on keeping in touch and hopefully seeing them on occasion too. Baltimore really is where I belong though, and I'm happy to be moving back there.

Most of my Baltimore friends have jabbed at me for moving to Virginia, but after I got the job offer I realized something: I would never have gotten this job with the DHHS had I not worked in Virginia for a government contractor. The last three months have taught me many things, but what was probably the most important lesson is understanding the grand cosmic reason for why I had moved to Virginia in the first place. It was merely a stepping stone to get me back to Baltimore eventually in a position where I know I'll be happy and successful. For that reason, I can be thankful that I had lived and worked in Virginia. The time has come though for me to come home, and if nothing else I'll be glad that I'll be a whole lot closer to my niece and get to see her more often.

Still, I'll miss having such easy access to beer and wine.