In my mind I'm gone to Carolina
Category musings
I have some good news and some bad news...
The bad news is that I've cancelled my trip to Lotusphere. This is the eighth year in a row that I'd been hoping to go, but this was the first time I actually managed to register and make travel arrangements. With the great lineup of sessions this year, as well as some of the new additions - such as JamFest and BootCamp - there's a lot that I'd been looking forward to that I'll now have to pass on. Not the least of which was the opportunity to meet in person some of you who I've been corresponding and collaborating with for months or even years. Looks like we'll just have to come up with another excuse to get together. Worst case scenario, there's always next year.
But enough bad news... on to the good news, which - ironically - is the reason for my cancellation. This morning I was offered, and accepted, a job in South Carolina. This has been quite a whirlwind day, actually:
8:04 AM - Initial (and, as it turned out, only) phone interview
8:33 AM - Call from the recruiter, indicating they'd already heard positive feedback about the result of the interview
11:59 AM - Another call from the recruiter confirming an offer I just couldn't pass up
12:05 PM - Submitted my resignation
The rest of the day was spent coming up with a strategy for how on earth to transfer my knowledge and duties... by next Thursday. I was asked to start my new position on the 30th, and since Columbia is a 1660 mile drive from here, the only option is to start driving next Friday. Unless I intend to pull into town around midnight on the 29th and show up all frazzled and road-weary my first day. Not gonna happen. So I'm hoping to spend Friday night in Memphis, stop in Atlanta on Saturday for lunch with a friend (one of the people I'd been hoping to see in Orlando, actually), and pull in to Columbia late that afternoon. Get my bearings on Sunday, and show up for orientation partially healed on Monday morning.
It hasn't sunk in yet. It probably will begin to as word spreads of my departure; so far I've only told members of my own department and HR. But I suspect it won't truly sink in until I'm already gone. I've been here five years (the longest I've stayed in one town - much less at one job - since high school), and I have coworkers that feel like family members. It's going to be hard to leave, especially this abruptly. Not to mention how strange it will be to be apart from Laura for weeks while she gets our house ready to sell and wraps things up at her own job... but, God bless her, she views this (as I do) as an adventure, not an uprooting. So underlying the nervous energy of plunging, more or less, into the unknown, is the excitement of knowing that I've been given an opportunity to move in the precise direction I've long been wanting to. Professionally, that is... Laura and I both assumed that, when we finally left Albuquerque, we'd be heading due north. But one of my core maxims for the last decade has been that God gets me where I need to be whether I realize it at the time or not and I thank him later. This is yet another opportunity to do just that.
I have some good news and some bad news...
The bad news is that I've cancelled my trip to Lotusphere. This is the eighth year in a row that I'd been hoping to go, but this was the first time I actually managed to register and make travel arrangements. With the great lineup of sessions this year, as well as some of the new additions - such as JamFest and BootCamp - there's a lot that I'd been looking forward to that I'll now have to pass on. Not the least of which was the opportunity to meet in person some of you who I've been corresponding and collaborating with for months or even years. Looks like we'll just have to come up with another excuse to get together. Worst case scenario, there's always next year.
But enough bad news... on to the good news, which - ironically - is the reason for my cancellation. This morning I was offered, and accepted, a job in South Carolina. This has been quite a whirlwind day, actually:
8:04 AM - Initial (and, as it turned out, only) phone interview
8:33 AM - Call from the recruiter, indicating they'd already heard positive feedback about the result of the interview
11:59 AM - Another call from the recruiter confirming an offer I just couldn't pass up
12:05 PM - Submitted my resignation
The rest of the day was spent coming up with a strategy for how on earth to transfer my knowledge and duties... by next Thursday. I was asked to start my new position on the 30th, and since Columbia is a 1660 mile drive from here, the only option is to start driving next Friday. Unless I intend to pull into town around midnight on the 29th and show up all frazzled and road-weary my first day. Not gonna happen. So I'm hoping to spend Friday night in Memphis, stop in Atlanta on Saturday for lunch with a friend (one of the people I'd been hoping to see in Orlando, actually), and pull in to Columbia late that afternoon. Get my bearings on Sunday, and show up for orientation partially healed on Monday morning.
It hasn't sunk in yet. It probably will begin to as word spreads of my departure; so far I've only told members of my own department and HR. But I suspect it won't truly sink in until I'm already gone. I've been here five years (the longest I've stayed in one town - much less at one job - since high school), and I have coworkers that feel like family members. It's going to be hard to leave, especially this abruptly. Not to mention how strange it will be to be apart from Laura for weeks while she gets our house ready to sell and wraps things up at her own job... but, God bless her, she views this (as I do) as an adventure, not an uprooting. So underlying the nervous energy of plunging, more or less, into the unknown, is the excitement of knowing that I've been given an opportunity to move in the precise direction I've long been wanting to. Professionally, that is... Laura and I both assumed that, when we finally left Albuquerque, we'd be heading due north. But one of my core maxims for the last decade has been that God gets me where I need to be whether I realize it at the time or not and I thank him later. This is yet another opportunity to do just that.
Comments
Although it's not like you win, you're going from some place that averages like 0% humidity to the south, which averages like 70% (totally made up numbers, but i hear it's bad).
It should be interesting to see if you body just says WTF and you go into some kinda attack, be it heart, ashma, monkey... i think in the end the gods will win. So if you see a dude in a black suit measuring your (for a pine box), run for the hills, listen for the sound of music, and click your heels three times and hope that aliens will rescue you. Cause well, since most gods say they aren't there, they should have a fighting chance of keeping you alive. since you'll disappear off his radar. Although, just to make sure they'll help you, you should stop and get some Ho-Ho's first, i hear they love those things.
Posted by Steve At 05:57:55 AM On 01/19/2006 | - Website - |
Posted by Chad Schelfhout At 02:16:17 AM On 01/19/2006 | - Website - |
Congratulations on the new job offer. definitely gonna miss ya, but we'll find a way to meet up again! I guess you just gave me an excuse to visit South Carolina someday!
Best of luck to ya man!
Posted by Mike At 10:05:24 PM On 01/30/2006 | - Website - |