This is my first blog entry from work in Houston.
My posts will be rather brief until I get an Internet
connection in my new digs.
I've written down some entries when I had no
access to the Internet, and I'll transcribe them
into the blog and date them as I can get to it.
Today I was able to hop on a bus at lunch
and set up an apartment for more permanent
puposes. I still have to give them proof of
employment, and they have to do a background
check. It's a fairly strict kind of place to get into,
but that is fine by me. The price is actually very
good. It is all a huge relief to me to have a place
in the works so that I have a place to go to when
I get back from New York on the 8th.
I still have to pay for utilities and such, but that
will typically be just a few hundred more a month.
They have good Internet connection capabilities,
so I just have to see if I can get a good rate
for combined services. I still don't know if I should
bother with a regular phone line or cable TV, but
I'll probably need to get one or the other to get
an Internet connection.
I finally have all my passwords and user names
set up her at JPMC. It's like 8 different places that
need a login.
(Transcribed from my notes)
First day at JPMC - nothing to do. No surprise. I actually slept pretty hard last night, and woke up a few minutes before seven, right before the alarm went off. I ended up having to relocate to a different room because the originally discussed room didn't get prepared properly for a new occupant. So I had to hang out while people got yelled at (not in earshot, thankfully). These hotel-like executive apartments are always so sterile. Not that I entirely mind; better no character at all than the wrong kind of character for the first few days. We'll see what I can put together this week for a longer-term place to live.
It may be necessary for me mull over what I want to talk about on this blog by just writing, even if it is rather gratuitous. The other bloggers I know of take a while to hit their writing groove, either by having events in their own lives, recent news, their hobbies, etc. to stimulate them to have an opinion about things. I suppose that Houston will give me plenty to have an opinion about eventually.
I'm already checking out the culture blend here. Just riding the bus to downtown, I saw some signs and stores that cater to spanish speakers. Most public signs are bilingual, it seems.
The downtown her is a bit like the financial district in San Francisco - the space were the tall buildings are is fairly small. Looks like the tallest buildings are under 60 stories. They have an underground mall in the middle of downtown, but I'll check it out later.
[ After Lunch ]
The underground tunnels have shops and places to eat, and they lead to the Houston Center, where there is a large atrium area and tables and chairs like any good mall eatery area. I dodged the more exotic, just to be low-risk about anything that I don't need to complicate my first day. So I ate at Subway, which wasn't too bad. The folks here seem to be from all over. I am not being inundated by texan drawl all around me. Lots of Indians, some Asians, and various different american accents all around. Not surprising, I guess. JPMC is growing rapidly, it appears, which always helps to diversify the work force.
[ Late Afternoon ]
Ok, the runaround for getting myself set up at JPMC is coming to a head. After beating up various desk staff, and having networking folks get the network wire to my desk to go live, I'm almost ready to login and start to think about working. i sat with the other guy on my "team" (only the both of us right now) and got a walking tour of what kind of code and systems they have right now. I was relieved to find that their infrastructure isn't too bad, so I won't have to evangelize about good practices too much. Whew.
[ Early Evening ]
So I think that I'm here until 6pm usually. Consulants/Constractors need some kind of authorization to work more than 40 hours a weekly. I've talked to a few people about getting into a cheaper location more permanently, so I have a small list of places her in downtown Houston that have good services for not too expensive. I seems like such places may cost about $700-$900 a month. I'm not sure I want to like right here in downtown. I don't want shopping to be the most available diversion outside of sports and nascar. I've had an intuition that the best place would be close to one of the universities and the one train that goes downtown. It might have more of the kind of artsy stuff that I'd like to do in my spare time.
Wow, I was asking a helpful guy on the street to help me find the street that the bus back to the hotel runs on, and he gave me a bunch of recommendations on where to look for places to live. The Rice Village area is sounding nice. People have been quite friendly so far, but I'm not sure if that's due to my recent freelance work where I had to keep an attractive persona of if people are just plain friendly. Today is very pleasant - in the shade at least. Oh yeah - it is wicked flat down here. From the 15th floor of the building, you can see far out to the horizon. And there is hardly a bump besides the little dips at the rivers that run through town.
Down into the final stretch already.
I packed my bag with the stuff I put on my list, so it looks like I'll be
able to hop on the plane with only carry-on luggage. I'm still waiting
for the sinking feeling that I've been expecting to hit me. It hasn't come yet.
It's partly due to the fact that I really haven't slowed down much as
everything has been finishing.
What has been changing is that I've had to let go of all my impulses to
pester with stuff around the house the same way. Having a household
with other people in it is a constant exercise in low-grade dissatisfaction.
There is always *something* in it that is not done. Always *something*
that needs taking care of. I tried to do as much as I could in preparation
for remote administration, but some stuff only comes up when you are
looking out the window at the yard, thinking "I ought to take care of that...."
Sigh.
I found out that I'll be staying in a furnished apartment when I get
to Houston on Sunday night. Not exactly cheap, but it will have to do.
I've gotten a lead on a room in a house, but I'll have to meet and greet
when I get there to see if it will work.
The past two years have taught me quite a bit about a lot of things,
but I'll have to be in Houston to really put it all in perspective.
Tomorrow is the day that I start packing in earnest. This is so damn surreal so far. I spoke with the recruiter who is trying to help me find a place to live and get me settled into the job, but so far nothing for certain. The previous place that was a possibility fell through. I spoke with another contact in Houston (friend-of-friend), but we'll see how that works, still nothing certain.
I guess that is ok, but I'm still getting a bit anxious that I will get everything done that I need to get done before I go. I've got a busy week ahead of me; my car is getting its 30k check-up today, tomorrow I pack, we have guests on thursday, and I leave for a weekend outing on friday. I'll be headed back home briefly on sunday, and then I'm off!
The latest job news is that I'll be coming *back* to New York for a team meeting after a week on the job in Houston. I don't know if I can make use of that at all, but it means that folks can continue looking for a more permanent place for me to live in the meantime. I guess that settling in is just going to take time, bouncing around like this.
I have a contact in Houston finally! An older guy (friend of friend) who has lived in
Houston his whole life (I think). He gave me a bit of a tour (looking at MapQuest)
of the downtown area, and a best-guess idea of where I'll be living if this room
near the MetroRail comes through. It's almost only two weeks left before I leave!
Now this is starting to become a reality, as the nearness of the date approaches.
I'm finally telling my freelance contacts that I am going
to be working out of state. Today I was working on collecting
taxes information so that I can get my 2003 estimated taxes
paid while my new accountant figures out how to repair
my last five years of returns. I'm still not sure about what time
my first flight to Houston is on the 25th, and I still have to talk
to someone there who may be able rent me a room.
Corporate apartments go for at least $1800/month, so I
am really hoping that I can get this cheap rental for starters.
The worst of all this is that I am getting all freaked out
about what I'm going to be doing with myself on weekends
and at night. I certainly could just focus on playing guitar
and have a few coding projects for home, but I have no idea
if that will keep me from boredom. I could start writing letters
(paper ones) again, doing artwork, etc. But then I realize that
I'm just obsessing, so there's no real point to it.
I'll do what I'm going to do when I get there, and not before.
I really can't pre-think it through, even though my head
wants to like my life depended on it. It's amazing how a
few weeks of unknown ahead of my gets me all twisted up,
like I've never done anything like this before (such as move
to Massachusetts, e.g.).
My fiancee is taking all of this rather well, thankfully.
We are trying to work out all the details while life is
still in full swing, with taxes around the corner and everything.
Fortunately for us, we have done this kind of long-distance
relationship thing for a long time (7.5 years) before, so
it isn't new.
I have to create a corporation for the 1099's I'll be getting,
so I'm starting to think about names. I almost don't care
anymore what damn name it has, but it would be nice to
have a name that I didn't mind seeing every time I have
to write a corporate check.
So many things to do. And time is seeming to speed up
and slow down in weird ways these days.
I finally got a job. Trouble is, it's in Houston, TX.
I'll be working with JP Morgan, which is a decent name
to be working for, but the pain of relocation is just
going to have to be my lunch for the next few months.