First of my monthly reviews...this is a bit of an oddity so I'll free-style this.
Why an oddity?
Well I thought I would be settled in Atlanta for 6 months. That's no longer the case. A series of departures from my company has resulted in me relocating to Houston in March. This leaves me...not settled in Atlanta, specifically without furniture and more importantly without internet at home. It's a disruption to my routine at the very least. although not all bad.
It is bad in that it's more difficult to stick to using the system since its all online. Luckily I have data on the company phone so I stuck to doing my daily reflections, and weekly reflections at the common area of my building with wifi. But otherwise I've severely cut down my time online, so I haven't been working towards my goals such as increasing professional credibility or keeping in touch with friends and family.
Moving again means pausing the accumulation of stuff, which means I haven't bought any exercise gear. Strictly speaking it's a weak excuse, but any excuse will do since I'm so resistant to a formal exercise regime. In my (pathetic) defense, I have been randomly stretching while waiting for water to boil, which is actually quite frequently. But nothing that increases my heart rate or strains my muscles (well carrying home grocery does).
Some wins of not having internet are 1) sleeping more and 2) reading more. It's amazing that I'm sleepy by 10pm, which means a good 9.5 hours of sleep on weekdays. I do feel the effect on my productivity at work, on busy days I can pretty much work in a concentrated state for the whole day.
Work...
My main impression is how busy I am. There's always things to do next, more things I could learn, more templates or processes to develop. So far it's been good, the day passes by fairly quickly as I'm engaged. There's been a fair amount of travelling already, which I'd appreciate more if it wasn't right when I started. I enjoy frequent travel less than I thought.
The bigger picture for work is discussing what my role will be with my new team and superiors in Houston. The bad news is that my personal direction doesn't align that well with my company's strategic goals for the next decade. The misalignment is mostly on 2 points: I want to work more on performance modelling whereas its not a priority for the company, and that I don't like BD/selling/networking whereas these skills are expected from everyone. I suppose I could grow to like these like how I slowly stopped hating washing dishes?
Personally...
I'm just recovering from a pretty bad cold, so could be better. Mentally I feel pretty good, likely because I'm sleeping adequately. Motivation is up and down, up when I find a cool thing to learn or an exciting restaurant or reading a good book, down when unexpected things pop up or when I don't speak with friends/fam for couple days. My most basic goal is still to finally have some stability and nest. I'm seriously so so so so sooo looking forward to having all my stuff together in an apartment of Jeff and I, where I'll put stuff on walls, have the resources to undertake ambitious kitchen projects, and try to find a storage solution for the too many pairs of shoes that we each own.
Looking ahead...
I have one month left in Atlanta and I intend on enjoying my time here. As much as I look forward to being back in Toronto, I do enjoy time in Atlanta. There's the beltline. There's fried chicken and BBQ. There's a plethora of amazing credit cards with welcome bonuses (okay not an Atlanta thing but I'm getting my hands wet at the whole credit card hacking thing). A great thing this time around is that my team has more interns / graduate engineers, so it's easier to find common things to do outside of work.
Houston has more exaggerated parts of Atlanta that I dislike (the humidity, the dominance of cars). No doubt I'll find parts that I like and will miss dearly, but currently its feeling like a thing I'm doing that's good for me rather than something I'm genuinely excited about. Probably how a lot of people feel about eating vegetables. It is definitely the best opportunity for my career at this company, since its the mothership and I'll be able to get to know many more members of my team. More people = more eating out opportunities :p
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