"You left Monterey?!"

One day down....365*3 - 1 to go.

No, it really wasn't that bad but nothing like starting from scratch at a new place. This post may be a little disjointed because I'm trying to figure out where my last 9 hours went since I didn't spend them sleeping in my bed. 

New Job Jitters
Last night the new job jitters got the best of me and even after taking some meds to help sleep, I was well rested and ready to go at 0030...as in I took the best 2 hour power nap ever. So after tossing, turning, dozing for 50 minute stretches my alarm went off and I was thrilled. Got ready in no time, even chatted some with friends back home before meeting the other person who interviewed me downstairs and we drove into work together. If you ever thought I was a morning person...wow oh wow, she puts a whole new meaning to the phrase. I think is was mostly due the fact that she's leaving this week but it was a tad too much for me in this zombie like state.

No Army man will find me now...
My new second home looks a lot more like a college campus than NPS with its yellow buildings, parking garage and open cobble stone paths. The sound of planes coming and going also reminded me of NPS since the airport is our immediate neighbor. After walking through one of the courtyards, we came across a rather official looking building with no windows. Before I even realized what was happening we were going inside this building. Yep. I gave up my beautiful window (with fabulous view) for a shared office with no windows. Only time will tell if it the experience gained will be worth the trade, but today something within me died as the 3490342nd door closed behind us and we were finally in our office. Okay, so there aren't that many doors but I assure you there are several all requiring my badge to be scanned and pin entered. Which raises one of my major concerns....how are my Army men supposed to find me if I'm being kept locked up in a basement?!?!?! 

The Meet & Greets
First day on the job means 2 things: a bunch of people are going to be introduced to you and you get to answer a ton of questions. I sure can't tell you the names of who I met today, but I know I met the engineer, director, lawyer, POA guy, and then a whole other office. It's bad when I remember the other office because 3 (if not 4) all told me how wonderful Monterey was and at one point or another had been to NPS for either a degree or conference. One guy even told me that he is really good friends with John Pisto and then asked what did I do to make me leave Monterey for Naples? Eek. Not what I want to hear this early on in the tour. This office also had some serious uniforms going on but they all looked they were 15 and yet somehow married? Yeah, I still get the "are you married" question from just about everyone I meet which I guess is a little better than the "did your husband get a job in Naples?" which was asked way too many times when I told everyone I was moving. 

And then there is insurance, housing, and more touring...
After coming out of the dungeon and realizing that there really was a beautiful day happening on the other side of the walls, the tours continued. Mind you after sitting in a cool office, left alone for a while I was fighting off the urge to pass out in between yawns and did all I could to pay attention to the information being given to me. After a super short drive back to my hotel the tour continued with meeting the auto insurance lady...who basically told me buy a "beater" for my day to day commute and leave Ravi in the garage for weekend and longer distances. (Dad-I'll be calling you about this one soon). 

The last stop on our tour was the housing office....where once again I sat and waited so long that by the time I met with someone I could barely string 4 words together. After searching the database (which really has no structure other than region and # of rooms) I found 4 places that seemed reasonable and I'm checking them out tomorrow. Yes, no worries- these places have spare rooms but there won't be any moving until my car gets here...or I buy another one?  

Today in a nutshell was the beginning of putting together the pieces of normal I was in dire need of yesterday but that doesn't mean this process is not overwhelming. The little part of my job that I saw today won't be tough at all- especially since my coworker is extremely organized in a way not too far off from my own and for the most part I have some experience with most of this. The lack of people my age that I'll be interacting with daily is my major concern so I guess it's time to start contacting all those people that you all know out here and creating a social network of real people because coming home and looking into this computer screen isn't the life for me. 

For now I'm off to the gym. I asked and received this morning's workout and although I'm about 13 hours after my normal workout time, I need to go pound the pavement and throw some weight around in hope of getting a good nights sleep.