Sean’s House

I’m coming off a couple of rough weeks as I was trying to push out a new product. It’s pretty cool, does some firewalling, some network forensics, and usage control stuff. I like it.

Anyway, Erik recently mentioned how weird his current situation is. Believe me, I know how it is. I first started working here as a contractor, spending 75% of my time in the Bay Area and the other 25% back in DC. I had a hard time coming to grips with the fact that this was a real job and not some weird trip to Work Fantasy Island or something.

And when I went full time three months later, it was even weirder. We didn’t actually move out here until a month after I had started, and during that time I was living alone in the apartment that we had decided on (due to a sweet deal, our first two months were free, which made migrating across the country significantly less of a financial strain than it could have been) with absolutely no furniture except an air mattress and a floor lamp from Fry’s. On my last flight back from DC I brought my Playstation 2 with me and bought a television just so I could have something to do, since DSL wouldn’t go in for another couple of weeks.

If that wasn’t bad enough, when we did drive out here a month later, the movers were delayed by a week! Both of us were completely disconnected from reality and any concept of “home,” since our previous home no longer existed, and our stuff wasn’t in our new place yet. Very odd time. I think it’s only been in the last couple of months that we’ve considered this place something of a home. I know my wife really doesn’t like California, but she’s building relationships here which is helping a lot. There’s nothing worse than being in a new place and not knowing anyone. At least Erik’s got an advantage there, having already established a network here. I’d speak more on social networks but I’ll save that for another entry.