January 30, 2015: End of the First Week

I am slowly adjusting to the west cost and slept until around seven thirty today.  So I did not have several hours of just chilling in the hotel room to do before getting ready and walking to work.

The walk to work was cooler this morning and I was a little early so could walk a little slower to stay cooler as well.    On the way I hit the Cafe Moda again and got coffee (brewed, the traditional American type) and an egg and cheese on a croissant that was incredibly delectable.  I am sure that I will get another one of those tomorrow.  I’m not sure that I could resist not doing it.

Work was great today, and short.  I am not used to environments that knock off a bit early on Fridays.  In fact at Citi it was the latest day of the work week often going several hours longer than a normal day and at Bridgewater it wasn’t late but it wasn’t early either.  I know that most companies like to go home a little early on Friday but I am not used to it at all.  This is very cool.  Everyone was heading home at five!

I got to do my first “on my own” tickets today, which was great.  People were visibly excited that we were already productive and making a difference to workflows.  Makes me very happy to be productive so quickly.  In the past it has always taken weeks at least or months, more likely, to get new people up and running.  I only have two weeks here in the San Francisco office so any stalling constitutes a major loss of “in person” time.  I am anxious to be useful.

I walked back to the hotel and stopped at Custom Burger on the way.  I wanted things to be quick and easy.  I am ready for an early night tonight.  I got the mozzarella sticks tonight and wow were they ever good.  It has been many years, maybe over a decade, since I have had mozzarella sticks that were that good.

I Facetimed with the girls for a while tonight.  They were very excited to get to see me.  It has been a long week without them.  Dominica got the iPad set up sitting on the moulding in the girls’ room so it is like a little “talk to daddy” kiosk there on the wall.  Liesl and Luciana were able to sit in their bed and talk to me.  They are very excited that grandma and grandpa are coming to visit them tomorrow and bringing Truman on his first visit to our house.

It is hard to believe that my first week with Change in San Francisco is already over.  What an exciting week it has been.