Week in review

So I survived my first week at the new job. New jobs are always hard - new faces and names, new job duties, so many forms to fill out, and in this case, so many rows of cubicles to not get lost in. I came home after my first day with an intense headache. But, it's going well overall. I have a 'cube with a view', which is good and bad - good because we're on the 6th floor (top floor) and overlooking downtown, and, as it turns out, the Olympic Mountains in the distance when it's clear out. It's bad because the way my space is set up right now, my monitors are in front of the windows and when it's nice out I'm blinded by the brightness. I'll rearrange, eventually, or start wearing sunglasses at work (that's a joke!).

The work is interesting and really challenging already. I like that, though it's tough and I'm mentally exhausted at the end of the day. All the people in the office have been really nice and helpful. I'm heading for my first work trip this week, to Spokane.

Fun things - Friday night we went to a local place called Uncork and Unwind to celebrate my first week of work being done. It's a restaurant and wine bar with awesome outdoor seating (and it was gorgeous out!) and they feature a lot of local/PacNW wines AND have live music. Perfect.

Saturday Steve made surprise plans for us for the morning/early afternoon...and even packed an awesome picnic lunch.  He took me to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma! We got there right as it opened and spent the morning enjoying the gorgeous weather and the park. There's a huge park outside the zoo too, and we drove through that, stopping at overlooks of the Puget Sound, rose gardens, and other fun sites.

Today (Sunday) I worked aaaaallllllll day (ugh, starting at 6:30 am) while Steve took advantage of another nice day and went for a long motorcycle ride to the coast and nearly halfway around the Olympic peninsula.