When Life Gives You Snow...

...MAKE A SNOW ANGEL!
It's 82 degrees and partly cloudy where I live.
It's 16 degrees and mostly cloudy where I work. What a testament to modern living and "grown up-ness" when you find your work commute includes a time zone change, a season change, and up to 2 airline flights.

On November 28th, I started my first new job in over 5 years. I work for a speech solutions company in Bannockburn, IL now - an affluent suburb northeast of Chicago. Today marks nearly 2 weeks since I got on a plane from West Palm Beach, a bundle of nerves and excitement, and flew into Chicago O'Hare. My new title...Speech Consultant. A fancy way to indicate that I help companies improve their business operations and their bottom line by recommending automation through speech recognition.

First impressions are lasting, and even with the distance from home, my first impression is that I was meant to be here, and I have never had a better first week on the job in all my 10 years of working (Only 10 short years?! Makes me sound young and fresh out of school, right? Right? Hmph....never mind). Anyway, I thought the -7 degree temperature and the completely unaffordable million dollar homes would be enough to make me reconsider, but I am undeterred. This city and it's suburbs are well planned out, and you can truly find anything you want here. My co-workers are a highly intelligent and pretty socially adept bunch, and there is a great energy here because this arm of the business is a new adventure for all of us. I'll reserve comments on any particular personalities here though until my next post. Our company Christmas party is this Saturday night at the Drake hotel downtown on Michigan Avenue. Free flowing drinks and uninhibited dancing are the perfect ingredients for really getting to know your co-workers, don't you think?

Coming soon...pictures of my parking lot snow angel, some party shots, and tales of my return home to my wonderfully amazing, supportive (and toasty warm) family.