Venturing into New Territory

New territory meaning not so much exotic locations, but rather bitter cold and gray cubicles.

Arriving in Illinois last week, we spent the weekend catching up with family and friends, despite the icy weather.  Yes, I said icy.  We're not in southern California anymore.  Brrr!

This frigid morning we found ourselves at work for the first official day of our new job.  Jonathan fit right in with all the engineer-speak and is already having fun hashing out ideas and working on exciting projects.  This is all so new to me--an eight to five job, with meetings and conference calls, cubicles and coffee, and a great majority of the workday spent staring at a computer screen.  I'm still working on finding my footing and figuring out exactly what it is I'm supposed to be doing.  We've been able to talk with a few contacts in South America which has helped us firm up our travel schedule, at least for the first round of sojourning.  I've started to look at travel details and as a result am slightly cross-eyed as I type this!  Dates, timezones, airports, layovers, arrival and departure times have succeeded in tying my brain up in knots and also turning it into oatmeal (points for recognizing the Adventures in Oddessy quote--it's Jason, also an adventurer!)  Something about sitting in a cubicle and staring at the same screen for hours on end has numbed me.  I'd almost forgotten we're on an adventure!  It doesn't take much to remind me as the screen comes back into focus and words like Auckland, Córdoba, and Sao Paulo jump out at me.  New experiences up ahead!

Our launch date is January 29th, less than 2 and a half weeks away.  The first round begins with a week in New Zealand, followed by a night at the beach cottage in dear old Manhattan Beach.  Yes, you read that right!  Cheers erupt from the Californians!  It looks like we'll be traveling through that giant airport just up the road from us, LAX, now and then, which means a few days home here and there!  And trust me, we won't be taking that lovely 70 degree weather for granted anymore!