Standing on the Corner of Twelfth Street and Vine

I'm actually closer to the corner of 43rd Street and Main right now but Kansas City is the place I've been calling home for the past couple nights. I started a new job yesterday and the immediacy of the task at hand combined with the lack of a physical office in Minneapolis has sent me down here for the better part of the next two months.

This a brand new experience for me. In the past twelve years I have worked at two firms. The first had six employees and the one I just left had close to thirty. I'm going to work these days in an office with hundreds of co-workers. I have to learn "standard practices". I have to deal with people from Human Resources. I need a passcard to take the elevator up to the third floor and it appears that I have about 17 bosses...two of whom I actually know by name.

On the lighter side, there are complimentary nachos and cheese all day long in the third floor break room (unless of course I forget my passcard), all office refrigerators are stocked with an endless supply of Coca-Cola products and, best of all, I have a $50 a day per diem and there is a liquor store a few blocks from my hotel (somehow I have to convince the accounting department that a bottle of Jameson absolutely qualifies as an "entertainment" expense).

I'm not quite used to living out of my suitcase yet but I imagine it will come as second nature after a couple more weeks of this. I'm also not quite used to my new surroundings. It took almost an entire hour for me to navigate the unfamiliar streets to the office yesterday; quite a feat considering it's only about five miles away as the crow flies.

No...my current situation is hardly ideal. I am feeling a bit like a cog in a gigantic unfamiliar machine. All of the comforts of home, including my very accommodating wife, are hundreds of miles away during the work week. But, despite all of this, I'm more excited about my job than I have been in years. Hell, if you could play a part in creating this you'd be excited too (unless your name is John Hinderaker, that is).