Vacation!

Vacation next week! Woohoo!

On Friday after work, I'll be traveling down to Raleigh because Anne and I will be driving to Jacksonville on Sunday to head out on a five-day, five-night cruise to Key West and the Bahamas! For. The. Win.

It was a long and winding road even to get to the cruise at all. My mom had hip surgery in June, and doctors weren't sure if she'd be able to go, so they canceled the cruise. But on July 2, she went to the doctor and was cleared to go on the cruise. My parents went from the doctor's office to the travel agent and reinstated the cruise, so off we'll go on Monday morning!

It's going to be a good time.

In the meantime, a few awesome things I'm really loving about my new job:

1. They're getting me a Blackberry!

So a few people were in the hall, talking about smart phones and what they can do, etc. Afterward, one of the partners came into my office and asked why I didn't partake in the conversation.

I pulled out my Razr and explain how my phone is anything but smart, so I didn't have anything to add. He said, "Well you're a program manager here, are you not?" "I am indeed," I replied.

"Well, anyone here who's a manager or higher gets a Blackberry, so let's set you up."

Sign me up! I'm choosing between a Curve, Storm or Tour. I'm leaning away from the Storm because I haven't heard good things about the touchscreen Blackberries.

Thumbs UP. I will let you know when I have more information. I can tell how excited you are about it.

2. Happy Hours at work

Last week, we all gathered in the conference room at 4 p.m. to have wine, beer, champagne and some light snacks. Why? Why not? Just because we can, and we hadn't done it yet this month.

One of the partners traveled to Africa and brought back a ton of pictures, so we drank a bit and looked at pictures of Africa. Hard to argue with that as a way to spend an afternoon at work.

Anyway, this job is still FTW -- for other reasons too of course. I actually do enjoy the work. Learning about nuclear energy is more fun than, say, learning about corn. And I'm enjoying the increase in responsibilities here as well.

It's a good time. A little over a month into the job, and so far, so good. Still a good decision.

Laaater,
BG