News from the left coast..

Man, I'm a lot less dedicated to this blog writing than I was in England. Oh well-- no news is good news in this case. I think it may be that I'm better connected to most of my family and old friends now that I'm in my home country, plus there's less culture shock and nicer weather-- there seems to be less reason to vent my frustrations or reconnect with old friends. My life may also be a bit more mundane here.

Anyway, I've been doing very well here. I just moved house, so now I'm in like a shared apartment living situation with 3 other guys. It's a bit quirky living situation-- there's an odd and anal retentive landlord involved, but I'm saving a ton of money here so I'm willing to be flexible. Cost of living is so much better here, and after surviving in London, I know how little I need to be happy / survive. I'm making a bunch of savings, and I'm starting even to feel curious about buying a simple apartment. But even with the deflated housing prices, I'd be way on the bottom end of affording something in this area. Someday...

Work has been really satisfying. Compared to Arup, I'm 100% more involved with all aspects of the job and connected to the results of my work. On the human impact side, I really feel like I'm helping people (for profit) on more days, rather than pushing papers within a big corporation and doing as I'm told. And the work is much more varied and interesting-- there has been a lot to learn. And it's motivating to try to do a good job, grow the business, and make a profit, in a way that Arup's salaried corporate work never could be. When I stop and think about it it's almost exactly what I always imagined might be out there somewhere.

We're getting along very well at work too, the coworkers and the boss. We've lost a few people, we're down to 3 and are hiring another who starts next week. It seems like we're all very friendly, non-stressful personalities left here. Sometimes lately there's way too much work, or mistakes made or disagreements over something, but everyone seems to handle it really well-- to not take offense or cause additional problems, but to just get down to work and fix the problem. The boss has made a point of saying how little she yells nowadays, and how patient I am with her :). "You *are* good" is one of her high praise compliments she hands out from time to time.

I just found out that I'm at least 5 years younger than everyone else in the company. And some of them with lower job positions... Kind of cool! I feel a little conscious of my age sometimes when I show up to meetings now, as "senior consultant" with a lot of people who have been doing their jobs for 30 years. And I wonder about my future sometimes-- I find myself feeling really pretty content here, maybe it's not perfect but it's pretty close. But I also know that I tend to get bored with anything, and if/when this becomes easy or mundane I might feel like I want more. But if this isn't enough at some point the only next step I see (within the field) is running my own small business. I can't see going back to a corporate setting as a higher level manager as being satisfying. I've got a contact in England who has potentially talked about giving me some startup money to open an office for him in the US-- (it could be pipe dreams, who knows). And the current boss has talked of retiring within 5 years, ostensibly to leave the company to the employees. So I wonder which direction the wind will blow, or to something else entirely..!

Also-- I'm thinking of taking up rock climbing.

So, I'm still hoping to make a trip to Europe in late August / early September. I'd probably stop by the Greenbelt festival and then go on to tour in Europe with a friend. If any Londoners are reading this and want to discuss travel plans, let me know!

Ok, that was a nice long post to update you an almost all aspects of my life. Generally things are going well. I'll probably send a separate email soon with my new contact information. And I should put up some pictures of some travel/tourism I've done recently. Speak to you all soon, perhaps a bit sooner than last time :)

-Stephen