Well, technically, I’m not in Seattle right now, but rather Redmond, but it’s close enough to count for me, having never visited this area before. To put it mildly, my associations with Seattle (apart form its music scene) are not particularly pleasant [1]. When I was recently hired for a (particularly awesome) opportunity doing analysis work in GIS and Industrial Engineering, one of my concerns was spending a couple of weeks in Seattle. This was a concern for several reasons, among them the fact that I would miss services in Portland for a couple weeks (including a choir performance, a Spokesman’s club meeting, and a couple of weeks with people I am fond of seeing). Likewise, I was also concerned that I would receive a less than friendly greeting in Seattle, something which tends to concern me. However, fortunately, I found that was not a problem, and even the fact that it adds a fair bit of commuting to my time, my commute from Portland to the Seattle area this morning (which started at around 5:00AM) was included as paid wages. So, it’s all good. If I have to wake up early in the morning, at least I can get paid for it.

Truth be told, I did not get to see much of the beauty of Washington, at least as it is on either side of Interstate 5, given the fact that it was way too early in the morning for me to see much of anything (and given the fact that I don’t really see very well in the dark). However, there were quite a few people to meet, including my teammates and various management staff for the project I am working on. There was the chance to introduce myself to the rest of the people of our region at the team, who were quite intrigued by my education and generally quirky life experience. One of the other people, who is part of the Spokane team at training as well, is also a violist, as well as the son of the person in charge of the project. That was very unusual, given the rarity of violists. By and large the people I met today are friendly and reasonably quirky, and most of them (aside from a very young man fresh out of college) a bit worldly wise.

Later on this week, as well as some next week, I will get to drive/ride around in rental cars in the area to test out how to analyze data, which should be interesting. I haven’t driven a car in a couple of years, so I’m a bit nervous about that part. I hope, at least, that the books that arrive during my time away also find their way to me and don’t get misplaced along the way. We’ll see how that goes, I suppose. It is pleasant to know that it appears I have an opportunity for a bit of travel, a bit of adventure, and meeting some awesome new people while doing work that is very intriguing and that gives me some new competencies I have been looking to gain for a while. So, as I’m rather exhausted right now and have several batteries to charge for the work laptop I have been assigned, I suppose I will leave it at that, for now.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/09/30/hello-seattle/