Bread Machine Anyone?

I'm back! I know...3 months was a really long time and you all thought I would never return to blogging. I've proved you wrong. I really hope to blog on a more regular basis again so check back often.

Starting a new job is really bizarre. New coffee stop in the morning where they no longer know what you want. New faces at a new bus stop. New sights and new smells. Fortunately, all of these "news" happen to be in my favor. Traded in Monorail Espresso for Caffe Ladro which is quicker, warmer and better. Traded in the ghetto bus stop in front of the Bon for standing next to the hammering man outside of SAM. I don't even need to elaborate on why this is better. Traded in the weird dental office smell that is Callison (occasionally masked by an over-perfumed person) for a smell that is really not much of anything. This is of course if you ignore the fact that I am temporarily sitting below a huge air vent producing a noise similar to being on a outdoor jetway with the smell of fish and chips wafting in every so often. This is much better than the smell of x-rays and fillings. To me at least.

The office itself, the location of the office, all of that is cool. I can't really elaborate on anything else since I have spent the first 2 days doing orientation. There is one thing though that I find fascinating. Anyone can send an e-mail out about whatever they want to the entire firm here. Yep, all 200 of us. At first I found it strangely odd that there is not sort of e-mail filtering system to prevent this. But then after reading some of these e-mails, I have found it to be quite humorous. Most of the stuff is people looking for a book or a product, something like that. Every now and then though, an off-the-wall one comes through. My favorite so far has been the request to borrow someone's bread machine (and instructions) for the weekend. Are you kidding me? This is allowed to go to the entire office? Hilarious. I attribute the lack of e-mail filtering to the general lack of rigid policy here and the desire to instill a sense of community within the firm. But I am probably full of shit. I am sure the real reason is the lack of time or money to spend on developing a policy that is really not that important any way. Fine by me. I will happily trade in knowing the staus of every broken color copier in the office for knowing what people are baking on the weekend.

Tomorrow brings my first all staff meeting. I can't even believe they have such a thing with 200 people. And there is food! Free food! And it happens every other week! Apparently this is where the new people have to get up in front of the entire firm, introduce yourself and then anyone can ask you whatever they want. Great. Really looking forward to it. It will be such a struggle for me to keep composure and not come back with some really sarcastic answer. Probably best not to do that on my third day here. Or not...