After my on-"boarding" process for my new job yesterday, today was my first day at my new office, which is located at the intersection of my dining room and my kitchen. I showed up at 7:15 am, after a 30 second commute from my bedroom. I encountered some traffic in the stairway due to my daughters' getting ready for school, and our dog Dorito's desperate running to the front yard to take his morning pee. I turned on my computer and quickly scanned my emails from the day before. I noticed from the headers that I had received some hate mail since my previous blog post (loved it!).
My wife and I made breakfast for the girls like every morning, but this time I didn't feel the need to rush. I walked the girls to school, something I hadn't done in ages, and for the first time ever I was able to volunteer with the valet parking--helping kids safely exit their cars. Then, my wife and I walked back from school while enjoying the simple pleasure of a leisurely conversation. I returned just in time for two conference calls, through this beautiful technology called Skype, with my partner and the web development team in Colombia and Mexico. By 11:30 am, I was done with my calls, so I took some time to chat with friends in Mexico and the US and to look at the traffic statistics of my blog, using another free tool from heaven called Google Analytics. I was satisfied to see a big jump for yesterday's page views and unique visitors. The report says that to date the site has received 350 visitors, miniscule numbers for the web universe but huge for me.
I went outside to shoot some baskets in the driveway (I need a lot of practice) and was amazed to see how bright the sun is before noon. I went over to visit my neighbor, who is also a stay-at-home entrepreneur and soon-to-be my partner in everything fun (he scouted the location for yesterday's snowy photo shoot). After that, I drove to Mattel to return some papers. The commute to my former workplace, "The Tower as we call it, was definitely more relaxed than ever before. I was wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and blue sunglasses (I'm still sensitive to daylight after 12 years inside drywall partitions). I bumped into some friends who I kissed and hugged the Latin way, delivered my papers in the lobby, and left without any strong emotions.
In the afternoon, I jumped back and forth from my office to the yard to play with my daughter or to chat with my wife. We grilled burgers for dinner, discussed politics with my mom, and put the girls to bed after reading four pages of Harry Potter, which is taking us forever to finish. Here I am, again, in front of the computer at 10:30 pm. So far, 15 hours of blended activities between work, family, errands, and fun have passed and I think I like this new job...a lot!