Here I go again on my...

One week down in 2 postings and another weeks worth of writing to get out. I'm not sure I did justice to the trip to Boise in my postings. I kind of rushed right through a lot of it, just trying to get some words down before it became too late in the game. And there's the last week, one which contained so much random chaos and exciting opportunities, that to skip right past it would be doing myself a disservice. I like to think I have quite the memory, that I remember details and points in time better than most, but as this life has become more and more abundantly busy, I'm concerned there may be a few things I'll pass right over if I don't document them. That being said, the next few pieces will probably be more of a recount of happenings more so than any insight I may have on the life I live. I guess they are one in the same, the experiences and the feelings. They do go hand in hand, and it would be really tough to have one without the other, unless you have amnesia. Time to time, I'd really like to be diagnosed with some sort of selective amnesia, where the parts of life that make it difficult to breathe as my heart cinches down on my lungs, could be erased as to not have to struggle out of their grip. Day to day would be easier, but losing any of that would be in direct conflict with who I have become, and worse, who I am becoming. Finally out of the rut, for now, that has been holding me under the mud and fallen rain, pooling up along the 4X4 trail of life. When I get stuck again isn't for me to ponder and worry about, it'll probably happen, and I'll search for that perfect winch spot to pull my ass end out again.

After returning from our trip it was obvious to me that staying home from the office the following Monday, was going to be necessary. Not feeling too awesome, having a few loads of laundry to run and a million new toys to get put away were going to require some attention and time, two things that have been in short supply for a fair amount of time. So I worked remote, got a lot done, both in the apartment and at work. I'm one of those people that when I work remote, without all the interruptions and goings on, I can complete about 12 hours of "in-office" work in about 5 hours. It's a wonderful thing, especially after being gone for 3 days and returning to 1100 emails, 12 voicemails and one fire after another to put out. It's an accomplished day when you can bust through those returns, and this day in particular wasn't any different. It also turned into an opportunity that hadn't been there prior to leaving for Boise the Friday before. About 11:30 a friend of mine sent me an IM (Instant Message folks) asking if I could be available for a phone screen with a company that afternoon. Phone Screen? It had been a really long time since I'd spent time on the phone talking with a potential employers recruiting department to discuss my resume and hear more about a new possible position. It's no secret to anyone that I haven't been too stoked in my current role and I was curious to hear that someone had seen my resume and wanted to talk with me. We set a time for them to call me, I did some background research on the company over 10 or 15 minutes and nearly forgot about the screening until the minute before the call came in. Phone rings and I answer in the appropriate professional manner, "Whatup! You got Ryan", not really, but it always sounds like a good way to make a first impression, right? I answer the phone and am greeted by the Executive Vice President of Global Operations for this company! OK, not who I expected to be calling, in fact, 1000% different than getting a call from a contracted recruiter asking basic questions to decipher if your resume is bullshit or not. And in turn, this was no phone screening or even an interview, this was a 30 minute conversation full of laughs and business theory and more laughs. He wrapped up the conversation asking about my schedule the rest of the week and when I could come in to formalize the process they were working within. The office is in downtown Bellevue, and I had a dentist appointment the following day in the neighboring city of Redmond at 4:00 which left me available around 5:30, and so we set up a formal interview. By 5:40 pm on Tuesday I found myself wearing jeans and an untucked button up shirt, sitting in the office of the EVP of Global Operations on the 16th floor of a brand new building overlooking all of downtown Bellevue, still trying to figure out how I got here. We joked briefly that when he told me to come casual, I followed directions to a tee. I realized I wasn't in my normal interview garb, but explained that wearing trousers in my office might get you beat up. He replied, no shit, "Saying the word trousers might get you beat up too, huh?" Classic, it was all laughs and all comfortable. For the next hour and a half we discussed the project they were preparing to start, my thoughts on it, my experiences, a lot of joking and well, my future with them. Who really talks about the future when you're not even in the door yet? Apparently I get to, or got to, and we ended the meeting with two simple questions from the EVP:

1- Are you interested? To which I responded, "I'd be lying if I didn't say absolutely" which in turn he responded "Than say 'absolutely'!" and
2- What is your availability?

I walked out of there and got in my truck knowing that I was getting to resign from my current station and move on to a bigger thing, a bigger business, a bigger paycheck and finally, after 11 years of getting my teeth kicked in by the companies I worked for, I was getting the role I deserved to have and moving my professional life forward to a point where everything changes from here. In essence, I'm really playing ball with the big dogs now, and I couldn't be more excited or stoked! It's an amazing feat that is going to change so much for me and more importantly Jackson. Within the next year, this living in an apartment and the south end, will be a distant memory. That's right, I'm going going, back back to the EASTSIDE. Think I'm excited?

After a couple of days of waiting, Thursday afternoon hit and the official offer letter came through and it was all I could do to hold back my excitement while I was still in my office. Had my boss been available at the time, I would have done what I had to wait until Friday morning to do, resign.

So, I'm 9 days away from my last day here, not that I'm counting down or anything. Really just looking at it as a very small window of time to wrap things up, make sure I leave this place better than I got it, and of course spend my last hours in the building drinking keg beer on the 7th floor patio! I will miss that part of this place for sure.

So, that gets me through Friday morning's resignation and the weekend just became one glorious random event after another, which is for another post all together.

Stay blessed and enjoy your day-