STL Milestones

Weekend and Week #1 Report!

It's my first full weekend in St. Louis, a welcome relief after my first full week at work, so here is a summary of how things are going, told as a series of firsts:

• First evening campus events attended (Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholars holiday reception, and Hanukkah celebration).
• First staff meeting (Thursday morning).
• (Thanks to Melanie) First shopping trip to West County Mall.
• First good night's sleep (last night).
• First weekend here without any driving outside of a single time zone.

 

First show in St. Louis: Gateway Men's Chorus perform "Christmas Around The World" in concert at the Edison Theatre at Washington University in St. Louis.

• First winter storm, and all that comes with it: first news bulletins for "Winter Storm 2010," first traffic alerts for accidents on every major highway in my vicinity, first low visibility warnings, and first weather warnings for overnight lows for 4 degrees and wind chills below zero.

Early morning pre-dawn: a few inches of accumulation, and this is why I am thankful for a parking space in the underground garage!

Across the street: one of the St. Louis University residence halls obscured in nearly white-out conditions.

This still photo close-up does not capture the windy chill of the morning, but we definitely got more than the forecasted overnight "flurries" and the snow was being blown practically horizontally!

• First time (in over 10 years) doing a load of laundry in a residence hall apartment laundry room. The machines did surprisingly well with a small load, but I did lose almost half of the $10 I loaded onto the access card just by inserting it to start the washer - what is up with that?
• First work order called into Facilities: the electronic lock on the apartment front door was acting up and basically not securing my limited belongings here.
• First "working weekend" - I'm going to the airport to pick up a longtime friend and colleague who is serving as a consultant to the division tomorrow, and then joining a co-worker to host the consultant for dinner.
• First snow drive on my own through the city and on the highways (see above).

Okay, so now you might be wondering if this new job and the 2,000-mile move was worth it. Well, before I answer, I have to share three slightly veiled residual stories from the job search. #1) Before I left San Francisco, I received an automated e-mail from one of the searches I had already withdrawn from telling me that the requisition to fill the vacancy was now suspended, and under review, so if I wanted to be considered I had to resubmit my application to a new job number. That meant that if I held out for that option, it probably would never have happened and I would have been stuck with nothing. #2) On the drive out here, somewhere in Wyoming, I got a call from another search process that I had applied to back in August. They had just completed their paper review and wanted to do a phone interview with me...right then. So I explained that I was not in a position to be interviewed right then because I was currently driving across the country to start a new job (which is a better set of responsibilities anyway). The people on speakerphone seemed perplexed and asked, "Oh, so you're not interested in this job anymore?" Um, yeah. That would be "no." #3) After I forwarded a job announcement for a vacancy here at SLU to some listservs, I received many congratulatory messages from colleagues, including one from the search firm that was working with me on an earlier search - thanks, everyone!

So I have to say that all the signs in the universe continue to affirm my job search choices, and yes, I do believe it is right for me to be here. I haven't had this much fun getting bundled up against the winter weather to go to work or run my errands in a long time, and I still need to find a permanent residence address, but yes I am still having fun each day (or trying to have fun each day).

Happy Sunday, Little Squirrel (seen outside my kitchen window this morning)!

Week #2 on the job begins in less than 24 hours - the adventure continues!