The Right Voice

Well, the goodbye’s have been said (most of them) and new people have been met. I left sunny Southern California on June 11th and flew into hot and humid Washington, DC. I spent a few days getting my apt ready by getting furniture and other essentials. It was a rough couple of days getting all the furniture bought and built, but we were all done by Sunday night in time for work on Monday. What a whirlwind it was. Here were some of the going’s on.

The whirlwind tour started in May when I was hired in DC. It was time to start saying goodbye to California and friends. They had a nice party for me at work. They even had a cake for me. Everyday, it seemed, someone wanted to have one last lunch with me before I set off. I never knew how many people I knew until I had to say goodbye to them all. On June 4th, it was time to say goodbye to my old job. It was kind of surreal. I was alone in my area because all my coworkers friends were in training, so it was just me. I had my exit interview at 1030, and at 11 I was escorted out of the building. The last few days were really busy. Especially the weekend. Saturday was packed. I met with close friends for breakfast, went straight to a BBQ for another friend leaving town for Indiana. Immediatly following that, I held my own party at my Burbank apt. Sunday. I stopped over at Matt’s. I was really glad to get to see him and be able to say goodbye to him. then I caught up with my Aunt and Uncle and we had lunch at Ribs USA in my former home of Burbank.

Monday, I woke up to the car shipping company telling me they were there to ship my car. After I shipped my car, I went back to sleep and slept until about 1. I woke up and fixed my coffee and started to pack up the last boxes I had to ship. The one extra box I was planning on shipping turned into 7. I was not happy, but all that stuff needed to go. Tuesday, was surreal. I knew I would be driving down the Burbank streets for the last time. I knew I would be seeing people for the last time for a while. I spent most of the day at home cleaning out my room and taking bigitems down to the ally. My bed, TV, shelf, dresser, chair, and desk would not make the trip. I decided that none of that stuff was worth shipping and it was not. My friend Mike picked me up and I went over to his house and had dinner with him and his fiance Christina. After dinner it was time for my last softball game for a while. We won for a change. It was very bittersweet. I had a really good time with good friends, but I knew it would be my last for a while and my last with those particular people. After softball, I got home and played one last game with my roomates. At about midnight, I decided it was time for bed. I went to sleep…on the couch I did not sleep at all.

Wednesday, I woke up at 615 to catch my 8 o’ clock flight. My roomate drove me to the airport and I was off to my new life.

I landed at the Dulles Airport and I gotmy luggage and went over to the Super Shuttle counter to get a ride to my apartment. After about an hour (traffic, go figure) I got to my apartment. I had to wait outside for about 20- 30 minutes because I had to wait for my friend to get off work so he could let me in. The apartment was empty, there was no TV, no Internet, and nothing to sit on. Pretty dull.

I woke up on Thursady, and dropped my friend off at work so I could use his car. I realized that we could connect to the Internet from an unsecured wireless network in my room. I headed over to Sleepy’s and I bought a bed. After that I went over to Ikea and I bought a couch with a hidabed so my friend who is staying with me for 8 weeks would have somewhere to sleep. It also will work for those who will come visit me to have a place to sleep. We went out to dinner on Thursday, and called it a day. Friday was much less productive. I had to go into DC to get a drug test for my new job. Between Metro, waiting for the test, and driving, it took about 4 hours. So that day was lost. We went to a movie in Alexandria and had a pretty good time. The next two days would not be as fun.

Saturday was the day we were going to get the rest of the stuff for the Apartment. We went to Target and bought everything for the kitchen, and a TV stand. We had already bought a desk at Office Depot the day before, so on Saturday we went to Staples and got a chair. It was close to the Bed, Bath, and Beyond, so we stopped in and got a nightstand. We stopped for lunch and then headed out to Wal-Mart. There we got a coffee table, and other assorted cleaning products. We also stopped at Best Buy and Circuit City to pick up cables. We took it all back to the apartment and built it. We were exhausted. Completely out of energy. The only problem was that we still needed to go grocery shopping. We got a coupon for Circuit City so we stopped there first. We got done with the shopping around 930. We called Domino’s and picked up some pizza (It is literally right across the street). We accomplished a lot and met our goal of sitting on our couch eating pizza and watching The Office on DVD. It was a tiring, but good day.

Sunday was a bit more relaxing. We only had a few places to go and it did not take very long. It was a bit stressful for me because the next day, I was starting my new job. I did not sleep that well on Sunday night.

The firs tweek of work went really well. I am meeting a lot of new poeple and they seem excited about what I can do and the ideas I am bringing them. I am learing a lot and getting used to the new schedule. Days are long, but I am happy. I made the right choice.

Todd