The job

Alright alright, I know I've slacked off.

I started my new job last Monday, so I've been busy. I took a job as a media writer .

It's been very interesting so far. I'm learning a lot of new acronyms and all about politics, that's for sure.

The media/communications department is made up of five people in and then another 4 or 5 in Texas and at the national headquarters in . I learned last week that there's a media retreat every few months, with the next one being in in mid-December. Woo!

Anywho, my coworkers are all very cool people. So cool that I feel like the uncool one. They are all smart as heck, funny and they swear openly in the office. It's a laid back atmosphere.

This is also the biggest office I've ever worked in, around 50 people are in our building. We're right on and last week I even saw my first protest. Turns out we're about a block away from the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation, and last Thursday President Bush was speaking there. The roads were all closed off and Code Pink was outside raising hell with banners and megaphones. Cool.

The commute has been an adjustment. I now spend 2+ hours/day commuting to and from . Sounds like a lot, and it is, but it's not too terrible. I think what's made it harder is starting in the fall when it gets darker earlier. Now I really feel like I get home late and get up real early.

But the train ride affords some interesting reading time. Or listening time, actually. Last week I listened to a book (#36 for my year of reading as many books as possible). It was Stephen King's "Rita Heyworth and Shawshank Redemption." Pretty good! Very different from the movie, but still awesome.

I also get to overhear very interesting conversations, like braindead college girls talking about the Sudanese refugees they heard a speech from that day:

"I was, like, so totally hungry during their speech, like, and I felt, like, so bad thinking about Starbucks, like, you know? I, like, feel so bad for them!"

I weep for our future.

What else...

I've not been writing that much since I started. They're thankfully starting me slowly, but it was so slow that today I asked them for more to do. I was tired of not doing much at all, or just reading various web sites and background info so as to be up on my details and political know-how.

Anyway, feel free to ask any questions you might have. It's cool to work for such a , and it's also a tad overwhelming. I'm balancing feelings of "this is awesome" with "I'm totally going to suck at all of this."