The Office

I had to move a cowhide sofa with the Patrick Nagel print throw pillows to put my bike there.  That's a joke.  I actually don't have any Patrick Nagel print throw pillows.  Or a cowhide sofa.

It's official - I no longer work from home.  Last Thursday and Friday we moved into an office space in Huntington Beach.  Friday afternoon the Internet and phones went in.  Today was our first full day in the new place.  And it's a pretty cool space.  We've got a small front room we'll use for samples and an open floor plan everywhere else with high ceilings and a roll up door that lets in the ocean breeze.

I say "we" and "our" because I've started hiring. Since last October, I've worked for a Canadian based music apparel company and I was tasked with opening up the US market.  For awhile, it was easy to handle everything myself and use the central services in Vancouver for administration.  But it's got to the point where that isn't working anymore so we are putting some people in place in the US.  Sadly, California's unemployment rate is currently at 12.2%.  But that does make for some quality people looking for work and I think we'll end up with a good staff.

Though I'm going to miss lounging around in my boxer shorts all day, I think it will be cool to get up and go someplace to work again.  I'll get more done and I'll have someone besides the dogs to talk to.  Though the last time I did this it ended in disaster, there are some key differences.  I'm not the ultimate boss as I still report to HQ in Vancouver.  That will be nice.  And it will only be 4 people in 800 square feet, not 30 people in 20,000 square feet.  That will be nice too - low key, chill and theoretically much easier to manage.

I had to unpack a few boxes of "personal office" type stuff that had been stacked in the corner of my garage for the last two years.  To be honest, I was a little worried about how that would go - I really didn't want seeing a bunch of this stuff to trigger bad memories.  In the end, it didn't.  My biggest problem was cleaning two years of dust off of everything without sneezing.

 View from my desk.  I still need to get a power strip so I can plug the external monitor in.

I don't think the move is going to affect my training schedule too much.  Due to the lack of a shower, lunch time runs are now out of the question.  But I bought a case of wet naps and I'm hoping that will be good enough to clean up after a bike ride.  Ultimately, whether or not this plan works will be up to the staff and not me.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed. 

I'm going to try out a new cycling route tomorrow.  It's a 20 mile loop that isn't too much different than what I would do from home, except the PCH portion is farther north into Long Beach and Seal Beach.  But it's still fairly traffic signal free and should be doable in an hour.

Possibly the best part of the deal is that our street is named Triton lane.  Gotta love Greek mythology.  It also sounds kind of tough.  There is a Boeing plant across the street where parts of Skylab (remember that?) where built.  Yes, I'm a bit of a space dork.