Miss my blog

I have been neglecting my blog lately.  This week I've had no internet at home.   For those of you who've actually been reading I promise to do a better job of keeping up :) 

Last week was my first full week of work and it got a little crazy.  It's been somewhat difficult to get into a routine but thinking about it... I guess it's because I really don't HAVE much of a routine anymore, with the exception of going to work every day.  I'm usually home by six, so I feel like I have quite a bit of free time to work with and I'm just not use

d to this yet.  Which is pretty lame, I know, but I'm getting used to it.  However, I don't think I can expect it to get that much more comfortable, since I'll be traveling for work and don't expect things to "slow down" anytime soon.  

I do love my DC neighborhood, but there are aspects of State College life that I miss.  I don't have the community here in DC that I was able to establish outside of grad school in State College.  At Penn State I spent a lot of time avoiding doing work in the lab.  Which translates into a lot of time spent either: at a coffee shop, taking long walks at night, or hanging out at the gym.  So far, even though the neighborhood is adorable, I haven't found any cozy local coffee shops near my apartment.  I haven't joined a gym or found a yoga studio.  And, although I consider my neighborhood to be 'safe', it's probably not smart for me to take off on my own at 10 PM at night to walk for an hour in an unknown direction.  

My job... so far I love my job.  It started out pretty well, the people have been great, and it keeps improving now that I have more and more on my plate.  My boss put me in charge of the new educational effort for the geothermal program, which is a dream for me - I have a lot of freedom to take this in any direction that I want.   Our office is small, but we're on the same floor as the other renewable programs (wind, solar, hydrogen, biomass) - who all have contractors working for them.  The contracters are mostly all young engineers so I think I should be able to build somewhat of a social circle through them without having to also work closely with them every single day.  

My family met up at PSU to tailgate for the Illinois game last weekend.  The weather cooperated and, as usual, we had a great time. It was the first time I've ever come back as an alumni! I must say, it was kind of fun to come and invade someone else's place for a change ;) Here's some pictures from the weekend. I caught the rainbow on my drive back to DC - it was amazing and I'm so glad I had my camera handy.

  

Alright... nothing earth shattering but that's my update.  I just arrived in Reno, NV for a conference so I'm sure I'll have better pictures and stories to share soon!