…I’m moving back into Seattle!!!

309 10th Ave E

14 hours. That’s how much more time I’d need to be in the waking week to accomplish everything I try to do. It’s been a stressful couple of weeks…some issues at work have blown up unexpectedly and ended up on my plate (Office 12, Vista, IE7, and Exchange 12 are the bane of my existance) and my usual propensity to do ’stuff’ hasn’t let up at all. When I last tallied up the list (a list that only seems to get longer), those extra 14 hours would be used on: keeping up with the 40 or so great blogs I subscribe to, reading the news, spending more time on Chinese, writing specs at work, a little climbing and time outdoors, then sleeping. Not to mention I’ve also embarked on a course to broaden my perspective and horizons and have this desire to subscribe to the Economist and Business 2.0.

Wait, stop. I’m whining about problems most people would be fortunate to have. As Bram would say, “the tiniest violin is playing the saaaddest song.”

This weekend, which I’ve spent in Seattle, has been a welcome reprieve from the challenges of yesterweek. It’s funny to see–six months ago, I would have leapt at the challenges I’m facing at work and charged on forward with the invincible armor of naaivity. But it’s six months later and my time on the job has humbled me, my knowledge, and my capabilities.

It isn’t a bad thing…rather it follows the process of growing into the professional world and realizing that knowledge and experience doesn’t come overnight. Lisa once shared with me the notion that people like us get really ansy around the six month point in a career job. It’s the longest we’ve ever stayed in one particular place, doing a single job, with no end in sight. I had sort of tossed the idea in the back of my mind when I heard it…what I’m doing is a dream, how could I ever get tired of this rush?

I wasn’t really struck until the week after my vacation to Europe. Partly it was due to the cold that I’d picked up and kept me down, but being back in the office felt different too. It wasn’t until I’d settled back into my office routine that I realized the feeling was different…long gone was the super-excitement of a new job, gone was the anxiety to move up to working on something else. It had been replaced by a desire to do things methodically, properly, and absorb the learning experiences without rushing them.

It’s an interesting feeling with a lot of downstream reprocussions. I’ve decided to put off my working-in-China plans for an additional year and I’ve started to look at my life in Seattle in long-term time. After all these years, I’m ready to make the place I live my home, not just the place I crash at. I’m surrounded by awesome friends, great hobbies, and a great job. It couldn’t be better.