From an email I exchanged earlier with Julie:

The security guards in my building will always say “Happy Friday” in the mornings when you come in or when you’re coming back from lunch, etc. It’s very refreshing and always makes me smile. Well today as I was was coming in there was a new guy. I scanned my badge and walked passed the desk and when I didn’t hear “Happy Friday” it stopped me dead in my tracks.

I turned and shot a sidelong glance at him and he said, “Can I help you?”
What I replied must have seemed somewhat rude, “You’re supposed to say ‘Happy Friday.’ People count on that. They need to hear it.”
“Why?” was the stone wall answer I was hoping not to hear.
“Well,” with what must have been a small amount of panic showing in my voice at this point, “that’s just what we do here. Friday isn’t just another day. It’s a state of mind. It makes the fact that you’re here on what should be the first day of weekend OK. Isn’t it good that it’s Friday?”
He looked at me for a minute and then said “If you think it’s that important I will. I have to work the weekend shift though, so my ‘Friday’ starts on Tuesday–”
I cut him off, “I will tell you ‘Happy Tuesday’ if you tell me ‘Happy Friday’. Come on man, what do you say?”
He smiled. “Happy Friday.”

I should stop thinking, “Wow this week was a nightmare, there’s no way next week could be worse,” because I always prove myself wrong. This has been the most hectic week of my professional career. I have to say I’m a bit proud though, I’m dealing with it pretty well. Attitude is everything, as they say.

That said, there’s no way next week could be worse than this one.

Yeah, it’s Saturday but I still need to head in to the office for a few hours to take care of some business. There’s a deadline we’re working to hit on Monday, and there are so many distractions during the normal work day that I really will be able to go in and get a lot accomplished even if I only go in for just a couple hours with no distractions.

It’s not that big of a deal though anyway, I’m going to be hanging out with my buddies up in Royal Oak later tonight so I need to head that direction anyway, I’ll just drop in to work before continuing up I-75.

It’s funny though, when did coming in on a Saturday become just a completely acceptable thing? Maybe it always has been. The weirder thing was I volunteered to do it. Maybe that’s just my personality to some degree though. I always like to get the job done and do a good job. Professional pride I suppose. It can be taken too far though.

I came home today with the full intent on upgrading to WP 2.2 and taking care of a few things on the site, but it’s amazing how easy it is to get distracted. I started playing around with my mac and updating a few tools that I’ve been using lately, then catching up on some of my feeds, dinner, and then before you know it, it’s after 10:00 PM. The days really just start to go by faster than you can keep track of the older you seem to get.

Well, I can say I did do a few things at least to prepare for the upgrade. I suppose I’ll get to it tomorrow afternoon.

On the work front, I love my new job. It’s pretty much exactly what I was looking for. I think it’ll continue to get better as well, especially when my new project starts up. There are a couple things I am uncertain about related to my current project, but that’s pretty typical when you inherit any software system. Every developer has their own style for working, and it just so happens that the previous developer had one that was moderately different from mine. Not worse really, just quite different. It’s good to be exposed to this kind of thing though; I’ve already learned a couple things that when you put it together with what I already knew, the result is greater than the sum of the parts.

Most of you who read this site know me well enough that you’ve heard me complain about my job as a technical consultant. Well, you won’t have to hear me whine any more. As of Monday I’ve officially given my notice with my current employer that I won’t be one of their jet-setting chumps any longer. Responses to my announcement were generally what I expected, though it seemed to cause more waves than I expected. My last day will be May 11. The following week will be spent packing and moving from Lansing, the place that’s been my home for 7 years now as I went to school and then joined the work force. But moving to where?

Detroit! And I announce that very happily. Being originally from the metro area I have a lot of friends and family around there, something I’ve been lacking (for the most part) in mid-Michigan since school has ended. While a lot of people have been spread out (Houston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, Eugene…) there’s still the largest concentration in metro Detroit. And as many of you also know I am a huge fan of the city and the area. I say that knowing it’s not perfect, but that it’s much, much better than many people give it credit for and that it’s getting better all the time. I want to be part of the city as it continues to revitalize itself and be one of the locals that can proudly say I stayed and helped improve the area, rather than ignoring the potential and transplanting somewhere else. (Though I have friends who only moved because they had to for their career development, which is fine. We just have to figure out a way to get them back. )

But why Detroit? Well, despite all the bad press the economic situation in the area isn’t all bad. I’ve taken a job with Covisint (a subsidiary of Compuware) that I’m really excited about. It’s going to be a great opportunity for my career, the work will be engaging and I won’t have to travel! It might not be something most people would be thrilled about, but trust me when I say I’m going to enjoy that morning commute. Well maybe not enjoy it, but trust me, it beats getting on a plane 2-4 times a week.

For now I’ll be moving back to my parent’s place, but just till I find a house to buy. I’m guessing that will happen sometime in the later portion of the summer. Another thing to be excited about!

Overall I’m really happy with this turn of events. The timing is close to perfect.. project ending at old job, lease ending in Lansing, weather getting nice for move, baseball season getting well underway for after-work ball games; this is going to be a good summer. 2007 had kind of a rough start, but it may turn out to be a good year after all!