COOL BEANS

Eight months ago we packed our bags, our cats, and our baby, and moved to DC to help open a new corporate office and launch a new division for our company. We told ourselves that, in the end, the only way we'd know the move had been worth it was if we were as sad on the day we left DC as we were when we drove south out of Burlington. 

It was so very worth it.

Washington, DC

While we were away, the Vermont office went through a major reorganization, moved to an entirely different building, and hired about a million new employees. On top of that, I was named to a newly created position (a massively broad one) to return to. Today was my first day.

It took me a while to find my desk. I had to ask where to hang up my coat, where to find IT, where to get water and go to the bathroom. Every other person I saw was a complete stranger. It was odd. 

My new boss found me standing quietly in front of the coffee machine. No mug. She said I looked kind of comatose. I told her I don't even drink coffee. I'd been staring at the name of the machine: cool beans. We had a running joke in the DC office about the expression and the machine made me miss them. It made me think of how Shanika cried for three days before we moved back, insisting that our leaving was "just whack."

And then Anna brought me a cupcake and a card. Someone else (I'm still not sure who) left a couple of chocolates on my keyboard. I unpacked my box of stuff and started to settle in. I caught up with a couple of people I was really happy to see and made fun of some others with my new neighbor. Toward the end of the day, I had a meeting to discuss a creative advertising idea for corporate—a meeting in which I found myself ranking people's attractiveness on a scale of small-medium-large (it was totally relevant to the topic, honest.) I walked back to my desk, still laughing at the ridiculousness of our conversation, and looked out the window at the beautiful sunset over Lake Champlain. I realized that in midst of so much change, some things had stayed the same. And they are some of my very favorite things. 

It felt good to be back.

Burlington, VT

Today I felt like the new kid in school looking for someone to have lunch with me. Tomorrow, I try again.