A lot has happened since my last post. Most notably, I’m excited to announce that today is my first day back at Microsoft! After losing my job unexpectedly on Enzo’s birthday, I got back on the job hunt with a vengeance and was able to find several solid opportunities. One of those was a contracting role with Microsoft and that’s the one I chose. Obviously, I have a lot of experience there, so my goal at this point is to do so well in this contracting role that they decide to bring me back on as a full-time employee.
Strangely enough, today would be my dad’s 97th birthday, so I lost my job on my son’s birthday and then started my new one on my dad’s birthday. It was March 2nd, 2015, the 20th anniversary of his passing, when I originally started at Microsoft, and now here we are a full 10 years later and I find myself returning after being gone for almost two years. I will be working on a project in the AI space, which should allow me to make a notable impact, so I’m very excited to get started!
In a couple of weeks, they’re flying me up to Redmond for an in-person event, so I’m doing my best to make plans with a bunch of friends and family while I’m there. I won’t have a car, so I’m mostly relying on people coming to me, but so far it’s looking good. I wish the rest of my family could join me, but that’s not possible at this time. I’ll be heading up to Seattle on the night of Saturday, March 8th, and staying the night with my cousin Kristy. The following morning we will head down to Tacoma to visit Uncle Jim and Aunt Brenda, then later that afternoon my good friend Michael Rico will pick me up at Kristy’s house and have me over for dinner at his place. The rest of the week I’ll be at my hotel in Redmond, which is only a mile from the Microsoft campus, before heading home on Friday evening. It will be a quick turnaround because that Sunday morning we will be driving up to Colorado for a week at Amy and Tom’s place. We always love going up there and they will still have plenty of snow for the kids to play in.
The other big thing going on in my world is that we just started the new softball season, and as mentioned in a previous post, I am now the head coach of Ava’s team. I helped out at tryouts a couple of weeks ago and evaluated players, then attended the draft last week. We lost half of our team during the off-season because so many girls moved up to the next level, so this is a bit of a rebuild for us. That said, I’m very happy with the new players we have acquired and am excited for this season.
In other family news, Jessica is continuing to crush it at school. She has started interviewing for positions and might have some good news to share in the near future. I don’t want to say anything quite yet, but it’s looking pretty good. The kids are all doing great and staying busy. Elise is enjoying her weekly figure skating lessons, Ava is happy to be back in another softball season, and Enzo enjoys being part of the school choir. The school year is flying by, as usual, but they’re all getting good grades and living their best lives. They’re all excited for our upcoming trip to Colorado, then we’ve got Puerto Vallarta about two months after that!
Sorry I don’t have any photos to share this month. I’m keeping it short and sweet but wanted to share the news about my new job. I expect to have plenty more updates in next month’s post. Until then!