We’re starting to be settled into our new place in Santa Clara. It’s Wednesday night, Jen has been in training at the hospital for three days and I’ve been cooped up, working from home for three days. This whole working remotely thing is a bit of a shock at first. I used to take a day or two here and there to work from home so I could avoid distractions and get more things done. Now that I’m doing it full time, it feels a bit isolating at times. I get a little stir crazy if I’m not deeply focused on development work. There’s a Starbuck’s down the road and a library a couple miles away that I’m going to try and camp at the next time I can’t bear to be inside all day. There’s wireless down by the pool area in our apartment, so I’ll have to camp out there from time to time.

Jen sounds like she’s fitting into the job very nicely. She’s had a few days training and one on the floor tailing another nurse, and she seems really happy and at ease with her coworkers and her duties. It sounds like a great environment in which to work. One of the other travelers had a friend who recently accepted a full time position here after traveling because the unit was so nice and the pay was great.

The last few days, we’ve been exploring our surroundings. I almost got lost on a run through the busy streets but ended up just tacking on another mile, which wasn’t a bad thing. There’s a big Central Park a few miles north of us by the library which has all sorts of goodies: a few lap pools, all heights of diving boards up to ten meters (Jen was really into that), grills, baseball diamonds, tennis courts up the wazoo, workout stations along the path, little kids chasing geese, and all sorts of people just enjoying being outdoors. It’s refreshing.

We just got back from a windy drive out to Santa Cruz where we ate a fish dinner with a cheap bottle of Pinot Grigio out on the wharf. The sun was getting close to setting so we hurriedly drove up Highway 1 until we saw some parked cars, jumped the fence, and ran through a few fields in the farmland by the ocean to try and watch the sunset. We didn’t make it all the way out to the edge of the cliffs because of all the tangled underbrush, but we still got a great view of the sunset by the cliffs on the ocean.

Tomorrow I’m going to be trying this thing out with a group called the Hash House Harriers, which apparently has chapters all over the world. They’re self described as a “drinking club with a running problem.” The point seems to be to get in a group and go running, following random markings on the street, drink beer, run a little more, then drink more beer and then meet up at the bar. Sounds like my kind of people.