Fresh Start

2011 is a year of fresh starts. After four years of commuting around the country for work, I parted ways with my employer. All told, five and a half years at one company is a long time in today's economy. By comparison, virtually no one from my section at business school was still at their first job six years post graduation. I have no complaints after getting a severance package. I learned a ton there, got to recruit several close friends to join me, made a lot of good friends, and the compensation was good. We acquired a company and cut a bunch of people. I was one of them. It's that simple. I went through six acquisitions. It was bound to happen sooner or later. Not the first time in my career, and probably not the last.

This month I joined a small, 100 person early stage revenue cycle company, reporting to the COO. It is exactly what I was hoping to find. And it fits well with my life. The office is one metro stop for Dr. Wintermute's office, so we get to commute together. The picture here is the escalator entrance to the metro.

The other, much larger chapter that is going to start is that we are moving back to Atlanta. I'm not sure whether I'm going to laugh or cry when we get there. It still feels a bit unreal that after five years away (one in south florida and four up here), we are going home. Dr. W says she always knew it would happen. I think that I did, too, but not this soon. The city where we met. Where we fell in love. Where we got married. Where we went to school (me for undergrad; dr w for her phd). Where home is.

There's no place like home.

Family Portrait

Family Portrait, originally uploaded by Wintermute Lives.

When we were in Dr. W's hometown over Christmas, her parents arranged for a photo shoot at their home. I hadn't done a family portrait since the Olan Mills days, but this was really nice. The photos came out looking very authentic and relaxed and very sharp.