I started with Multnomah County working as a system administrator this week and aside from all the paperwork, I have been enjoying the new job. I was rather happy to learn that I won't have to be part of the 5am maintenance window very frequently. I had been trying to shift my sleep schedule to being up at 4am and had mixed results, though I'll still need to be getting up about 90 minutes before I did previously.

Something that came to mind after I left the old job is a line from Bilbo, about feeling thin, like butter spread over too much bread. I think the metaphor works on many levels and just the driving alone was kinda driving me crazy, it looks like I'll be able to reduce the driving to 1/5 of previous total and maybe even less then that.

Also, after spending half of the first day at the SSA office, I would strongly recommend avoiding the SSA office on/near Division and recommend going to the SSA Oregon City office.