I’m home from New York/New Jersey – even though we met in Manhattan, they had us stay in Newport, NJ because the hotels are about $100 cheaper a night, and it’s only takes 15 minutes by train and foot to get to the offices which are just across the river.

The offsite meeting was much better than the one last fall. Last fall’s meeting was very soon after the merger and things were very cliquish along former firm lines. Plus, we only had a day and it was basically just a big information dump onto us. This time around things were much more congenial and interactive. The team is much more a team now, and we’ve bigger fish to fry than which heritage firm we were with before – like how much work we have to do.

I did one fairly cool think at the meeting, I talked to my manager and one of the managers from Europe about moving over there. Much to my surprise, the Clive (the manager from Europe) was very upbeat about it and talked about salary adjustments and what sort of work I’d be doing. He’s going to talk to Peter (his and my manager’s manager). It’s all just exploration of the possibility at this point, but it will be interesting to see what will come of it.

If we went, we’d probably go for a year or two, and, at least initially, would be living in Bournemouth, England. We’re both more interested in living on the continent, but even if that didn’t work out, England is a hell of a lot closer to it than Ohio is.

Anyhow, as a result of being in New York for the better part of a week and general other business I missed a good chunk of aikido. I hope I can get back into the swing of it this month, and it should be easier to do so. Work is not as busy and I don’t have any travel plans.

What else… oh yes, my 38th birthday is a little over a month away. It seems like I’ve been 37 for ages (not that I’m complaining about my perception of time being slower as I get older). I’m not entirely sure why. Sure, I’ve been busy, but that hasn’t even been constant over the whole year. Maybe at some point the years stop seeming shorter and go back to seeming longer?