I have a view!

Well, it's not really my view, but it's one that I can borrow. And look at as long as the attorney who occupies the office right across from me keeps his door open.

I had my first day today, and I thought it went really, really well. I met a ton of people, and everyone seemed very nice, and the people that I talked to all enjoyed working for GWB, so that makes me really happy.

I have a desk, and it's huge. And did I mention that it's right across the hall from a window with a view????

My attorney is very, very nice--she & I raided the supply cabinet after I was done with orientation and set my desk up... The other attorney that I'll work for works only 20 hrs/week, and the other attorney I'll work for starts next week.

The firm has two soft drink dispensers (like the fountain drink dispensers that you see at fast food places!) for the employees to have free soda; they also have cans for the soda types that aren't dispensed via machine. They also provide coffee; I saw a coffee machine that reminded me of a vending machine--you push a button for various flavors. And this was a Gevalia machine, not one of those awful coffee/hot chocolate/hot tea machines that you use where everything pretty much tastes the same, and it's not a good taste, either. They provide cider & tea bags & chocolate mix for those of us who aren't coffee drinkers. They provide the cups--both mugs and styrofoam. They have a loaded medicine cabinet. They've got a sub-zero fridge to put your lunches in. And the breakroom doesn't smell funny, either.

The HR person took me out to lunch--we had Thai food at Lemongrass, a really nice restaurant downtown that we walked to. I'm still so excited that I work downtown. I'm on the 14th floor of a building with 17 floors--actually 16, since there's no 13th floor--but still, I'm right up there close to the top. I've got my parking pass (a credit-card thing that allows me to park free--a $65/month charge that GWB pays for!). I'll have medical & dental coverage after one month, and I begin accruing personal days after one month. I'll accrue 1 day/month...and since I can't use the one I'll get at midnight on Dec. 31 (for various & complicated reasons that I won't go into here), but since I've earned it, but can't use it--they pay me for it. In fact, they pay you for any personal days that you don't use. I'd say that's an incentive to not be sick. Or "sick." However you choose to look at it.

They're also paying me for my lunch hour today, too, since it was my first day. And I do get paid overtime. In fact, I'll have two days this week that I'll get overtime pay for (two whole hours my first week!)--on Wednesday, they've got this "Lunch -n- Learn" thing where they cater lunch in, and we learn about a Windows program (Word, Excel, PowerPoint...) and since it's learning, they pay you for that time. How cool is that??? Plus, if I understand the HR person, I may actually get a check on the 31st, rather than having to wait until Sept. 15 (I was going on the assumption that they'd work like the State, who pays 2 weeks in arrears, so you wouldn't get your 8/15-8/31 check until 9/15....two weeks after the previous payperiod ended)....so that would be great news.

I'm pretty darn happy. I'll try to take the camera with me to work & get a picture of my view so I can share it with y'all. It sure is a nice change from the basement and the scary spider room!