Happy Holidays!

So, I just finished a week and a half at the new job. I’m still learning everyone’s name and figuring out how to get around the building. There are three hundred employees at the North Carolina headquarters office of FHI! I’ll be really happy when I eventually understand everything that’s going on. Until then, I’m scheduled to go to as many meetings as possible around the building so I can learn by osmosis. I’m also assigned to four different projects right now that leave me dizzy at the end of the day, though they’re fascinating and great work experiences for me.

For the first time in my life, I work with entirely competent people. It’s been sort of like being a part of a think tank of geniuses. FHI is full of my heroes – amazing, deep-thinking and caring people who know everything about reproductive health and HIV and who work to make the world a better place every day.

For the time being, I share an office with Kavita, an Indian-American woman the same age as me, who works on HIV clinical trial projects in China. We’re still deciding how best to decorate. I now have a lamp, a clock, a Buddha statue, a plant and some picture frames, so my very plain desk area looks a lot better.

In other news, I just got a major haircut! My medium-length brown hair was getting so boring. Now I have a very short haircut with bangs and lots of caramel brown highlights. I’ll send a picture as soon as I take a good one.

This past week I finally met a challenging opponent for my favorite game, Balderdash! Her name is Autumn Winters, the wife of Clinton’s friend Jason Morningstar. She is a librarian with a very sweet North Carolina accent and is a very good Balderdash player.

Last Friday night Clinton and I had our usual date night. This time we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then saw KING KONG! If you haven’t seen it already, stop what you’re doing and find the movie listings RIGHT NOW.

Tomorrow after work, we’re driving up to Washington DC for a Vietnamese Christmas family reunion! Happy Holidays, everybody!