Initial Premier Field Engineer Training -- Off To Seattle Soon

So things appear to be rolling forward nicely as far as getting started with my new gig over at Microsoft. I'll be flying out to Seattle on May 6th for the 3 weeks of training that all Premier Field Engineers (PFE's) go through. Most of the training will be at Microsoft's Sammamish campus with a couple of days at the main Redmond campus (MS has 3 large campuses in and around Seattle...Issaquah is the 3rd). Following that 3 weeks of training, I'll do another month of shadowing other .Net PFE's before MS turns me loose on my own assignments.

To commemorate my new job, I'm starting a new category: Life Inside Microsoft which will cover various topics about...well, life at MS. For now I'll keep all posts on this blog, but who knows what might happen in the future as I get more acclimated and have more to write about. Perhaps start a new blog, join one of the MS blogging sites...who knows. I can't think that far ahead right now.

I've never been to Seattle before and am totally stoked about heading out there. That being said, I will be missing several events while I'm away:

• Mother's Day (my present to Mom this year is a gig with MS!). I love you Mom, sorry I won't be here!
• My birthday (May 24th, which is actually the day I'm flying back home...so I'll spend my b-day this year on a plane). I'll be 29 this year.
• My Mother's graduation. She's been working on her MFA (Master's of Fine Arts) for a few years now, and her graduation is on...wait for it...my birthday. This is a huge day for her, and it's unfortunate I'll miss it. She'll be writing the next best selling novel at some point though, look for it soon!
• My absolute most favorite DJ in the entire world (James Zabiela) will be in town the night of...wait for it...my birthday. I saw him 2 years ago, and he totally rocked the house into electronic submission. He's one of my idols, and doesn't come to Charlotte often. He's in DC the next night, so that's always an option if I find the energy for a 5 hour drive after the red-eye back home from Seattle (I get in at 6am).

I'll get the next part of my Interviewing With Microsoft series up before I leave town, however once I'm in Seattle things will probably be pretty quiet around here, though I will be taking a ton of pictures and posting those. Of course the next flurry of posts will more than likely be 'new gig' related to training and whatnot.

I'm so stoked right now...I've been on cloud 9 for the past couple of weeks. Good things to come!

Sidenote: I wish I could take my doggy out to Seattle with me...he's never been away from me for longer than a week. TLC will of course take good care of him...I hope he doesn't forget about me!