January 8, 2011

Welcome to Costa Mesa, CA

It's different; that's the first thing that comes to mind. As much as I like change I honestly think that moving across the country and starting a new job is overwhelming me. I'm not unhappy and I'm not super excited at the moment... I'm just indifferent I guess. The next two weeks will hopefully smooth out this anxious feeling I have.

THE JOB
So here are the deets on my new job. This company called The Gear Co-Op buys outdoor products (mostly rock climbing gear right now) from companies, then ships them to Amazon's warehouse, and sells these products from www.GearCoop.com. We never actually see most of the products since Amazon does ALL of the shipping and storage for us, it's a great way to run a business.

I am in charge of the website design, most of the layout too, driving traffic to the website, and maintaining any miscellaneous "Webstore" issues here and there. On top of that I am a product manager for several major manufactures such as The North Face, Arc'teryx, Merrell, and Chaco. When the new catalogs come out I will go through and create an order of the latest and greatest products. It's also my job to make sure we're up-to-date on the newest "crave" in the outdoor industry by talking to brand reps. So it's definitely a great.. maybe even perfect fit for me and I think I'll love it once I get in the flow of things.

LIVING SITUATION
Well, that's yet to be determined. I'm taking a step-by-step approach to it though, which is unusual for me. I want to find two people that I feel I can live well with, then figure out what we can afford, and lastly start looking seriously for a place. There's anything from $600/mo 1 rooms with other strangers to $4,800/mo 3 bedroom homes on the beach. Everyone wants to be ON the beach and pay as little as possible. At the moment I'm staying with Terry, the guy who started and owns The Gear Co-Op, his wife, and son James. Next week I will be couchsurfing with different people but hopefully I'll get my own 'place on the beach' soon.

Overall I am excited about everything but I'm really ready to make friends and start learning the ins & outs of the place. I fear that people won't be as intimate here but I hope I'm very wrong. I will try to keep this blog updated but you know how that goes...

January 7, 2011

New Year, New Job, New Location... Let's Go!

So I won't get into the whole story right now, but I've landed a job in Costa Mesa, CA and I'm headed there now. I will be doing web design/development and product management for a company that sells rock climbing gear online. We're making some HUGE changes this year and diving head first into camping, hiking, and technical outdoor gear as well so it should be fun.

Right now I'm in Tempe, AZ camping out in the REI parking lot waiting to finish up the last 6 hours and 3 minutes of my drive tomorrow. It's been a good trip so far but nothing too exciting except this guy named Mike who's biking cross-country both ways! Oh, and the New Mexican sunsets... I swear it's heaven peaking through.

Wow I have so much to tell you guys, I hate to go to bed but I must. I need sleep and I'll have time tomorrow to explain things since Boone, NC (my last post). Oh, by the way! The Google Latitude app is finally working correctly so you can see to the right --> exactly where I am and it even tells you (below the map) how long ago my location was updated. Cool huh?

later guys!