Mover's regret?

I am begining to think that this was not such a smart career move. Actually, I thought this after Kalen was born. This feeling of regret is really getting in the way of me be able to accept and enjoy this new job of mine.

I ditched a good job, a comfortable life and a chance to learn Basis SAP, one of the hottest skills in the future, to come learn some niche technologies in the financial services field (Sybase, Unix, Perl). I can try to focus on Oracle, but I feel that I've made a big career mistake by doing this move and I will be less marketable upon my return to the US.

I am just plain homesick. I don't want to be here in NYC. I'm also aprehensive about my future... where will I work upon my return? How marketable will my skill set be? All this uncertainy and difficulty and hardship ... is it all worth it? Was leaving a quality life behind and facing even more uncertainty upon my return, worth it? Don't know in the long run, but at this point, the answer is decidely 'no'.

It's too late now, I just have to make the best of it. The money is good, but at this point, I am pretty miserable.

End of week two.

Two weeks in NYC -- the jury so far is that it's good to visit, but not to stay. It takes a lot of you to have to compete for EVERYTHING; from the little spit of space on the subway train to the that apartment next to the park. Everything is about competition - New York City style.

Work has been an adjustment for sure. People here are quite bright and have quite a bit of moxy. There are some egos here, but people are, for the most part, OK. It's been difficult for me to learn the systems and processes. They expect people to be good at all aspects of systems work ... servers, networks, phone systems, databases, scripting... the list goes on. Today, they had me swap out the power supply of Solaris v480R machine. I had no idea even where to begin. This type of thing seems to get harder as one gets older.

I'm glad the weekend is here.

It's been a week here in NYC and I think I've finally gotten the hang of using the subway system to get around town. The subways attract all manner of NYC life, just today I saw a few rats about 8 inches long scurrying around on the A line 14th street platform. People just ignored them. You want to see New Yorkers, go to take a train.

I find people here not rude, but not nice either. It's just a big city with a lot of people in it and if you don't like crowds, you won't like NYC. There are crowds everywhere and everyone is in a hurry. There's a certain energy here that makes the city special, but really, it's best for a young people without children.

24 more hours.

Leaving in about 24 hours. My first mission is to learn how to get to work. Then I will get some street food.