Where the heck have I been this month??

I have no idea how it is December already and I'm not going to keep making promises that I obviously can not keep, therefore I make no more guarantees about blog post frequency, but I promise to TRY to post approximately once every one to two weeks (hopefully more).

I'll start with an update about work. Work is still going well, I have not been fired yet! I have now been working at the patent office for 4 months so I am officially half way through the patent training academy. We had a slight lull in lecture frequency for a few biweeks, however we are now starting to have more frequent lectures because we are starting to review for our proficiency exam in February. Now, I thought that this test was something that sort of decided if we got to keep our job, but I've more recently found out that it is more just a gauge of where we are and they would like us to get around an 80%, but I don't think anything too terrible will happen if someone doesn't get an 80%. I guess this is the test that they have you take when you become a grade 12 examiner. (I am a 7, 12 is three grades above me. Don't ask me about how they came up with the numbering, you go from 7 to 9 to 11 to 12, after 12 they stop skipping numbers up to 15. After 15, you are in a different category of federal employment and you are a big wig when you get there.) When you take the test to become a 12, I think you can only get one question out of fifty wrong, so they expect alot more than they do of a 7, but I guess it is there to give you a starting point.

In January, I will move out of my training room and into my official office, which will be exciting and a little sad. My training room is a large room with several windows (see picture below) and 14 other people, we have all become pretty good friends so it will be sad to not be in the same room as them every day (although in all honestly I'll probably get more work done) but we will all be within a few floors of eachother in the same building. My new office will be on the inside of the building, so there will not be a window, and I will have one office mate, who may or may not be a new examiner like me, or they could be a few years in to the job, it just depends on where they have space. I will actually be working in close proximity to others in my art unit (which to remind people is radiation and magnetic therapy and cardiovascular testing) which means when I have specific questions about my cases, I won't have to trek over to another building to talk to my supervisor or the experts in my area. It will be an interesting change, having to meet new people all over again. The nice thing is that after I move, I will still have two months of training, meaning I will still have two more months to get up to 100% of my production goals and I will still report to my trainer rather than my supervisor in the art unit, so not everything will change at once.

View of the whole room, we have two "corridors" this one on the left is next to the windows, my cubical is off of the other "corridor" on the right toward the back

Me working hard at my desk :)

My desk, it's not too messy, but not too neat, just how I like it. And yes, that is a drawing of the little mermaid on my wall, I drew it before Matt and I went to the show and actually really liked it so I kept it :)

That is enough about work, I managed to make it up to Jersey 3 times in November, which is more than normal, but was very welcome! I drove for the first time and had pretty good experiences so I think I'll stick with driving as my go to mode of transportation for the time being. The night of halloween (which was a Friday) I decided I wanted to see Matt so I called him and said I was driving up there the next day, even though I could only stay for a one night trip. That went really well with driving and was a nice trip even though it was quick. I drove up there again the next week for a regularly scheduled visit. Then two weeks later I went up there again for Matt's and my two year anniversary, which happens to coincide with the Michigan - Ohio State football game. We went to the bar to watch with one of Matt's friends from work and I think we all know how that went so we don't really need to talk about it more.

About driving: from my place in Alexandria, to Matt's place in River Edge, it is 244 miles taking the most direct path. However, that path includes like 50 toll roads and I HATE toll roads!! So, I google mapped a route avoidind all toll roads that adds about 4o miles to the trip and makes it about 45 minutes to an hour longer (according to google). The trip takes you mostly through Pennsylvania, rather than New Jersey. I was worried that avoiding toll roads would put me on little podunk (sp?) dirt roads in the middle of nowhere, however, only about 20 miles of the trip is on a road that does not feel like an interstate. That part actually has stop lights and is only a two lane highway, but I think over all the route is pretty good. I also usually drive up on Friday mornings so I avoid all traffic and I can make the trip in exactly 5 hours, which I honestly think is the best time I could make taking the toll route anyway because I think it has more traffic.

This past weekend, I was back in Michigan for Thanksgiving and had a great time, but that will be discussed more in my next post.

Again, I'm sorry for being so lazy this month!