Automattic Grand Meetup – All Done!

I’m finally home from Utah.  Like I said yesterday, I went to bed at 3:30 and woke up before 5, so I could catch the early shuttle to the airport.  Everything went smoothly getting in through security (although Alex’s Google Glass apparently looks pretty bad on the x-ray and he had his carryon searched), but there were mechanical problems on the plane that delayed us from leaving for at least half an hour.  Could’ve been worse, it wasn’t anything that made us change planes or anything.  But it meant landing in Houston after they’d already started boarding my next flight.  By the time I got off the plane I had about 10 minutes until the “final boarding” call, and I had to sprint from the B to C terminal, which included waiting for a train.  I barely made it…I watched them close the door as I was running down the hallway, but luckily they opened it back up for me.  It’s always good to start a flight all out of breath and sweaty.  But I made it, and my luggage did too, which might be more impressive.

Now it’s time to get back into the rhythm of daily life.  No more piles of bacon on my plate for breakfast, or starting every conversation with “So how long have you worked at Automattic?”  It was an amazing week.  I had a ton of fun doing all the activities (escape the room, bike tour of Park City, bowling), but it was the ad-hoc activities (hiking, hot springs) and just hanging out that was way more important.  I originally scheduled more things than I ended up doing, and I’m glad I bailed on a few of them.  I feel like I made some real friends, and I have a better working relationship with a lot of people from having interacted with them in person.  That’s the whole idea of the meetup, and I can’t wait until next year.  Saying goodbye to people felt like leaving summer camp, except when you say “we’ll keep in touch” you really mean it, because we’re all going to be in the same Slack channels all year.

But as amazing as it was, I’m extremely happy to get home.  A 7 day trip away from home and family is really tough.  Gia was really excited to see me when my cab pulled up, which was a good feeling.  Today my plan is mostly busywork and housekeeping.  I have a few e-mails to return, and I’d like to finally get my new standing desk set up.  Once I have everything configured I’ll post some pictures.