First Impressions of Harrisburg

I've been in Harrisburg for about 48 hours now and it's been interesting. I thought about writing last night, but my 102.3 fever seemed to indicate that I might regret whatever I wrote. My fever broke during the night and I woke up feeling much less achey and miserable, though I'm still fighting a sore throat. But I'm jumping ahead.

The flight from Houston to Philadelphia was rough because I tend to get sick after something stressful is removed from my life - in this case, working at the Press. So Friday felt a little bit like going to the first day of school sick: Will they like me? Will it be too hard? Will I stay standing the whole time?

I did get through the day with coffee, ibuprofen and an exciting work environment. I know that andCulture isn't easy to understand based on their website, and that's because they're a company with a lot of different working parts. The simplest explanation is that it's a design firm. They specialize in websites, which I write for (my official title is junior content strategist). They also work with mobile apps and experience design, but I'm not sure if/when I'll be involved in those kinds of projects.

Bottom line: they're a forward thinking company in both product and company culture, which is incredibly refreshing. It's intense and serious when it comes to creating a great product, but really friendly and fun in the process. Of course, that is judging it from one day and current employees' opinions, but major upsides I've seen so far include: company weight loss competition, ping pong table, kitchen for monthly group meals, shower at work so I can walk there without fear of being gross all day... good stuff.

Anyway, there's not much more to report work-wise since it was mostly a day of meeting people interspersed with working on a project I've started on with a hospital system's website rebuild. But it's wonderfully located downtown and while I was worried that Harrisburg would feel too small for me, it seems like a great balance.

Let's put this into perspective: not including the multitude of surrounding towns around Harrisburg, about 16 Harrisburgs could fit into Austin (population wise). Houston has 80 times as many people as Harrisburg! On the other hand, Harrisburg is about four times the size of Taylor, the city I formerly reported on. One thing I liked about Taylor was that I could go places, like the post office, and run into people I knew. It was a town I could fit my head around socially.

Harrisburg seems similar in that way - we ran into some friends of Liz's when we went out for a drink after work, for instance. And what I really loved? All the people walking around downtown during the day! I don't know why, but I just love that about cities and I've really missed it.

Had some nice, hot Italian wedding soup at Alvaro's

I was looking forward to doing some of that city walking myself today, but alas the beautiful weather quit and it rained all day, leaving me indoors since Liz had to judge a design competition. I made a quick run to a cute Italian bakery a couple blocks away when it let up, but otherwise just rested, which is probably for the best. The weather looks like it should be clear tomorrow so I can get to walking and find myself a place to live already! I've seen lots of places in areas I'm interested in with "for rent" signs up, so I'm optimistic I'll be able to find the right one (without bedbugs - priority number one, followed closely by allowing dogs).