Moving day is coming...

[elSicomoro]

...work-wise. Home-wise, we're not moving until next August.

I've never done a business move before--I've made a few of my own between locations, but this is different...

On Friday (the 12th), our company is vacating the space we occupy at 400 Market Street and moving to Five Penn Center, near City Hall. This move has been planned for about a year now--our company has been based at 5 Penn for several years now, and there was talk a move to Conshohocken last year, but that was scrapped in favor of taking more space at 5 Penn. We will now occupy 7 of the 36 floors there.

Our operations offices have been at 400 Market for some time now. But as departments have become more interdependent, the arrangement has become a pain, with people having to bounce between the two buildings (which are about a mile--or 4 El stops--apart). We had 2 floors at 400, with one making the move two weeks ago.

I can't wait. The heating and A/C never works right on our floor, the furnishings are old and the restaurant on the ground floor sucks. There are always so many tourists around with Independence Mall being around the corner, and that has grown with the addition of the Duck and Big Bus tours this year. And we don't have a lot of variety as far as lunching goes--other than the tourist-heavy, overpriced Bourse.

It's good for me personally, as I'll now be closer to the departments with whom I closely work. (Our department is strange--we're lumped in with one group, but I think we should be lumped in with another that better matches what we do.) In order to complete some projects, we have to wait on work to come from 5 Penn, which generally takes a day. Now, I can walk down 2 floors to get to the work.

And it'll be a shorter commute for me. What now takes about 50 minutes will take about 35. Of course, I'll have to fight the mass of folks that get on the trains at Suburban Station, not to mention that if I choose to drive, it will cost me a fortune...oh, and I'll need to find a new way to get my daily exercise in.

5 Penn, along with several other buildings, is connected to an underground mini-mall: lots of places to eat and shop. Suburban Station is also connected to this mini-mall, so I will only have to go outside for smoke breaks...actually, no I won't. Some places down there allow smoking. Score!

And our floor is brand new--it was completely gutted and redone for us, including new furnishings and a large cafeteria. My work area now is just--a work area in need of improvement.

There will be more people around--we'll be in the heart of Center City. But most of them are workers in the area--they just want to get to where they have to go, rather than fumble around and gawk like the tourists do. And the bums in Center City aren't generally as mental as the ones in Old City--man, what a bunch of kooks!

I will miss the cardiac carts though...and Cart Nazi's delicious cheesesteaks. And from I recall from working down there before, there aren't nearly as many cardiac carts in that part of Center City--that's alright though...that's what Subway is for.

Now, I just have to pray that when I arrive there next Monday, everything will be relatively smooth. When I was moved from the 2nd floor to the 12th floor during my last tour of duty at Radian last year, it was a fucking mess. Had to wait half a day just for them to get my computer set up right.