It’s been just over a week since I started my new job as Developer Evangelist with Microsoft and all I can say is “Phew…”. It’s true when they say it’s “like drinking from a fire house”.

On my first day, I sat through a couple of hours of orientation and than a couple of hours with my manager going over my commitments for the upcoming year. It was determined that it would be a good idea to head on out to Redmond for the MVP summit. Nothing like jumping right into the fire!

The whole next day, I’m on the phone making travel arrangements for my first trip to Redmond as a Microsoft employee. Why on the phone you ask? Why didn’t I do everything online? Doesn’t Microsoft have all of these cool internal sites for you to use? Well yes… butthe problem was that I didn’t have any network access until Thursday! Four days is a long time to go in Microsoft without having access to your email.

With the travel arrangements booked and coming home to tell the wife that I’m needed in Redmond, I jump on a plane and headout to the MVP summit. It was great getting an opportunity to connect with the MVP’s and getting a chance to meet some of my compatriots from the other districts.

Now I’m in preparation mode for the VSLive conference in Orlando next week. Than it’s vacation time with the family. Yeah… that’s right. I start a new job with Microsoft and I need a vacation already. This trip has been in the works for over 6 months now. I’d better take advantage of the time off because I expect I won’t be getting any more time off anytime soon.

Once I return from vacation it’s heads down in to the launch event coming to Chicago on November 10th. This is proving to be quite an event that Developers and IT Pros won’t want to miss. A full day of great content, an Ask the Experts area staffed with the best in the area, and I even heard rumors of Hands on Labs!

This is shaping up to be something pretty spectacular. I’m really looking forward to all of it. It’s sure going to be one hell of a ride… buckle up!