J is for Job change

I know I'm falling behind in the alphabet, but I hope you'll forgive my desire to wait on this letter.

Friday was my last day at the traditional consultant Architecture firm where I've worked for about eight and a half years (we don't subtract the sabbatical to Austria). The last two days were really hard. I have made some great friends there and it was hard to sign out on Friday night knowing I will no longer see them everyday. But I will see them and the quality of the time I spend with these friends may increase when we start meeting somewhere with good pastries instead of perching on the edges of each others' desks.

On Thursday I will start work as an in-house architect for a fairly big corporation. A health club chain. ... ok. you can stop laughing now... My godparents' daughter is beside herself with joy on my behalf. She works out religiously so my new employer is insanely appealing to her. I am just hoping the free membership will help me start moving a little more. If I get some better blood sugar control and lower "bad" cholesterol out of the deal, I'll be thrilled. I'm also excited about the work. I will be in a fairly new department of about 12 people. In some ways, we'll be building a small, young firm, but we know that our one big client won't consider switching consultants at any moment. Also, I know that I'll get to put more focus on sustainable design than have before. I have a lot to learn, but that is part of the appeal.

The downside is no more knitting-on-the-bus commute. The bus option would take 2.5 hours and two transfers (each way). Driving will take about 40 minutes. So, during my few days off, we'll be test driving some cars and hope to purchase something highly efficient and relatively clean in the emissions department. Safety is also a concern. The Prius seems to be leading the (still theoretical) pack at the moment, despite my "cradle-to-cradle" and embodied energy worries about its batteries. I'm getting a little pressure to go VW diesel, but I can't find statistics to make me think it's close enough in efficiency and cleanliness. And, I don't think we can wait for the next generation of diesel engines to be released before we buy our second car. (Not to mention I'm pretty sure corn-based biodiesel is not really a good thing, despite the abundance of corn fields in this and our neighboring states.) If I were a chemist/physicist, I'd be working on (or perhaps testing) a photovoltaic paint or thin film that would allow most of the electricity required to run my car to come from solar energy. I suppose it might still require some fuel for night-time driving, but maybe a few extra batteries in the engine compartment instead of a combustion engine would allow me to save up energy for driving in the dark. A girl can dream... In the meantime, I'm still looking for a fairly definitive "this is the least bad car for the planet, does not require driving extra miles to find the fuel it takes, and doesn't cost $100,000." Anyone?