Happy Things at Office Nomads

The first week of February is not generally known as a particularly happy time (not in this soggy, dark neck of the woods anyway) but folks here at Office Nomads had a pretty happy week this week.

• On Wednesday, a crowd of us Nomads went over to the Honey Hole for the weekly office Happy Hour and had a fine time of it. Almost 15 of us crowded in around a few tables, ate some yummy sandwiches, imbibed some stiff drinks, taught Susan some useful life lessons, and generally shook off the weight of a regular work week together. Sitting around drinking and carousing with all these folks was a really good time and got me thinking: One of the reasons we all use for being a part of a coworking space is the desire to be a part of that specific type of community that forms in offices. But I need to modify that a bit. Most offices I've worked in have been fun, but rarely did I want to spend much time with the people there outside of work. After all, I was forced to be with them 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. As a coworker though, we're here and with each other by choice. And apparently that choice extends into non-work hours too. Certainly makes for a better work environment if you ask me.
• Late yesterday, one of the gurus of coworking came to Office Nomads: Alex Hillman of Philadelphia's IndyHall dropped by after visiting Workspace in Vancouver, B.C. to say hi. Besides being honored to play host to what we decided is the first person to visit two coworking spaces in two countries on one day, Henrik, Susan and I chewed the fat with Alex for a bit and I have to say I felt a bit startstruck. It's silly I know, but Alex is one of those cats you hear a lot about and from on the Google Group and in coverage of coworking. Having him here was a happy moment indeed.
• Finally, this story doesn't start happily, but it ends well. Last week we had someone from Bainbridge Island drop in for a free day to

  check out the space and see if it met his needs. As many people from Bainbridge do, he bikes to the ferry and rides his bike around Seattle all day long. Apparently it's his only form of transport which made the call Susan got a few minutes after he left all the more distressing: Someone had snipped his cable lock and stolen his bike. Susan was horrified (we all were) but he was pretty mellow. He made it clear he wasn't calling to lay blame, just to warn (and see if we "happened" to have a webcam pointed out the window. We don't.) Anyway, just today Susan got an email from him saying that he'd posted the loss on Craigslist and offered a no-questions-asked reward and amazingly, got it back! Even the cops were shocked.

Finally, I think it's important to point out that it's Friday (almost always a cause for joy), but it's one that seems special. It's gray and rainy in Seattle for the first time in awhile here and that usually brings out the "grrr" in people, but there's definitely a generally happy mood out there today. We're celebrating it by starting an Office Nomads Twitter feed and hope you've found some goofy way to enjoy the day too!

The image above is by Flickr user LDCross and used thanks to the Creative Commons License.