24 March 2009

What a long, long day it’s been. I’m in Kissimmee, now I’m missing my old life in Boston. I don’t know how the saying goes, but it goes something like, “The Devil you know is better than the Devil you don’t.” Also, another saying is, “the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence”.

First of all, I got up at five this morning in order to pack my bags and go to the gym. Since we figured that we’d be traveling all day, we wouldn’t be able to go to the gym in the middle of the day like we are used to. So I got up and packed my bedding and got on my favorite elliptical machine. Mike never showed up at the gym. I guessed he was getting an extra hour of sleep.

After I showered and got dressed, I packed the rest of my stuff and looked at all of the crap that I managed to accumulate and bring with me. I went into work and checked my e-mail and sent one last time. I didn’t know when the next time I’ll be able to check it. Joey said he’d take us to the airport, but since he was just at the gym, he had to go back to his place and shower up. We had a medium sized SUV that our Directorate uses, but we needed something bigger for all of the bags that Mike and I have. I walked over to Willard’s office and asked to use their Suburban. All of our stuff should fit nicely in the ‘Burban.

I’m a freak about needing to be earlier than on time. Mike and Joey kept telling me to chill out.

Mike and I shook hands and said goodbye to everyone but Ashley and Tony. They are supposed to be coming down tomorrow. Joey showed up and took us to the airport. They don’t have curbside check in and they didn’t have skycap carts, so Mike and I had to carry all of our stuff (multiple, multiple trips) into the airport. That was not fun.

We showed up and got our bags weighed and waited for our flight to board. Our plane was a Casa-212, a nice little 12 seater turbo-prop aircraft. Our pilot looked like a biker. Shaved head – six foot something – 250 pounds – and had a goatee that was probably hung down two inches. The flight to Kissimmee was uneventful. At one point we flew between two mountain peaks and the mountain peaks were ABOVE our plane. Okay. That part was eventful, but the rest of the flight was uneventful. We landed and got out and waited for our bags to get picked up.

When we got out in front of the terminal, our ride wasn’t there. I called Chip, our sponsor, and the guy who answered the phone said that he had just left for lunch. I hoped that actually meant that he was on his way to the airport. Nope he had gone for lunch. We waited for an hour and I called again. This time Chip was in a meeting with some bigwig. Unbelieveable!!! So I called the Kissimmee travel coordinator, and she said that our ride was on his way and his name was William. So I went back out to where Mike was waiting with our bags to tell him what was going on. Sure enough, five minutes later, William shows up with Spencer, our new boss.
While all this was happening, Mike was spazzing out. He doesn’t like to have to wait on people. I thought it was a nice change from when I was pinging earlier.
And they brought a small SUV. They looked at me and Mike like we were crazy with all of our bags. Just wait until they pick up Ashley and Tony. Not all of our bags would fit in the truck, so we had to strap a few of them on top. I wasn’t too cool with that, but I didn’t really have an option. It was only a 15-20 minute ride to from the airport to where we’re living. Right away I was missing Boston. I promise I won’t complain if I can go back. This place is Spartan living.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s pretty nice in the grand scheme of things. Spencer and William dropped by the apartments where we’re going to be living. But we don’t know which room yet, so we left everything in the hallway. Spencer took us to the office where we’re working and the place is a madhouse. The office has only been open since the end of January, and it’s in a constant state of “what the heck is going on here”. I get the impression that most of the work that gets done is crisis management, and in the short periods of calm, real work gets done. We finally saw Chip, who apologized for not coming to pick us up.

Both Chip and Spencer were busy with the latest fire that needed to be put out. They told us to just hang out in the office while they had to take care of something. I took a nap and Mike walked around. Spencer came back and introduced us to some tall guy who’s name escapes me now (it began with a “T” and sounded French/African). Tee took us on a tour of the office building and showed us around. We finished up by getting our apartment assignments. Mike is in 006 and I’m in 015. They are both in the basement. Mike shares his with two other guys; and right now I have one, but another is coming soon. I started unpacking and getting situated.

At five fifteen I was supposed to meet Chip and Mike for dinner. There is a little eatery on the ground floor of our office building where we eat all of our meals. I won’t get into the meal. It wasn’t as good as we had it at Boston.
After dinner, we went back to the office and Chip took us on another tour of the building. I don’t really know how to describe it. Since the building is so new, they don’t have any pictures on any of the walls, so every hall looks the same. Chip was about to tell us to finish unpacking, but there was a professional development course being offered to all of the managers, and it would look nice if the two new guys showed up on their first day. I thought that was baloney. I thought that if ANY day was a good day to skip a professional development class it would be the day where we had to unpack and get settled in. Alas, we had to go. It was on money and finance. And I fell asleep. There was maybe 50 or 60 people in there, so it wasn’t obvious.

Afterwards, Mike and I were talking to some other guy who thought that we had noticed him sleeping in the class as well. I seriously don’t think I got anything out of it. Maybe I just didn’t want to get anything out of it. Mike and I left to go back to our rooms and try to finish unpacking. I’m going to find a couple of largish boxes and to pack with my winter stuff. Especially if a third guy is going to move in to where I’m staying.

I met my new roommate. His name is Shawn and we didn’t talk a whole lot, he was on his way to the gym. He seems like a nice guy. I think that he’s the kind of guy that will keep to himself like my old suitemate, Mike, did. Not jabber all the time like Dustin. Dustin was nice and I liked him, but he loved to talk sometimes.
So I’m typing this on my bed now. We don’t have internet and I don’t know when I’ll be able to send this. I’m pooped. It’s been a long, long day. 17,238 steps today. Good night.