No, I didn’t get fired today. I couldn’t be so unlucky. After the excitement yesterday I slept really well last night. I woke up just full of spit and vinegar. I headed over to the gym early and did the exercises that I should have, had I not been involved in other things. I had time left over to work on the elliptical as well since Mike decided not to show up. As I was finishing up, I remembered that he had a late night last night and went to the gym after work. That’s why he didn’t show up.
So I cleaned up and went in to the office. On top of the regular work that I have, we all have some (hey you) kind of tasks that come our way. One of the tasks that I have is to take all of the approved projects that the company has had over the past year and scan them. They get sent to my e-mail where I have to file them on a web-based “share point” program. It’s just that the process isn’t as easy as that, and the files are kind of big, so even though it’s not HARD, it is labor intensive and somewhat confusing.
Geez. I was just interrupted for forty five minutes. My roommate is still talking.
Anyway, my point was that this project is taking me much longer than I thought it would take. I don’t really know where I was going with that paragraph.
We had a couple of meetings, got a…
Here’s something completely off topic. What is the story about some author who was writing a book/poem/epic - who was in the middle of writing whatever it was he was supposed to write, then there was a knock at the door, he was interrupted and totally lost his train of thought and couldn’t finish the story how he wanted to finish it? That’s how I feel now.
Somehow, I got all fired up at someone’s ineptitude this afternoon. I was ready to go off and put my boot in someone’s fourth point of contact and had to be calmed down. I was so mad, I was told to go to the gym and work out or go run laps to chill out.
That’s how I ended my day. There’s no way to blow off steam so I went to the gym again. But I’m still kind of mad. In order end this on a happy note, I have 88 days left.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
Mondays aren’t all bad.
I woke up feeling much better. My computer was on from the night before. The internet wasn’t working when I went to bed, but it was up and Sara had just popped up to chat. So I pulled up a seat on the floor and we chatted for almost an hour and 20 minutes! Hooray for the internet being back on! We talked about realtors in Washington, about Gary going house hunting with Sara, driving across country with the kids. I said that if Sara left early in order to get Rebecca enrolled and started in school, maybe I could take my cross country trip with Liam. Logistically, I don’t know how that could work out, but it might be fun to have a guy’s adventure.
After that, I went to the gym where I saw that Mike failed to show up on time also. I thought I was going to be the one late this morning. But I actually showed up early (compared to Mike). My chest felt tight after yesterday’s workout, and after a little time on the elliptical, I was feeling much better. I went back to my apartment and showered and changed for work. Once at work it appeared that things were a little more hectic than they were the day before.
Chip was spun up and dashing around. Getting ready for our morning meeting. Mike, Ashley, and I prepared to help Chip out with whatever it was that needed doing to get him calmed down. In my opinion Chip has done a great job while Spencer has been gone to the conference. He is not just handling the workload, delegating what needs to be done, but shielding the remnants of the old “blue team” from other sections that look to us as free labor.
After the duties were divvied up, we all went our respective ways to start marking off our blocks of things to get done. One of the things I had to do was *protect this important folder*. The aforementioned folder had to go to from me to Jack. Jack was supposed to drive it over somewhere else and give it to person C to give to person D who was going to sign the memo that was inside. Unfortunately, Jack was NOWHERE to be found.
Here’s the funny thing… Everyone knows who Jack is, but not many people actually know his name. They know what he looks like, but not his name. He’s my neighbor, so I do know what his name is. I’d ask someone, “Hey have you seen Jack in the past thirty minutes or so?” “Who’s Jack?” “Tall, skinny white guy. Walks like this.” (then I’d demonstrate his gait.) “Oh, yeah! I saw him ten minutes ago walking that way. I didn’t know his name was Jack. We all call my Mr. Lankey.” Lankey – That describes him. Or I’d get, “I didn’t know his name was Jack.” The next best thing. NO ONE knows exactly WHERE he works. Not one person could nail down where he hangs his coat when he comes in to work. Everyone knows WHAT he does, but no one knows WHERE he does it. Unbelievable. THAT is the job I want.
So I called his boss, Carrie, who works somewhere else. Even she didn’t know where he was, but she had his cell phone. So I left instructions with her, left a note on the folder, left the folder on Chip’s desk, and I went to lunch.
And when I came back from lunch, the folder was gone. No note, no nothing. Holy poooop!!! That folder was the one important thing I had to do today! And it was gone! Chip didn’t see it, no one else had picked it up, and I still couldn’t find Jack. Seriously, I felt like I was in the middle of a practical joke/wild goose chase. Jack was supposed to drive from here to there at one thirty, so I waited by the parking lot from one o’clock until one thirty five. I was about to go back inside to tell Chip that I had no earthly idea where that darn folder went. As I was approaching the building, out came Jack. Empty handed. Ghaaah!!!
Where’s the damn folder?!? Didn’t you get the message? He said that he did and that the other guy (who’s name escapes me right now) picked up the folder and delivered it about two hours ago. WHAT!!! He called the other guy, who ended up confirming that it was indeed my folder and he gave the right name of the person who the folder was supposed to go to. I calmed back down, practiced breathing through my eyelids, and tried to be glad that the folder was delivered - just like it was supposed to. So I talked to Jack for a couple of minutes and found out that he’s from Baltimore and his fiancée is from Philly. So we talked about cheese steak sandwiches and scrapple for a few minutes. When I went back upstairs, I realized that I forgot to talk to him about where it is that he actually works.
I finished up the afternoon working with Mike (who found the whole ‘folder incident’ absolutely hysterical) working on delivery date adjustments. And, I swear I am not making this up, found out that Jack and that other guy, were moving into the office right on the other side of our conference room. Duke (the office manager) had a room that had been previously used for storage, and gave it to Jack and Mr. X. Funny how things like that work out.
A little after five, I walked to the mail room. It was locked. I guess there was no mail. SO I went to get something to eat and then went back to my room. I have to go in at three in the morning, so I have to get to sleep early tonight. Yes… Three in the morning. Not my idea of a good time, but there is a benefit. As I look at my clock, it’s quarter after seven. Mike, Ashley, Keith, Chip, and about two dozen other managers are all in Manager’s Professional Development Class!!! And I’m going to bed! HA hahaha!
After that, I went to the gym where I saw that Mike failed to show up on time also. I thought I was going to be the one late this morning. But I actually showed up early (compared to Mike). My chest felt tight after yesterday’s workout, and after a little time on the elliptical, I was feeling much better. I went back to my apartment and showered and changed for work. Once at work it appeared that things were a little more hectic than they were the day before.
Chip was spun up and dashing around. Getting ready for our morning meeting. Mike, Ashley, and I prepared to help Chip out with whatever it was that needed doing to get him calmed down. In my opinion Chip has done a great job while Spencer has been gone to the conference. He is not just handling the workload, delegating what needs to be done, but shielding the remnants of the old “blue team” from other sections that look to us as free labor.
After the duties were divvied up, we all went our respective ways to start marking off our blocks of things to get done. One of the things I had to do was *protect this important folder*. The aforementioned folder had to go to from me to Jack. Jack was supposed to drive it over somewhere else and give it to person C to give to person D who was going to sign the memo that was inside. Unfortunately, Jack was NOWHERE to be found.
Here’s the funny thing… Everyone knows who Jack is, but not many people actually know his name. They know what he looks like, but not his name. He’s my neighbor, so I do know what his name is. I’d ask someone, “Hey have you seen Jack in the past thirty minutes or so?” “Who’s Jack?” “Tall, skinny white guy. Walks like this.” (then I’d demonstrate his gait.) “Oh, yeah! I saw him ten minutes ago walking that way. I didn’t know his name was Jack. We all call my Mr. Lankey.” Lankey – That describes him. Or I’d get, “I didn’t know his name was Jack.” The next best thing. NO ONE knows exactly WHERE he works. Not one person could nail down where he hangs his coat when he comes in to work. Everyone knows WHAT he does, but no one knows WHERE he does it. Unbelievable. THAT is the job I want.
So I called his boss, Carrie, who works somewhere else. Even she didn’t know where he was, but she had his cell phone. So I left instructions with her, left a note on the folder, left the folder on Chip’s desk, and I went to lunch.
And when I came back from lunch, the folder was gone. No note, no nothing. Holy poooop!!! That folder was the one important thing I had to do today! And it was gone! Chip didn’t see it, no one else had picked it up, and I still couldn’t find Jack. Seriously, I felt like I was in the middle of a practical joke/wild goose chase. Jack was supposed to drive from here to there at one thirty, so I waited by the parking lot from one o’clock until one thirty five. I was about to go back inside to tell Chip that I had no earthly idea where that darn folder went. As I was approaching the building, out came Jack. Empty handed. Ghaaah!!!
Where’s the damn folder?!? Didn’t you get the message? He said that he did and that the other guy (who’s name escapes me right now) picked up the folder and delivered it about two hours ago. WHAT!!! He called the other guy, who ended up confirming that it was indeed my folder and he gave the right name of the person who the folder was supposed to go to. I calmed back down, practiced breathing through my eyelids, and tried to be glad that the folder was delivered - just like it was supposed to. So I talked to Jack for a couple of minutes and found out that he’s from Baltimore and his fiancée is from Philly. So we talked about cheese steak sandwiches and scrapple for a few minutes. When I went back upstairs, I realized that I forgot to talk to him about where it is that he actually works.
I finished up the afternoon working with Mike (who found the whole ‘folder incident’ absolutely hysterical) working on delivery date adjustments. And, I swear I am not making this up, found out that Jack and that other guy, were moving into the office right on the other side of our conference room. Duke (the office manager) had a room that had been previously used for storage, and gave it to Jack and Mr. X. Funny how things like that work out.
A little after five, I walked to the mail room. It was locked. I guess there was no mail. SO I went to get something to eat and then went back to my room. I have to go in at three in the morning, so I have to get to sleep early tonight. Yes… Three in the morning. Not my idea of a good time, but there is a benefit. As I look at my clock, it’s quarter after seven. Mike, Ashley, Keith, Chip, and about two dozen other managers are all in Manager’s Professional Development Class!!! And I’m going to bed! HA hahaha!
Pukey (Sunday's post)
I felt fine this morning when I woke up. This morning I went to the gym, showered and cleaned up, and by the time I got to the office, I was feeling horrible. Pukey. Like I was going to barf. Ashley said “Wow, you look like @xx.” A true friend won’t hold back.
Mike agreed and told me to go lay down. I had some work to do that Chip needed right away and I thought I could get it knocked out right away.
It turned out NOT being one of those “get done right away” kind of jobs. But I got the first part done in two and a half hours, so I cleared out of my office, walked to the laundry place and headed back to my apartment. Strangely enough, I don’t feel better when I lay down. So here I sit getting a head start on today’s journal entry. I also have a bunch of pictures of Sara and the kids that I’m downloading right now. Since our internet is slow, downloading pictures can take a while. I’ll be back on later.
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And it’s later. I called Sara and the talked to her and Liam for a few minutes. That was fun. Liam was very excited to have ridden in a fire truck yesterday and also to have ridden in a horse. Sara seems to be doing well, and Dover is having a great weekend to enjoy. However we did get cut off by the internet. So I ended up getting some dinner and then going back into work. Mike was working on something and wanted to be alone in the office, so I grabbed a few things and went back to my room. I watched a movie and tried to go to sleep, but that just didn’t happen. I was tired, but there was no internet connection, I couldn’t sleep. So I got comfortable to read a book, and BAM! I was out. So this post is a day late.
Mike agreed and told me to go lay down. I had some work to do that Chip needed right away and I thought I could get it knocked out right away.
It turned out NOT being one of those “get done right away” kind of jobs. But I got the first part done in two and a half hours, so I cleared out of my office, walked to the laundry place and headed back to my apartment. Strangely enough, I don’t feel better when I lay down. So here I sit getting a head start on today’s journal entry. I also have a bunch of pictures of Sara and the kids that I’m downloading right now. Since our internet is slow, downloading pictures can take a while. I’ll be back on later.
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And it’s later. I called Sara and the talked to her and Liam for a few minutes. That was fun. Liam was very excited to have ridden in a fire truck yesterday and also to have ridden in a horse. Sara seems to be doing well, and Dover is having a great weekend to enjoy. However we did get cut off by the internet. So I ended up getting some dinner and then going back into work. Mike was working on something and wanted to be alone in the office, so I grabbed a few things and went back to my room. I watched a movie and tried to go to sleep, but that just didn’t happen. I was tired, but there was no internet connection, I couldn’t sleep. So I got comfortable to read a book, and BAM! I was out. So this post is a day late.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Dynamics
Our office is a totally different place today than it was a week and a helf ago. Since that time, Chris, the old director left and Tom, the new guy, took over. Tom is coming in from a very important job with lots of people working for him. Now he’s in charge of 15 to 20 guys. And even though this job is a promotion for him, it’s a totally different kind of responsibility. We’re staff/admin guys. Paper pushers, bean counters, whatever you want to call us. Most of us have been in the company long enough to have gone around the block a time or two and it takes a different kind of managing to deal with people like us. Even though Tom has been in the company a LOT longer than I have, I don’t think that he’s picked up on this yet. There have been a couple of uncomfortable moments over the past week to make me want to hide.
And I’ve been hiding. I’ve just kept my head down and did my work and try not to draw any attention to my office. Mike Ashley and I are some of the junior members in the office, so when the scut work gets called on to do, we usually do it. And I don’t mind being a team member, but I don’t want to get stuck with all the b.s. work just because I have a less years in than someone else. What? Is my actually job, my duties and responsibilities, less important because of how long I’ve been in this job? B.S! I talked to Chip about it and was calm and we talked through it. Mostly I needed to vent. Don’t come looking to my office whenever you need a not taker or a slide turner. Not unless you’ve got five broken fingers.
Lunch and dinner were both really good today! Lunch was prime rib, baked mashed potatoes, dressing and salad. The dressing wasn’t as good as Sara’s, but the rest of the meal was fantastic. Dinner was Lasagna and it was also fantastic. So as far as meals go, we were two for two today!
Sara told me that she got the ol’ heave-ho from Lake Forest this week. Thanks for working, if you want to keep working, you’re going to have to re-apply for your job. Since we were getting ready to move to Washington, it really doesn’t break my heart, but I’m sure there were a lot of other teachers who still need jobs. Well, Sara still needs a job, but she was going to quit Lake Forest anyway.
I tried calling Sara and the kiddos, but there was nobody home. I’ll try again tomorrow. Skype was sounding pretty funny at the time. Not sure how the connection would have been. Anyway. Time for bed. Good night.
And I’ve been hiding. I’ve just kept my head down and did my work and try not to draw any attention to my office. Mike Ashley and I are some of the junior members in the office, so when the scut work gets called on to do, we usually do it. And I don’t mind being a team member, but I don’t want to get stuck with all the b.s. work just because I have a less years in than someone else. What? Is my actually job, my duties and responsibilities, less important because of how long I’ve been in this job? B.S! I talked to Chip about it and was calm and we talked through it. Mostly I needed to vent. Don’t come looking to my office whenever you need a not taker or a slide turner. Not unless you’ve got five broken fingers.
Lunch and dinner were both really good today! Lunch was prime rib, baked mashed potatoes, dressing and salad. The dressing wasn’t as good as Sara’s, but the rest of the meal was fantastic. Dinner was Lasagna and it was also fantastic. So as far as meals go, we were two for two today!
Sara told me that she got the ol’ heave-ho from Lake Forest this week. Thanks for working, if you want to keep working, you’re going to have to re-apply for your job. Since we were getting ready to move to Washington, it really doesn’t break my heart, but I’m sure there were a lot of other teachers who still need jobs. Well, Sara still needs a job, but she was going to quit Lake Forest anyway.
I tried calling Sara and the kiddos, but there was nobody home. I’ll try again tomorrow. Skype was sounding pretty funny at the time. Not sure how the connection would have been. Anyway. Time for bed. Good night.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Slept in
I slept in until eight o’clock this morning and that was nice. Of course I headed over to the gym to do a little cardio and since it was Friday, Keith, Mike and I worked out legs. There were a couple of people that showed up who had run in the 10K. They were all smug and asked, “where were you? We missed you…” Uhhh, yeah. About that. As soon as this city changes its rules and starts allowing us to run while we wear iPods, I’ll probably start running. But since they don’t allow running with iPods, I probably won’t run.
I had a visitor here yesterday. I used to work with a gentleman named Doug when I was in Boston. Doug will be moving to Kissimmee sometime in the next month or so, but came down for the day to see how things are here. I’m not sure what his job is, but I ran into him every couple of days or so when I was up there. Doug was kind enough to bring me my Delaware flag down to me. When I left Boston I realized that I left my flag in my desk and I was a little sad since I carried that flag with me all over on my last trip. But I have it back now and I plan on hanging it up in my office.
Work today was a little hectic. We all like the late reporting days, but that sometimes doesn’t mean that work slows down. There might be less meetings going on, but that means that the bosses are actually working and passing off work. I didn’t start any new projects, but I made lots of corrections and changes to existing projects that are in the staffing process.
We have a nice new television in our dining room now. Unfortunately there is a syncing problem with the video and the sound. The picture is (no kidding) about 20 seconds off from the audio. It’s really weird, and it makes watching television unwatchable. I hope it’s fixed soon.
And I got a new Michael Chriton book. Well, it was new to me. Or at least I thought it was new. I read the first three pages before I realized that I had read it before. I hate it when that happens. Sometimes I’ve read 20 pages before I get that “Hey this is reeeeal familiar” feeling. Skip to another chapter just to realize that I remember the whole book. What a pain. I threw my book in the book sharing pile and grabbed another book. I have another book that I got from my father that I want to read. That book (Freakonomics) is going to the top of my list.
And that’s what I’m going to do now. I’m going to try to read and just fall asleep. Good night.
I had a visitor here yesterday. I used to work with a gentleman named Doug when I was in Boston. Doug will be moving to Kissimmee sometime in the next month or so, but came down for the day to see how things are here. I’m not sure what his job is, but I ran into him every couple of days or so when I was up there. Doug was kind enough to bring me my Delaware flag down to me. When I left Boston I realized that I left my flag in my desk and I was a little sad since I carried that flag with me all over on my last trip. But I have it back now and I plan on hanging it up in my office.
Work today was a little hectic. We all like the late reporting days, but that sometimes doesn’t mean that work slows down. There might be less meetings going on, but that means that the bosses are actually working and passing off work. I didn’t start any new projects, but I made lots of corrections and changes to existing projects that are in the staffing process.
We have a nice new television in our dining room now. Unfortunately there is a syncing problem with the video and the sound. The picture is (no kidding) about 20 seconds off from the audio. It’s really weird, and it makes watching television unwatchable. I hope it’s fixed soon.
And I got a new Michael Chriton book. Well, it was new to me. Or at least I thought it was new. I read the first three pages before I realized that I had read it before. I hate it when that happens. Sometimes I’ve read 20 pages before I get that “Hey this is reeeeal familiar” feeling. Skip to another chapter just to realize that I remember the whole book. What a pain. I threw my book in the book sharing pile and grabbed another book. I have another book that I got from my father that I want to read. That book (Freakonomics) is going to the top of my list.
And that’s what I’m going to do now. I’m going to try to read and just fall asleep. Good night.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Fifty one
The weather isn’t really getting warmer now during the days. However, in the mornings when I walk to the gym it’s not nearly as cold as it was a few weeks ago. There is still no heat in the gym; and for my first fifteen minutes or so, I would be freezing. But now, I’m comfortable walking to the gym in shorts and a t-shirt.
My new boss is a machine. I’ve seen him in the gym almost every morning that I’m there. He gets there before Mike and I do, and I know he’s at the office until eleven or twelve at night. I found out tonight that he’s a second degree black belt in some form of martial arts. And when he lived in Japan, he was an amateur body builder and actually competed and won in at least one competition.
Tomorrow morning there is a 10K race! I’m going to sleep in. Nope, I didn’t sign up and I’m not going to run. Some other time - maybe.
Work was incredibly busy again. Mike and I were really going to town trying to get our tasks knocked out. A lot of what we do is all on line, so I’d do part of what I would have to do, post it to the internet, them Mike opens it and does his thing, he’ll send it back to me, and I’ll do my thing, send it back, and Mike will finish it up.
We’ve found out that it’s easier that when we work on these projects - instead of sending our stuff back and forth, we’ll just do our thing, trade desks, work at each other’s desk, trade desks again, keep working, trade desks again… It helps keep things interesting, and it messes with people’s heads when they come in and we’re changing desks every 45 minutes or an hour.
When I was typing last night I kept falling asleep at the computer. I was afraid that I would fall asleep with my computer in my lap and the computer would fall on the floor. Tonight when I opened up my word document there were five blank pages when I fell asleep with my fingers on either the space bar or the enter key ( I just typed “the return key”. Does anything have a “return” key anymore?)
I can’t remember if I mentioned it before, but I’m at fifty one percent for this trip! Woo hoo!!! That means I’m cnow closer to the end of this tour than I am to the beginning! It’s downhill now! I’m pretty thrilled about that. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I can see the end, but I feel pretty close.
Good night, everyone!
My new boss is a machine. I’ve seen him in the gym almost every morning that I’m there. He gets there before Mike and I do, and I know he’s at the office until eleven or twelve at night. I found out tonight that he’s a second degree black belt in some form of martial arts. And when he lived in Japan, he was an amateur body builder and actually competed and won in at least one competition.
Tomorrow morning there is a 10K race! I’m going to sleep in. Nope, I didn’t sign up and I’m not going to run. Some other time - maybe.
Work was incredibly busy again. Mike and I were really going to town trying to get our tasks knocked out. A lot of what we do is all on line, so I’d do part of what I would have to do, post it to the internet, them Mike opens it and does his thing, he’ll send it back to me, and I’ll do my thing, send it back, and Mike will finish it up.
We’ve found out that it’s easier that when we work on these projects - instead of sending our stuff back and forth, we’ll just do our thing, trade desks, work at each other’s desk, trade desks again, keep working, trade desks again… It helps keep things interesting, and it messes with people’s heads when they come in and we’re changing desks every 45 minutes or an hour.
When I was typing last night I kept falling asleep at the computer. I was afraid that I would fall asleep with my computer in my lap and the computer would fall on the floor. Tonight when I opened up my word document there were five blank pages when I fell asleep with my fingers on either the space bar or the enter key ( I just typed “the return key”. Does anything have a “return” key anymore?)
I can’t remember if I mentioned it before, but I’m at fifty one percent for this trip! Woo hoo!!! That means I’m cnow closer to the end of this tour than I am to the beginning! It’s downhill now! I’m pretty thrilled about that. I wouldn’t go as far as to say that I can see the end, but I feel pretty close.
Good night, everyone!
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Snow on the mountains
This morning was sunny and the sky was clear. After a week or so of on-again-off-again rain, it felt like a nice spring day. Since it was still early in the morning when we all woke up and met outside, the smog hadn’t settled in and we could see the mountains. They were white again, and they looked like a picture (or a puzzle). But we didn’t enjoy them long. Considering how well I felt Friday after running up and down stairs, today was a little different. On Friday I could wear my iPod and go as fast or as slow as I wanted. Today I was with some friends, I didn’t have my iPod, and the group wanted to go faster than I wanted to. By the fourth trip I felt like I was going to have a heart attack! These were different stairs. Not quite as steep, but there were more steps per flight.
After working up a good sweat, I headed back to my apartment to shower and change. I could have eaten everything for breakfast because I was so hungry. My body was craving fuel.
Work was extremely busy. Chip is just piling it on to Mike and I, so the day passed quickly. We had a surprise new guy arrive at the office. His name is Patrick and he’s coming in from Oklahoma. I would have been a little more friendly, but I didn’t have time to talk.
I cut out of there a little early to try to get some sleep. I cut my hair again, so I’ll be good for another week or so in the hair cut department.
After working up a good sweat, I headed back to my apartment to shower and change. I could have eaten everything for breakfast because I was so hungry. My body was craving fuel.
Work was extremely busy. Chip is just piling it on to Mike and I, so the day passed quickly. We had a surprise new guy arrive at the office. His name is Patrick and he’s coming in from Oklahoma. I would have been a little more friendly, but I didn’t have time to talk.
I cut out of there a little early to try to get some sleep. I cut my hair again, so I’ll be good for another week or so in the hair cut department.
Shopping
Today was another good day. I woke up when my alarm told me to, I got to the gym on time, and I made it to work without having to rush. Mike and I had some more work to finish up on the big project that Chip had us working on, but neither of us thought that it would take us very long so we weren’t in a rush.
First though, I had to work on one of the projects that I had last week. It was finally ready for staffing after going through the ringer and getting blessed by everyone involved. That took all of an hour, and afterwards I went house shopping on the internet. Mike was helping me and we probably looked at 30 or 40 houses. This is much better than driving around all day. If you find a dozen houses you like up front on the internet, you’ve already done 40% of the work for your realtor! I’ve saved the MLS numbers which I need to send to Sara.
Then we all went to lunch. We had chilimac, which was a nice change of pace. I was going to go to the gym after lunch and lift with Keith and Mike, but I was the stand by “shotgun passenger” for some guy coming from the airport… but he never came. Right before dinner I had to sit through a boring, boring teleconference and it was all I could do just to pay attention to what was going on. I still have no idea what was talked about for an hour. Dinner was roast beef and a big salad.
I wish I could say that I did more work after dinner, but I didn’t. One of my roommates, Shaun, came by our office to visit and hang out. I’m not sure what he was hiding from, but we all sat around and shot the breeze for a while. Eventually I left and finally went to the gym. I took it easy because we’re going to run stairs, just like I did back on Friday. I hope the weather is nice tomorrow. It was chilly and drizzly for most of today. Perfect for a duck.
First though, I had to work on one of the projects that I had last week. It was finally ready for staffing after going through the ringer and getting blessed by everyone involved. That took all of an hour, and afterwards I went house shopping on the internet. Mike was helping me and we probably looked at 30 or 40 houses. This is much better than driving around all day. If you find a dozen houses you like up front on the internet, you’ve already done 40% of the work for your realtor! I’ve saved the MLS numbers which I need to send to Sara.
Then we all went to lunch. We had chilimac, which was a nice change of pace. I was going to go to the gym after lunch and lift with Keith and Mike, but I was the stand by “shotgun passenger” for some guy coming from the airport… but he never came. Right before dinner I had to sit through a boring, boring teleconference and it was all I could do just to pay attention to what was going on. I still have no idea what was talked about for an hour. Dinner was roast beef and a big salad.
I wish I could say that I did more work after dinner, but I didn’t. One of my roommates, Shaun, came by our office to visit and hang out. I’m not sure what he was hiding from, but we all sat around and shot the breeze for a while. Eventually I left and finally went to the gym. I took it easy because we’re going to run stairs, just like I did back on Friday. I hope the weather is nice tomorrow. It was chilly and drizzly for most of today. Perfect for a duck.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Sleeping In
Sleeping in was NOT part of my plan today. But I did. It seems that I failed to turn my alarm ON when I reset the time last night. Since I share an apartment with two other guys, I always figured that if I slept through an alarm than at least one of them would wake me up. Well, what are the chances that none of us set an alarm last night? None of us did.
I wasn’t late for work, but I hate being late and I hate feeling like I’m going to be late. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been late LOTS of times for work, but normally I don’t care. This time I did. With a new director in the office, there’s no way I want to set the “late guy” example. But if I was going to be late, I would have just been REALLY late and totally acted like I was supposed to have come in from somewhere else. “Oh, RLY? Yeah, about that. Uhhh… I had a meeting with the Bobs.”
Chip has been giving us more work to do, which is great. I think the three of us in our little office are glad to have the added responsibility. Chip still does entirely too much, but at least he’s giving us more to do. Mike and I worked on a project together all morning and most of the afternoon. We took a little break right before dinner to go to the gym; but besides that, the day flew by with our tag-teaming a massive spreadsheet of data that had to be straightened out, corrected, and cross referenced with an arcane database. That database should do everyone a huge favor and crash into a giant irreparable mess.
Tonight’s special at dinner was “glazed Santa Fe” chicken breasts. I wanted to make a joke about Santa Fe and this chicken, but it was really good. I’m always leery about chicken that is cooked on a grill and is blackened. I saw a television program once that said that when restaurants have meat that is right on the “cook by” date (or maybe a day or two afterwards), they’ll either (1) cook it Cajun-style or (2) blacken it so that the customer can’t tell that it has started to go bad. But in this case the chicken was pretty good.
Tonight we had our continuing managerial training. Ghaaaah! Shoot me now! When I wasn’t busy sleeping, I was watching other people sleep. Having this training at seven at night is not the best idea.
And it’s left me really sleepy.
I wasn’t late for work, but I hate being late and I hate feeling like I’m going to be late. Now don’t get me wrong, I’ve been late LOTS of times for work, but normally I don’t care. This time I did. With a new director in the office, there’s no way I want to set the “late guy” example. But if I was going to be late, I would have just been REALLY late and totally acted like I was supposed to have come in from somewhere else. “Oh, RLY? Yeah, about that. Uhhh… I had a meeting with the Bobs.”
Chip has been giving us more work to do, which is great. I think the three of us in our little office are glad to have the added responsibility. Chip still does entirely too much, but at least he’s giving us more to do. Mike and I worked on a project together all morning and most of the afternoon. We took a little break right before dinner to go to the gym; but besides that, the day flew by with our tag-teaming a massive spreadsheet of data that had to be straightened out, corrected, and cross referenced with an arcane database. That database should do everyone a huge favor and crash into a giant irreparable mess.
Tonight’s special at dinner was “glazed Santa Fe” chicken breasts. I wanted to make a joke about Santa Fe and this chicken, but it was really good. I’m always leery about chicken that is cooked on a grill and is blackened. I saw a television program once that said that when restaurants have meat that is right on the “cook by” date (or maybe a day or two afterwards), they’ll either (1) cook it Cajun-style or (2) blacken it so that the customer can’t tell that it has started to go bad. But in this case the chicken was pretty good.
Tonight we had our continuing managerial training. Ghaaaah! Shoot me now! When I wasn’t busy sleeping, I was watching other people sleep. Having this training at seven at night is not the best idea.
And it’s left me really sleepy.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Watermelon
It was a quiet, sunny Sunday morning when I got up. My roommates were sleeping when I left the apartment. I guess they were sleeping. There were no sounds when I left, and it was only seven thirty in the morning. I went to get some breakfast, feeling a little bit sore from working out yesterday. I was real careful yesterday as we were doing legs, there is no way I want my legs to hurt the way they did last week.
I saw Mike as I was heading to go eat. He was also ready to eat so we sat together even though we see each other all day long at work. We had fresh watermelon with breakfast, and I couldn’t remember when the last time I had watermelon was. Obviously I had it last summer, but it seems like longer. One of the nice things about Kissimmee is that we always seem to have fresh fruit. Last week we had cantaloupe one day and honeydew another day. I have to be careful about how much I eat though.
After breakfast, I headed down to church. The service was nice, though it was pretty small. There are a few other service and I think that most people would rather go to a later service and sleep in a little bit more. But it was nice having a small congregation.
I went back to my room and enjoyed some of the sunlight. Since we all work inside and there are no windows, we seem to only get a few minutes of sunshine each day. And it’s been raining here so much that sometimes we don’t see the sun much at all. I might come home from here all pasty-white.
I headed over to the gym and Keith and Mike were already there. We did abs and then I did an hour of cardio. I try to weigh myself only once a week to track how things are going. I don’t have a ‘number goal’ that I’m trying to reach while I’m here… But at least a number on a scale is a metric that I can track week by week. Anyway, I’m not going to get into what the actual number was today, but I was kind of surprised at the weight coming off. In a way I’m not surprised since I’ve been going to the gym quite regularly. And since Mike and I (and now Keith) are also lifting weights, we’re sometimes going twice a day – cardio early in the morning and weights in the afternoon. If, for some reason, we can’t get a good cardio session in the morning, I’ll go in the evening.
Oh, as I was leaving for the gym, I saw Chris loading his stuff in the van as he was heading to the airport. Chip was driving him, and he told me that he wasn’t going to be in until three or three thirty. Nice. With Chip and Spencer gone, I should be able to get a lot done. Or maybe do nothing all day. I’d like to keep my options open. But at least I don’t have to rush to get to work today.
So I rolled into work around noon-thirty. Mike and Ashley were already there. I would have been a little bit earlier, but I had to drop off my laundry at the cleaners. Mike and Ashley were busy working, so instead of mucking about for the afternoon, I had some work on an ad hoc project that required some attention.
A few hours later Keith came in and said that it was almost time to head to the gym and that it was “back day”. I definitely needed a break from staring at my spreadsheets and source documents all afternoon. This staff-work is for the birds. That’s a funny saying… “for the birds”… Does that imply that birds aren’t picky and they’ll take all the stuff we don’t want?
After working out, we headed over to get some dinner. I can’t remember what we had for dinner yesterday, but it was pretty bad. Today, though, we had steak and lobster tails. Of course I declined the lobster, but the steak was pretty good with oven baked potato slices and a big salad. My body was really craving the protein from the steak. I was glad that I got a large steak.
Chip had made it back from the airport and ate with us. Earlier in the afternoon we had been messing about on the computer. Ashley had left her computer unlocked and Mike had sent some funny e-mails from her account. Chip saw them and we were busted. Not “in trouble” busted, but I’m not sure how far his sense of humor goes into that realm of messing about.
After dinner, not a lot of work got done. Sundays are laid back like that. I stayed a little later than everyone else to try to use the phones (which didn’t work for me tonight). I walked back to my room and called Sara on skype. No luck there either. Oh, well. I’ll try again another night.
And that was my day. It was a good one, and I hope the rest of the week goes as well.
I saw Mike as I was heading to go eat. He was also ready to eat so we sat together even though we see each other all day long at work. We had fresh watermelon with breakfast, and I couldn’t remember when the last time I had watermelon was. Obviously I had it last summer, but it seems like longer. One of the nice things about Kissimmee is that we always seem to have fresh fruit. Last week we had cantaloupe one day and honeydew another day. I have to be careful about how much I eat though.
After breakfast, I headed down to church. The service was nice, though it was pretty small. There are a few other service and I think that most people would rather go to a later service and sleep in a little bit more. But it was nice having a small congregation.
I went back to my room and enjoyed some of the sunlight. Since we all work inside and there are no windows, we seem to only get a few minutes of sunshine each day. And it’s been raining here so much that sometimes we don’t see the sun much at all. I might come home from here all pasty-white.
I headed over to the gym and Keith and Mike were already there. We did abs and then I did an hour of cardio. I try to weigh myself only once a week to track how things are going. I don’t have a ‘number goal’ that I’m trying to reach while I’m here… But at least a number on a scale is a metric that I can track week by week. Anyway, I’m not going to get into what the actual number was today, but I was kind of surprised at the weight coming off. In a way I’m not surprised since I’ve been going to the gym quite regularly. And since Mike and I (and now Keith) are also lifting weights, we’re sometimes going twice a day – cardio early in the morning and weights in the afternoon. If, for some reason, we can’t get a good cardio session in the morning, I’ll go in the evening.
Oh, as I was leaving for the gym, I saw Chris loading his stuff in the van as he was heading to the airport. Chip was driving him, and he told me that he wasn’t going to be in until three or three thirty. Nice. With Chip and Spencer gone, I should be able to get a lot done. Or maybe do nothing all day. I’d like to keep my options open. But at least I don’t have to rush to get to work today.
So I rolled into work around noon-thirty. Mike and Ashley were already there. I would have been a little bit earlier, but I had to drop off my laundry at the cleaners. Mike and Ashley were busy working, so instead of mucking about for the afternoon, I had some work on an ad hoc project that required some attention.
A few hours later Keith came in and said that it was almost time to head to the gym and that it was “back day”. I definitely needed a break from staring at my spreadsheets and source documents all afternoon. This staff-work is for the birds. That’s a funny saying… “for the birds”… Does that imply that birds aren’t picky and they’ll take all the stuff we don’t want?
After working out, we headed over to get some dinner. I can’t remember what we had for dinner yesterday, but it was pretty bad. Today, though, we had steak and lobster tails. Of course I declined the lobster, but the steak was pretty good with oven baked potato slices and a big salad. My body was really craving the protein from the steak. I was glad that I got a large steak.
Chip had made it back from the airport and ate with us. Earlier in the afternoon we had been messing about on the computer. Ashley had left her computer unlocked and Mike had sent some funny e-mails from her account. Chip saw them and we were busted. Not “in trouble” busted, but I’m not sure how far his sense of humor goes into that realm of messing about.
After dinner, not a lot of work got done. Sundays are laid back like that. I stayed a little later than everyone else to try to use the phones (which didn’t work for me tonight). I walked back to my room and called Sara on skype. No luck there either. Oh, well. I’ll try again another night.
And that was my day. It was a good one, and I hope the rest of the week goes as well.
Double Digits
I am now a double digit midget, but not quite at 50%. Today was a busy day, but a good day.
I learned a little more about my job today. I don’t really know how to explain it. Say we have a customer wants to change a delivery date more than 15 days, it’s not as easy as just changing the date. Due to the types of assets that we are dealing with, a lot of people have to get involved. So now, I am part of that process as well.
Chip was in charge starting today, and he was really busy. So I had been tasked to take care of a delivery date change (DDC) and I was able to bumble through it and I’m pretty sure I got it right. But that took a huge chunk out of my day. And since it was Saturday that meant it was movie night. We watched Tropic Thunder, which I thought was hysterical. Sara and I saw it before I left and I remember her laughing a few times during that movie as well.
Today was a warm, sunny day. A nice day to be outside. I remembered that Sara’s family in Colorado were getting snow dumped on them. It’s funny to think that they’re still getting snow this late in April.
That’s all for today. Short day.
I learned a little more about my job today. I don’t really know how to explain it. Say we have a customer wants to change a delivery date more than 15 days, it’s not as easy as just changing the date. Due to the types of assets that we are dealing with, a lot of people have to get involved. So now, I am part of that process as well.
Chip was in charge starting today, and he was really busy. So I had been tasked to take care of a delivery date change (DDC) and I was able to bumble through it and I’m pretty sure I got it right. But that took a huge chunk out of my day. And since it was Saturday that meant it was movie night. We watched Tropic Thunder, which I thought was hysterical. Sara and I saw it before I left and I remember her laughing a few times during that movie as well.
Today was a warm, sunny day. A nice day to be outside. I remembered that Sara’s family in Colorado were getting snow dumped on them. It’s funny to think that they’re still getting snow this late in April.
That’s all for today. Short day.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Cake
Our office volunteered to do some community service project. Not really my cup o’ tea, but whatever. I’ll do my part. What we had to do required us to work in one hour shifts from eight in the morning until sometime in the afternoon. By the time the signup sheet was posted for volunteering, all the good shifts were taken. So out of the goodness of my greedy, selfish heart, I chose the first shift. I claimed it was because I was going to be up anyway, and it would give everyone else a chance to sleep in.
So I got up early and headed over to the work site, and there was no one around. So I found an old patio chair and I waited. I walked around and looked for the volunteer coordinator or other volunteers and there was no one around. So I enjoyed the quiet morning and enjoyed the morning air. And about 40 minutes later the volunteer coordinator showed up and asked what I was doing. I told him that I was counting rock piles. There were 18 gravel piles when I got there at eight, and I was going to make sure there were 18 when I left. He looked at me like I was crazy - then he laughed. The other folks hadn’t arrived yet, and though I was on time, nothing else was on time. So I was relieved and he let me go ten minutes early.
When the folks throughout the day found out what had happened, they didn’t find it quite so funny. They tried to say that MY hour didn’t count. I threw the b.s. flag and said that since I fulfilled my end of the deal it counted. I was the one who had to get up early while they slept in. In the grand scheme of things, I really could not have cared less.
So I went back to my room and finished reading some Grisham novel that’s taken me about a week to read. It’s a good read, but after reading drafts all day and staring at computers, a book will put me to sleep faster than anything.
Yesterday Ashley and her friend Morgan ran stairs for PT, so I had decided to do that today. Our apartments have eight flights of stairs from top to bottom. And each flight has ten steps. And I ended running up and down fifteen times. Well, to be totally honest, I only ran up three times. I walked up the other twelve times. And I walked deliberately, not fast, not skipping any steps, and walking down slowly also. I think I’m going to pay for that tomorrow.
Sometime this afternoon the gym opened back up! Yay! That means that we have AC and power in there now.
Chris, our director, is leaving tomorrow. I somehow got volunteered to be the cake and punch guy for the going away party. Now normally, I’d go to the store, order a cake and icecream and something to drink. And then ask for donations. But it’s not like there’s a super Walmart anywhere around here. This past week I had to go here, go there, fill this out, fill that out, get a number for this and that, check with the company to make sure we’re within budget. Gaaah!
But when I picked up the cake today it was awesome. And way too big. And instead of punch, we ended up getting a couple mixed cases of soda and beer. Earlier in the day, the deputy director was pinging very bad. He was grilling me about the cake and all that stuff, and I told him it was all under control. And as it turns out, he ate two big pieces of the cake. Quite a big hit.
Spencer leaves tomorrow for his conference. It’ll be quiet without him. I think we’ll get more done with him gone.
And this evening I checked out the gym. It was quite nice with lights that work now.
And on my countdown calendar, today is my 100 day. I only have 100 days left. Been here about 91 so far. But who’s counting?
So I got up early and headed over to the work site, and there was no one around. So I found an old patio chair and I waited. I walked around and looked for the volunteer coordinator or other volunteers and there was no one around. So I enjoyed the quiet morning and enjoyed the morning air. And about 40 minutes later the volunteer coordinator showed up and asked what I was doing. I told him that I was counting rock piles. There were 18 gravel piles when I got there at eight, and I was going to make sure there were 18 when I left. He looked at me like I was crazy - then he laughed. The other folks hadn’t arrived yet, and though I was on time, nothing else was on time. So I was relieved and he let me go ten minutes early.
When the folks throughout the day found out what had happened, they didn’t find it quite so funny. They tried to say that MY hour didn’t count. I threw the b.s. flag and said that since I fulfilled my end of the deal it counted. I was the one who had to get up early while they slept in. In the grand scheme of things, I really could not have cared less.
So I went back to my room and finished reading some Grisham novel that’s taken me about a week to read. It’s a good read, but after reading drafts all day and staring at computers, a book will put me to sleep faster than anything.
Yesterday Ashley and her friend Morgan ran stairs for PT, so I had decided to do that today. Our apartments have eight flights of stairs from top to bottom. And each flight has ten steps. And I ended running up and down fifteen times. Well, to be totally honest, I only ran up three times. I walked up the other twelve times. And I walked deliberately, not fast, not skipping any steps, and walking down slowly also. I think I’m going to pay for that tomorrow.
Sometime this afternoon the gym opened back up! Yay! That means that we have AC and power in there now.
Chris, our director, is leaving tomorrow. I somehow got volunteered to be the cake and punch guy for the going away party. Now normally, I’d go to the store, order a cake and icecream and something to drink. And then ask for donations. But it’s not like there’s a super Walmart anywhere around here. This past week I had to go here, go there, fill this out, fill that out, get a number for this and that, check with the company to make sure we’re within budget. Gaaah!
But when I picked up the cake today it was awesome. And way too big. And instead of punch, we ended up getting a couple mixed cases of soda and beer. Earlier in the day, the deputy director was pinging very bad. He was grilling me about the cake and all that stuff, and I told him it was all under control. And as it turns out, he ate two big pieces of the cake. Quite a big hit.
Spencer leaves tomorrow for his conference. It’ll be quiet without him. I think we’ll get more done with him gone.
And this evening I checked out the gym. It was quite nice with lights that work now.
And on my countdown calendar, today is my 100 day. I only have 100 days left. Been here about 91 so far. But who’s counting?
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Groundhog Day
I think that I’ve reached the point where the Ground Hog Day Syndrome is taking effect. Every day is becoming more and more like the day before. And that’s a good thing because I’m nearing my halfway point and it’ll all be downhill soon. I’m pretty comfortable with what I do and time goes quickly when one day blends in with the next.
The gym is closed for a few days while the electricity is being run to the building. I feel pretty good because I didn’t go to the gym or do anything strenuous today. I think tomorrow, Mike and I are going to run the steps in our apartments for a little while. My sneakers are finally dry from running in the rain on Tuesday. My spare pair of sneakers are wore out and need to be retired.
It’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks in the office. Spencer is leaving to go to two back-to-back conferences and we’re not going to see him for a few weeks. Chip is going to be running the show and I think he’ll do a great job, but it’ll be interesting to see how he does it.
Here’s something that bugs me.
I work on the 2nd floor. What’s up with that space between the “2” and the “nd”? The space is there on the “1 st Floor” as well.
And here is a picture of “Liam’s Fire”.
It’s nice having something on the walls in the office.
The gym is closed for a few days while the electricity is being run to the building. I feel pretty good because I didn’t go to the gym or do anything strenuous today. I think tomorrow, Mike and I are going to run the steps in our apartments for a little while. My sneakers are finally dry from running in the rain on Tuesday. My spare pair of sneakers are wore out and need to be retired.
It’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks in the office. Spencer is leaving to go to two back-to-back conferences and we’re not going to see him for a few weeks. Chip is going to be running the show and I think he’ll do a great job, but it’ll be interesting to see how he does it.
Here’s something that bugs me.
I work on the 2nd floor. What’s up with that space between the “2” and the “nd”? The space is there on the “1 st Floor” as well.
And here is a picture of “Liam’s Fire”.
It’s nice having something on the walls in the office.
Record!
Today was a blast. Early this morning Keith and I headed over to where we have to fill out all of our paperwork for working here in Kissimmee. It is not a long ride on the shuttle, but by the time we got there, we’d only have five hours to get everything done before catching the return shuttle. I told Keith that one of two things would happen. We would either (1) get everything done in one hour and then have to sit and be bored, or (2) it would take us until the very last minute to get every last little thing done, and then we’d make the bus at the last possible second.
It took us less than an hour to do everything.
And we were starving! We had missed breakfast and I hadn’t had any coffee this morning. The coffee shop was nearby and we sat around and people watched for a while. Then we did a little shopping, sat around bored, took a walk and I showed Keith around.
Sometime late morning, we had a sudden thunderstorm that lasted for all of 10 minutes. Kind of like the storm we had last night. Eventually, it was lunch time and I had curry pork and boiled potatoes with gravy. I was hungry, but I made myself not eat too much. I also had some more coffee.
Eventually we made it back to our neighborhood and the first thing that we found out was that some construction workers were digging a hole and completely busted through a water main. Our entire neighborhood was without water. And the construction people didn’t know how long it was going to take to fix. Well, there went our afternoon gym workout. I wasn’t going to get dirty and sweaty and not have a shower.
But eventually we got bored at work, so Mike and I went to the gym. I’ve been keeping track of everything I’ve been doing in a green notebook. It’s been really helpful helping me keep track of progress. Speaking of which, I think I have a new record on my pedometer. Hold on a minute. I have to check…
YES!!! 18,196 steps today!!! If I assume that my average step is 30 inches, then that equals 545,880 inches, which is 45,490 feet, which is 8.16 miles. Hmmm… I thought it would be more than that. In my head that many steps would be maybe 13 miles. Hold on… 2,112 steps per mile. That’s my new baseline for assuming steps per distance. Of course, steps and stairs mess that up. So would running.
Right after lifting, Mike and I got dinner. Taco salads. Mmmm!!! Chris, our director, is getting ready to leave on Saturday, and we saw the new director while we were eating. Since he hasn’t been introduced to us this yet, Mike said it wouldn’t be good protocol to introduce ourselves until Chris introduces him to us. Whatever. Mike’s smarter at that kind of stuff than I am. After dinner were notified that our water had been fixed. Hooray for showers!
After dinner, Darren told us that a band was going to be playing at a place around the corner. It hadn’t been advertized very well. I saw one sign and had forgotten about it. So a few of us went to go see them play. The band’s name is Sirocco, which I thought was a cool name. Somehow, the band knew one of my buddies, Benson, and they called him up to sing Redemption Song, and EVERYONE was very impressed. I haven’t gone to see a band in a long time and it was pretty fun.
After that, I went back to the gym to do some cardio. Our gym is closing tomorrow for three days for the electricity to get wired in the gym. It’ll be nice to have some real light in there rather than having to use the really powerful garage/shop light that we have in there now.
And I’m about pooped now. Good night.
It took us less than an hour to do everything.
And we were starving! We had missed breakfast and I hadn’t had any coffee this morning. The coffee shop was nearby and we sat around and people watched for a while. Then we did a little shopping, sat around bored, took a walk and I showed Keith around.
Sometime late morning, we had a sudden thunderstorm that lasted for all of 10 minutes. Kind of like the storm we had last night. Eventually, it was lunch time and I had curry pork and boiled potatoes with gravy. I was hungry, but I made myself not eat too much. I also had some more coffee.
Eventually we made it back to our neighborhood and the first thing that we found out was that some construction workers were digging a hole and completely busted through a water main. Our entire neighborhood was without water. And the construction people didn’t know how long it was going to take to fix. Well, there went our afternoon gym workout. I wasn’t going to get dirty and sweaty and not have a shower.
But eventually we got bored at work, so Mike and I went to the gym. I’ve been keeping track of everything I’ve been doing in a green notebook. It’s been really helpful helping me keep track of progress. Speaking of which, I think I have a new record on my pedometer. Hold on a minute. I have to check…
YES!!! 18,196 steps today!!! If I assume that my average step is 30 inches, then that equals 545,880 inches, which is 45,490 feet, which is 8.16 miles. Hmmm… I thought it would be more than that. In my head that many steps would be maybe 13 miles. Hold on… 2,112 steps per mile. That’s my new baseline for assuming steps per distance. Of course, steps and stairs mess that up. So would running.
Right after lifting, Mike and I got dinner. Taco salads. Mmmm!!! Chris, our director, is getting ready to leave on Saturday, and we saw the new director while we were eating. Since he hasn’t been introduced to us this yet, Mike said it wouldn’t be good protocol to introduce ourselves until Chris introduces him to us. Whatever. Mike’s smarter at that kind of stuff than I am. After dinner were notified that our water had been fixed. Hooray for showers!
After dinner, Darren told us that a band was going to be playing at a place around the corner. It hadn’t been advertized very well. I saw one sign and had forgotten about it. So a few of us went to go see them play. The band’s name is Sirocco, which I thought was a cool name. Somehow, the band knew one of my buddies, Benson, and they called him up to sing Redemption Song, and EVERYONE was very impressed. I haven’t gone to see a band in a long time and it was pretty fun.
After that, I went back to the gym to do some cardio. Our gym is closing tomorrow for three days for the electricity to get wired in the gym. It’ll be nice to have some real light in there rather than having to use the really powerful garage/shop light that we have in there now.
And I’m about pooped now. Good night.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thunder
Wow! The hot shower really worked last night. When I got up this morning to run, my legs felt a little bit better. I took a couple of extra-strength Excedrin and went outside with Sean and Shaun. Oh, yeah. It was raining. And a little chilly. I was thankful that it wasn’t windy, but I didn’t want to bring it up and jinx us. So we had a little run and warmed up quickly. I didn’t run too terribly fast because I was just trying to work the pain out of my legs.
We wandered into work after cleaning up and by then the rain had stopped (of course). There was abject pandemonium at the office because everyone had lost their connectivity with the internet. That was actually fine with me because I had a lot to work to do on some of my continuity bonders that I had been working on for a while.
The downside was that Chip had nothing to do except check on me and Mike to make sure we had stuff to do. Jeez! Leave us alone or get to work punching holes in these papers. Just kidding. Sometimes this mindless work helps the time go by and it’s better than proofreading papers all day. Later in the day, half of us got our internet back on. I have no idea why some did and some did not get it, but Ashley, mike, and I got ours. So did Keith, so we started plugging away at some of our projects.
Mike isn’t the most technologically savvy person in the world. Neither am I, but I’ve had a little more experience with PowerPoint and excel, so I spent a big chunk of the afternoon with Mike and another project that he was working on with Brian. Eventually, we got tired of that, so we went to the gym for a little bit.
While we were at the gym, we could see huge, ominous thunderheads moving in over the mountains to our North. There was all kinds of lightning and rolling black clouds. In between sets we watched the storm get closer. The thunder and lightning were spectacular. When the rain started to let up a bit, we ran to get something to eat.
Dinner was roast beef and noodles and salad. I was underwhelmed. Nowhere near being whelmed, as a matter of fact.
We stopped back into the office after eating to see what was going on. Then we got tasked with some busy work until we escaped.
I have to go with Keith to inprocess tomorrow morning. So we’re going to try to leave early. I hope we don’t miss the shuttle bus like I did on Saturday.
We wandered into work after cleaning up and by then the rain had stopped (of course). There was abject pandemonium at the office because everyone had lost their connectivity with the internet. That was actually fine with me because I had a lot to work to do on some of my continuity bonders that I had been working on for a while.
The downside was that Chip had nothing to do except check on me and Mike to make sure we had stuff to do. Jeez! Leave us alone or get to work punching holes in these papers. Just kidding. Sometimes this mindless work helps the time go by and it’s better than proofreading papers all day. Later in the day, half of us got our internet back on. I have no idea why some did and some did not get it, but Ashley, mike, and I got ours. So did Keith, so we started plugging away at some of our projects.
Mike isn’t the most technologically savvy person in the world. Neither am I, but I’ve had a little more experience with PowerPoint and excel, so I spent a big chunk of the afternoon with Mike and another project that he was working on with Brian. Eventually, we got tired of that, so we went to the gym for a little bit.
While we were at the gym, we could see huge, ominous thunderheads moving in over the mountains to our North. There was all kinds of lightning and rolling black clouds. In between sets we watched the storm get closer. The thunder and lightning were spectacular. When the rain started to let up a bit, we ran to get something to eat.
Dinner was roast beef and noodles and salad. I was underwhelmed. Nowhere near being whelmed, as a matter of fact.
We stopped back into the office after eating to see what was going on. Then we got tasked with some busy work until we escaped.
I have to go with Keith to inprocess tomorrow morning. So we’re going to try to leave early. I hope we don’t miss the shuttle bus like I did on Saturday.
Last Night
Yesterday was pretty busy. I had a lot of busy work that I couldn’t get to until Sunday afternoon so I was chugging along trying to get everything done so that I could go back to my room and watch a movie that I had borrowed from Ashley. But as I finished up, I realized that Mike needed a bunch of help on a project that he was working on, so I stayed with him so that he wouldn’t be at work all night. His project had to be on the boss’ desk in the morning. So as we were leaving, we saw Sean, my roommate, and he was also working on a project for a presentation that he had to give Monday night. And of course, Mike and I stayed and helped him with his project.
By the time I got back to my room, changed into something comfortable, and sat down, my brain had completely turned off. I was sitting at my computer for a couple of minutes and writing was impossible. You know when you’re at the end of a tube of toothpaste and you try to get that last tiny little bit out of the tube because there’s no more in the house? That’s what it was like trying to get sentences out of my brain. It just wasn’t happening. But it was worth it helping my buddies. I’m know that they’ll help someday when I need it.
Yesterday I had a real panic attack. I was washing my hands and realized that I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring! I couldn’t remember for the life of me when I had taken it off! How was I going to explain this to Sara? Well… after a couple of minutes, I remembered that I had taken it off when I was at the gym and I didn’t want to scratch it up when we were lifting weights. I scrambled back to my room and went through all my pockets and it wasn’t there. Aaaargh! Then I looked again and I found it. So there was no reason to panic anymore, but I have to think of a better way to keep my ring when I have to take it off.
And speaking of the gym, Mike, Keith, and I worked out our legs a few days ago. I am in so much pain now. It hurts to walk down stairs. Excruciating. And forget about sitting down and standing up without arms on my chair to push myself off. Walking on level surfaces is doable, going up stairs isn’t too bad. But seriously, going down stairs is awful. Tomorrow is going to be the worst morning ever.
I joined the community council. Go me. We have meetings every Monday and we talk about our neighborhood and improvement projects and how to make things better. It’s going to get crowded here before too long. It’s kind of fun going to the town hall meetings and listening to people gripe and about things they don’t like. Really trivial stuff (in my opinion) that isn’t worth complaining about. But my fifteen constituents appreciate not having to go to the town hall meetings. Our mayor is a funny old guy that everyone knows from another office and the story goes that he doesn’t laugh. Ever. Because if he does he’ll hyperventilate and pass out. So that’s everyone’s mission. To make the mayor laugh. I’ve never hear of the laugh-and-pass-out thing before. I want to see it one time.
I got a package from Sara and now I have speakers for my computer at work. Now we can listen to music at work. And I also got a bunch of pictures from Liam and Rebecca, and I taped them to my wall at work. We still don’t have any pictures, so it’s good that we have some color in our office. Rebecca sent a picture of a tree on a piece of green paper with pink flowers on it and everyone seems to love that picture. And the picture of Liam’s Fire, everyone gets a kick out of that.
I’m going to sign off now and take the hottest shower I can stand in order to relieve the pain in my legs.
By the time I got back to my room, changed into something comfortable, and sat down, my brain had completely turned off. I was sitting at my computer for a couple of minutes and writing was impossible. You know when you’re at the end of a tube of toothpaste and you try to get that last tiny little bit out of the tube because there’s no more in the house? That’s what it was like trying to get sentences out of my brain. It just wasn’t happening. But it was worth it helping my buddies. I’m know that they’ll help someday when I need it.
Yesterday I had a real panic attack. I was washing my hands and realized that I wasn’t wearing my wedding ring! I couldn’t remember for the life of me when I had taken it off! How was I going to explain this to Sara? Well… after a couple of minutes, I remembered that I had taken it off when I was at the gym and I didn’t want to scratch it up when we were lifting weights. I scrambled back to my room and went through all my pockets and it wasn’t there. Aaaargh! Then I looked again and I found it. So there was no reason to panic anymore, but I have to think of a better way to keep my ring when I have to take it off.
And speaking of the gym, Mike, Keith, and I worked out our legs a few days ago. I am in so much pain now. It hurts to walk down stairs. Excruciating. And forget about sitting down and standing up without arms on my chair to push myself off. Walking on level surfaces is doable, going up stairs isn’t too bad. But seriously, going down stairs is awful. Tomorrow is going to be the worst morning ever.
I joined the community council. Go me. We have meetings every Monday and we talk about our neighborhood and improvement projects and how to make things better. It’s going to get crowded here before too long. It’s kind of fun going to the town hall meetings and listening to people gripe and about things they don’t like. Really trivial stuff (in my opinion) that isn’t worth complaining about. But my fifteen constituents appreciate not having to go to the town hall meetings. Our mayor is a funny old guy that everyone knows from another office and the story goes that he doesn’t laugh. Ever. Because if he does he’ll hyperventilate and pass out. So that’s everyone’s mission. To make the mayor laugh. I’ve never hear of the laugh-and-pass-out thing before. I want to see it one time.
I got a package from Sara and now I have speakers for my computer at work. Now we can listen to music at work. And I also got a bunch of pictures from Liam and Rebecca, and I taped them to my wall at work. We still don’t have any pictures, so it’s good that we have some color in our office. Rebecca sent a picture of a tree on a piece of green paper with pink flowers on it and everyone seems to love that picture. And the picture of Liam’s Fire, everyone gets a kick out of that.
I’m going to sign off now and take the hottest shower I can stand in order to relieve the pain in my legs.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Sunday night
My alarm clock went off way to early this morning. I got up and went to the gym. And when I got back to my room I noticed that the air conditioner was leaking. It was a small puddle, but a puddle none the less. So I guess it was a good thing that I accidentally left the gym with one of the little gym towels.
You know, I’m going to have to cut his short. Today was a long day – not a bad day – just a long one and I’m going to bed.
You know, I’m going to have to cut his short. Today was a long day – not a bad day – just a long one and I’m going to bed.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Losing It
I got up early this morning to go with Mike and Ashley to the other office nearby for some orientation. Orientation to what… we didn’t know. SO we met at the office around six twenty to get our stuff and we headed down to catch the six forty five shuttle van. Well, the darn van must have left at six forty three, because we were left high and dry. The next shuttle left at seven forty five so we decided to wait.
Luckily for us, we were able to catch a ride with someone else going in the same direction only twenty minutes later. Traffic is insane here. I’ve driven in some horrible traffic in some weird cities, and though it wasn’t the worst traffic, it was pretty bad.
We had to wait in line at the orientation briefing. The line moved pretty quickly, and we were able to get good seats in a small stadium style auditorium. The orientation started promptly at eight o’clock. And time came to a standstill. The next four hours were awful. We sat through six briefings, each one as dry as the last. I probably dozed off a half-dozen times. Some of our co-workers were telling us that these briefs would be bad, but I thought they were just trying to scare us. Nope. It was bad.
Thankfully, it ended right at noon and we signed out in order to get credit for attending and we got out of there and headed to lunch. I had some okay beef curry and rice along with some feta cheese and crusty bread. And two double espressos with milk. I should have had the double espressos with breakfast. I also had some fantastic tiramisu. I’m usually not a big fan of that kind of dessert, but it looked good.
Around two o’clock we caught the van back to our office. And then I exchanged my laundry, and visited with Keith for a bit. I have to take Keith over to where we were this morning to do some of his inprocessing paperwork. Around three thirty we had our weekly trash burn. That lasted two hours and a basketball game broke out so we watched that for a while. Keith won.
When the trash burn was over, I went to the gym with Mike and Keith. Afterward, I cleaned up and called Sara on Skype. What a great invention/concept. The line was pretty clear, not the best, but for the price, it’s pretty darn good. So I went back into the office and I looked at the work that is waiting for me. I didn’t have to look at it long, because it is Saturday… And that means it’s movie night. We watched Burn After Reading, which a lot of people didn’t like. I, however, kind of like Cohen Brothers movies and I thought it was pretty funny.
Mike and Ash had already left at that point, so I straightened up the office and made it back to my apartment. And here I sit on the floor in front of my laptop chronicling my day. Yet another day translated into ones and zeros.
Luckily for us, we were able to catch a ride with someone else going in the same direction only twenty minutes later. Traffic is insane here. I’ve driven in some horrible traffic in some weird cities, and though it wasn’t the worst traffic, it was pretty bad.
We had to wait in line at the orientation briefing. The line moved pretty quickly, and we were able to get good seats in a small stadium style auditorium. The orientation started promptly at eight o’clock. And time came to a standstill. The next four hours were awful. We sat through six briefings, each one as dry as the last. I probably dozed off a half-dozen times. Some of our co-workers were telling us that these briefs would be bad, but I thought they were just trying to scare us. Nope. It was bad.
Thankfully, it ended right at noon and we signed out in order to get credit for attending and we got out of there and headed to lunch. I had some okay beef curry and rice along with some feta cheese and crusty bread. And two double espressos with milk. I should have had the double espressos with breakfast. I also had some fantastic tiramisu. I’m usually not a big fan of that kind of dessert, but it looked good.
Around two o’clock we caught the van back to our office. And then I exchanged my laundry, and visited with Keith for a bit. I have to take Keith over to where we were this morning to do some of his inprocessing paperwork. Around three thirty we had our weekly trash burn. That lasted two hours and a basketball game broke out so we watched that for a while. Keith won.
When the trash burn was over, I went to the gym with Mike and Keith. Afterward, I cleaned up and called Sara on Skype. What a great invention/concept. The line was pretty clear, not the best, but for the price, it’s pretty darn good. So I went back into the office and I looked at the work that is waiting for me. I didn’t have to look at it long, because it is Saturday… And that means it’s movie night. We watched Burn After Reading, which a lot of people didn’t like. I, however, kind of like Cohen Brothers movies and I thought it was pretty funny.
Mike and Ash had already left at that point, so I straightened up the office and made it back to my apartment. And here I sit on the floor in front of my laptop chronicling my day. Yet another day translated into ones and zeros.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
New Guy
My alarm clock went off at seven o’clock this morning. I hit the snooze button and thought about going to the gym. With Keith arriving later this morning, I had better get my work out done and get showered and dressed. But almost immediately there was a knock on our door. Normally, anyone knocking on our door is kind of strange, since we never get any visitors. But seven o’clock on a Friday morning? Shaun (the tall one) is one of the Managers in the IT department. I figured the knock must have been for him. Maybe the internet exploded and there are zeros and ones everywhere that need to be put back in order.
To my surprise, Chip was standing there with someone who could only have been Keith. I thought I must have fallen asleep and it was ten or eleven o’clock. But I asked them what time it was and it indeed was only seven oh-five. Chip was shuttling people to the airport and just happened to see Keith come out of the terminal. So he picked Keith up and brought him back to our apartments and dropped him off on me. Chip had to get back and drop some more people off and couldn’t stick around.
Well, there went my gym time. Keith realized that I wasn’t fully awake and said that he’d take a walk and give me time to get dressed. So as Keith was walking around, I hurried and got dressed. I guess I’m not taking a nap later either.
I quickly located Keith walking around and the two of us went to get some breakfast. While at breakfast, we met with Chris, our director. They chatted for a minute and we got to eating.
Since Fridays are late reporting days, I didn’t think there would be anyone in the office, but we tried anyway. Chip had taken Keith to the offices to drop some of his stuff off. And we were right, so as we were waiting for everyone to arrive, I took him around on the nickle-tour. The apartment super’s door was locked so we couldn’t get a key, but I thought it was important to know where it was so that Keith could get his key later.
The super wasn’t there, but his boss was. And we lucked out getting Keith’s apartment key. We walked back to the apartments and put his bags inside. The prior residents didn’t do any job of cleaning up and I got cleaning supplies and hangars, so Keith cleaned up and then took a nap.
I on the other hand went into work and finished up all I had to do, which was not a lot. Work work work work work work work work work. Keith came in a little before four o’clock. Mike took him to personnel and then to IT in order to get all of his processing dome
I am so tired. After dinner, Keith went back to his room and went to sleep. I went to the office with Mike and Ashley. Spencer came in and shot the breeze with us for a while He’s a good dude. Much better than. Much better than Jack, our old director at BAF.
I got a package from Sara. My new speakers, headphones, and pics that the kids drew. I taped the pictures to the wall and hooked up my new speakers to my work computer. I’ll have to bring in my iPod to work tomorrow so that we have something to listen to.
Eventually, I took off and headed back to my apartment. I was feeling full of energy and thought it would be a good idea to go to the gym. Today was ‘back’ day, but both Mike and I were busy and I don’t think he went. I did my back exercises and did a little cardio. I was able to rack up over 15K for my log.
Now that I’ve cleaned up and taken a shower, I’m totally beat. I’m having a hard
time keeping my eyses open to write this. What a day. One less day now.
To my surprise, Chip was standing there with someone who could only have been Keith. I thought I must have fallen asleep and it was ten or eleven o’clock. But I asked them what time it was and it indeed was only seven oh-five. Chip was shuttling people to the airport and just happened to see Keith come out of the terminal. So he picked Keith up and brought him back to our apartments and dropped him off on me. Chip had to get back and drop some more people off and couldn’t stick around.
Well, there went my gym time. Keith realized that I wasn’t fully awake and said that he’d take a walk and give me time to get dressed. So as Keith was walking around, I hurried and got dressed. I guess I’m not taking a nap later either.
I quickly located Keith walking around and the two of us went to get some breakfast. While at breakfast, we met with Chris, our director. They chatted for a minute and we got to eating.
Since Fridays are late reporting days, I didn’t think there would be anyone in the office, but we tried anyway. Chip had taken Keith to the offices to drop some of his stuff off. And we were right, so as we were waiting for everyone to arrive, I took him around on the nickle-tour. The apartment super’s door was locked so we couldn’t get a key, but I thought it was important to know where it was so that Keith could get his key later.
The super wasn’t there, but his boss was. And we lucked out getting Keith’s apartment key. We walked back to the apartments and put his bags inside. The prior residents didn’t do any job of cleaning up and I got cleaning supplies and hangars, so Keith cleaned up and then took a nap.
I on the other hand went into work and finished up all I had to do, which was not a lot. Work work work work work work work work work. Keith came in a little before four o’clock. Mike took him to personnel and then to IT in order to get all of his processing dome
I am so tired. After dinner, Keith went back to his room and went to sleep. I went to the office with Mike and Ashley. Spencer came in and shot the breeze with us for a while He’s a good dude. Much better than. Much better than Jack, our old director at BAF.
I got a package from Sara. My new speakers, headphones, and pics that the kids drew. I taped the pictures to the wall and hooked up my new speakers to my work computer. I’ll have to bring in my iPod to work tomorrow so that we have something to listen to.
Eventually, I took off and headed back to my apartment. I was feeling full of energy and thought it would be a good idea to go to the gym. Today was ‘back’ day, but both Mike and I were busy and I don’t think he went. I did my back exercises and did a little cardio. I was able to rack up over 15K for my log.
Now that I’ve cleaned up and taken a shower, I’m totally beat. I’m having a hard
time keeping my eyses open to write this. What a day. One less day now.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
100th post
Today was a good day. A few of us got up and went on a little jog this morning. It was a typical Kissimmee morning… The air was cool and clear, the sky was blue and because of the snow we had yesterday, there was fresh white snow on the mountains. We didn’t jog far. Just enough to work up a sweat and get our blood pumping. Nobody needed a stretcher or anything. After our jog, Mike and I went to the gym for a little bit and then had breakfast.
Work was strangely slow. I’m not exactly sure why, but it was almost laid back. I had to make a couple of corrections to a few of the packages I was working on when I first got here. A few names that I was unfamiliar with were misspelled. Oops. That took all of five minutes to correct. Besides that I helped Mike with some of the stuff that he’s supposed to be working on. He’s not very power point savvy, and though I don’t advertise it, I’m pretty good. So I was helping him and teaching some of the things that know to help him out.
Besides that, I was busy rearranging furniture and setting up computers for the new personnel. Keith, the new guy, comes in tomorrow and when I was coordinating to meet him, I forgot that it was my half day off. I was planning on sleeping and cleaning my room. That’s not going to happen now because I have to be at the office and wait for him to arrive. Darn.
I don’t know who it was, but some jerk tracked mud all over our offices today. No one had muddy boots because we all checked each other. But we ended up cleaning the offices all over again. We were kind of ticked.
One of the guys that works in another office is learning to play the guitar. After work he was sitting in front of our apartments and strumming his guitar. He knows the first 30 seconds of a lot of songs. There were a few of us sitting around and singing along with him. It was relaxing for a while, but the wind started picking up and I wanted to go inside.
I think I’m going to cut my hair now.
Work was strangely slow. I’m not exactly sure why, but it was almost laid back. I had to make a couple of corrections to a few of the packages I was working on when I first got here. A few names that I was unfamiliar with were misspelled. Oops. That took all of five minutes to correct. Besides that I helped Mike with some of the stuff that he’s supposed to be working on. He’s not very power point savvy, and though I don’t advertise it, I’m pretty good. So I was helping him and teaching some of the things that know to help him out.
Besides that, I was busy rearranging furniture and setting up computers for the new personnel. Keith, the new guy, comes in tomorrow and when I was coordinating to meet him, I forgot that it was my half day off. I was planning on sleeping and cleaning my room. That’s not going to happen now because I have to be at the office and wait for him to arrive. Darn.
I don’t know who it was, but some jerk tracked mud all over our offices today. No one had muddy boots because we all checked each other. But we ended up cleaning the offices all over again. We were kind of ticked.
One of the guys that works in another office is learning to play the guitar. After work he was sitting in front of our apartments and strumming his guitar. He knows the first 30 seconds of a lot of songs. There were a few of us sitting around and singing along with him. It was relaxing for a while, but the wind started picking up and I wanted to go inside.
I think I’m going to cut my hair now.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Christmas
It’s beginning to look… A lot like Christmas! This morning when I went to the gym it was snowing. Snowing really, really hard. And while we were working out, we could see the snow just coming down like a champ. But the ground must have been warm, because it didn’t stick to anything. And when I walked back to my apartment, the snow started to be mixed with rain. I told my roommates that it was snowing when I saw them getting ready for work. Shawn said that when he was talking to his fiancé last night she said that it was snowing in Atlanta.
And of course I mailed the rest of my winter stuff back to Dover yesterday. So I’ll have to find out from Carrie what it’s like when it snows in Atlanta in April.
The snow was letting up when I walked to work. It was chilly enough, but I didn’t think it was going to be too cold very long. I finished up the last package yesterday, so I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do today. I know that more packages will be initiated soon, but until then I needed to find something to keep my occupied.
Every Wednesday morning our office has a short meeting called a “huddle”. Not like we’re football players or anything… But during the huddle, our director (Chris) asked for a volunteer. Before anyone else could say anything (like what the volunteer was for), I raised my hand and said that I would do it.
So what I volunteered to do is be the office setter-upper. We have three offices that are currently not used. The desks in them are scattered around, none of the computers are set up, and there is random crap that needs to either find a home or be thrown away.
I spent a better part of the morning straightening and cleaning and putting things away. I’m was waiting for muscles now to help me move the desks and afterwards I’ll just have to set the computers up out of the box and inventory what additional furniture, chairs, power strips that we need for the offices.
After dinner everyone started cleaning their offices and sweeping up all th mud that has been tracked in. And I was able to get a couple people to help re-arrange the offices. Now all I have to do is get the computers set up and then coordinate with our IT buddies to ensure we have connectivity for those offices. We’re going to be getting a couple more people over the next few weeks, and I just hope that We can make their arrival and integration to the group better than we had it.
And speaking of arrivals, my co-worker, Sandy, from Boston went back to Minnesota before her replacement arrived. Keith, her replacement is going to be coming in on Friday. It’ll be nice to have another member of the blue team here with us.
And of course I mailed the rest of my winter stuff back to Dover yesterday. So I’ll have to find out from Carrie what it’s like when it snows in Atlanta in April.
The snow was letting up when I walked to work. It was chilly enough, but I didn’t think it was going to be too cold very long. I finished up the last package yesterday, so I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do today. I know that more packages will be initiated soon, but until then I needed to find something to keep my occupied.
Every Wednesday morning our office has a short meeting called a “huddle”. Not like we’re football players or anything… But during the huddle, our director (Chris) asked for a volunteer. Before anyone else could say anything (like what the volunteer was for), I raised my hand and said that I would do it.
So what I volunteered to do is be the office setter-upper. We have three offices that are currently not used. The desks in them are scattered around, none of the computers are set up, and there is random crap that needs to either find a home or be thrown away.
I spent a better part of the morning straightening and cleaning and putting things away. I’m was waiting for muscles now to help me move the desks and afterwards I’ll just have to set the computers up out of the box and inventory what additional furniture, chairs, power strips that we need for the offices.
After dinner everyone started cleaning their offices and sweeping up all th mud that has been tracked in. And I was able to get a couple people to help re-arrange the offices. Now all I have to do is get the computers set up and then coordinate with our IT buddies to ensure we have connectivity for those offices. We’re going to be getting a couple more people over the next few weeks, and I just hope that We can make their arrival and integration to the group better than we had it.
And speaking of arrivals, my co-worker, Sandy, from Boston went back to Minnesota before her replacement arrived. Keith, her replacement is going to be coming in on Friday. It’ll be nice to have another member of the blue team here with us.
Tuesday
On Monday I had taken a box of stuff into the office in order to mail back to Dover. I think that was the last of my cold weather stuff that I don’t think I’m going to need any more. So after lunch I walked to the mail room to mail my box out.
Last week I sat through a class in order to be a “mail handler” and pick up mail for the entire office. There was maybe 15 people from the Kissimmee office there, and it was a pretty good class. The teacher was some postal lady and you could tell that she was really enthusiastic about her job. Very knowledgeable and she loved what she did. It was a great class. What none of us realized was there was a TEST! When the class was over she handed out our test and my jaw hit the table.
That test was hard. Had I known that there was going to be a test, I certainly would have paid more attention. But I did my best and I didn’t leave any questions un-answered. I honestly didn’t think that I passed. I talked to some of the other people and they didn’t think they passed either. But two days later, I got a call and was told to come by and sign my postal card. So I guess I passed. I didn’t ask what the passing score was and I didn’t ask what my score was.
When I took my package to the mail room to be inspected, it was the lady who had taught the class. I’m not sure if she remembered me, but she inspected my package and taped it up to ship home.
It was another rainy day and night. More like drizzly than rainy. Our campus is a huge muddy mess because we don’t have grass yet. And we still have heavy construction equipment that goes around and tears up the dirt.
I went to the gym in the afternoon. That was a nice break for my day. Because of all the mud that’s around here, a lot of people track dirt and mud chunks into the offices, so after dinner Ashley and I cleared out our office and swept and mopped. I hate working in a dirty office.
When I got back to my apartment, I figured I’d type up this entry and try to get to bed early. However, Sean and Shawn came in shortly after I did and we ended up having a deep philosophical conversation about our government fighting two wars, internet privacy (the lack thereof), and something else (I don’t remember). And that conversation lasted for two and a half hours. By the time it was over, I was so exhausted that I fell fast asleep.
Last week I sat through a class in order to be a “mail handler” and pick up mail for the entire office. There was maybe 15 people from the Kissimmee office there, and it was a pretty good class. The teacher was some postal lady and you could tell that she was really enthusiastic about her job. Very knowledgeable and she loved what she did. It was a great class. What none of us realized was there was a TEST! When the class was over she handed out our test and my jaw hit the table.
That test was hard. Had I known that there was going to be a test, I certainly would have paid more attention. But I did my best and I didn’t leave any questions un-answered. I honestly didn’t think that I passed. I talked to some of the other people and they didn’t think they passed either. But two days later, I got a call and was told to come by and sign my postal card. So I guess I passed. I didn’t ask what the passing score was and I didn’t ask what my score was.
When I took my package to the mail room to be inspected, it was the lady who had taught the class. I’m not sure if she remembered me, but she inspected my package and taped it up to ship home.
It was another rainy day and night. More like drizzly than rainy. Our campus is a huge muddy mess because we don’t have grass yet. And we still have heavy construction equipment that goes around and tears up the dirt.
I went to the gym in the afternoon. That was a nice break for my day. Because of all the mud that’s around here, a lot of people track dirt and mud chunks into the offices, so after dinner Ashley and I cleared out our office and swept and mopped. I hate working in a dirty office.
When I got back to my apartment, I figured I’d type up this entry and try to get to bed early. However, Sean and Shawn came in shortly after I did and we ended up having a deep philosophical conversation about our government fighting two wars, internet privacy (the lack thereof), and something else (I don’t remember). And that conversation lasted for two and a half hours. By the time it was over, I was so exhausted that I fell fast asleep.
Monday, April 6, 2009
It’s Not Tuesday
This morning I got up early and went to the gym. At least for this one day, time was on my side. I don’t know what happened, but I was ready to go to work, and I had almost 45 minutes to spare. Since I only work a four minute walk from work, I had a chance to putz around and do nothing for a while.
I’ve been going through my stuff over the past week or so looking for stuff that I can live without so I can mail another box back to Dover. Sara had mailed me a second pair of lightweight boots so I packed up my winter boots, my electric blanket, my fleece jacket and some other stuff. We can only ship out packages once a week (on Tuesdays) so I was glad that I had my box ready to ship.
I carried my box to work and Ashley was already there. First thing I did was get my shipping papers all done up so I wouldn’t have to rush and do it after lunch. I totally thought it was Tuesday. Oh well, at least everything is ready for tomorrow.
I’m working on an ‘arts and crafts’ project for Chip. So all morning long I was printing and stapling, printing stapling. All morning. Tomorrow is going to be punching holes and making books. I tried to have a healthy lunch. Ashley had chicken nuggets and she almost lost one or two when she wasn’t looking. I remembered to pick up my laundry today and I boogied back to my room to drop it off.
After lunch, I had three packages to look at/correct/edit. Like I’ve said before, each package has five documents, but they all say pretty much the same thing in different formats. The one that I have the biggest gripe with is (of course) the longest one that is always written in ALL CAPS. It’s like reading a seven page paper AND IT’S IN ALL CAPS AND SINGLE SPACE EXCEPT THE PARAGRAPHS ARE TWO SPACES APART. WHAT A COLOSSAL PAIN IN THE BUTT.
So that’s what I did all afternoon. The whole office went to the gym in the afternoon. While at the gym, Chip reminded me that we had professional management education (PME) at seven o’clock tonight. I totally forgot. It didn’t help that I thought it was Monday all day. Our PME is every Monday night. This week it was about civic duty and being a contributing member of the community. Dat was bow-wing.
And guess what? I fell asleep. Mike and Joe were on the other side of the room and when I came to, Joe was looking at me and I could see him mouthing to me ‘Mike, wake the hell up’. I guess I wasn’t trying to hide it very well. Mike later said that 50% of the class was sleeping though it. If you want me to be a valuable member of the community, don’t keep me at work until nine thirty at night. How’s that work for you?
It has still been kind of chilly at night here. I keep forgetting that it’s early spring. It rains almost every day and the mornings and evenings are not quite cold. But it feels pretty good. Except our room is cold also. But I’m not complaining. I remember how hot it was in here when I first got here.
I remembered my pedometer today. SO I’m back to counting my steps. And that’s not all I’m counting.
I’ve been going through my stuff over the past week or so looking for stuff that I can live without so I can mail another box back to Dover. Sara had mailed me a second pair of lightweight boots so I packed up my winter boots, my electric blanket, my fleece jacket and some other stuff. We can only ship out packages once a week (on Tuesdays) so I was glad that I had my box ready to ship.
I carried my box to work and Ashley was already there. First thing I did was get my shipping papers all done up so I wouldn’t have to rush and do it after lunch. I totally thought it was Tuesday. Oh well, at least everything is ready for tomorrow.
I’m working on an ‘arts and crafts’ project for Chip. So all morning long I was printing and stapling, printing stapling. All morning. Tomorrow is going to be punching holes and making books. I tried to have a healthy lunch. Ashley had chicken nuggets and she almost lost one or two when she wasn’t looking. I remembered to pick up my laundry today and I boogied back to my room to drop it off.
After lunch, I had three packages to look at/correct/edit. Like I’ve said before, each package has five documents, but they all say pretty much the same thing in different formats. The one that I have the biggest gripe with is (of course) the longest one that is always written in ALL CAPS. It’s like reading a seven page paper AND IT’S IN ALL CAPS AND SINGLE SPACE EXCEPT THE PARAGRAPHS ARE TWO SPACES APART. WHAT A COLOSSAL PAIN IN THE BUTT.
So that’s what I did all afternoon. The whole office went to the gym in the afternoon. While at the gym, Chip reminded me that we had professional management education (PME) at seven o’clock tonight. I totally forgot. It didn’t help that I thought it was Monday all day. Our PME is every Monday night. This week it was about civic duty and being a contributing member of the community. Dat was bow-wing.
And guess what? I fell asleep. Mike and Joe were on the other side of the room and when I came to, Joe was looking at me and I could see him mouthing to me ‘Mike, wake the hell up’. I guess I wasn’t trying to hide it very well. Mike later said that 50% of the class was sleeping though it. If you want me to be a valuable member of the community, don’t keep me at work until nine thirty at night. How’s that work for you?
It has still been kind of chilly at night here. I keep forgetting that it’s early spring. It rains almost every day and the mornings and evenings are not quite cold. But it feels pretty good. Except our room is cold also. But I’m not complaining. I remember how hot it was in here when I first got here.
I remembered my pedometer today. SO I’m back to counting my steps. And that’s not all I’m counting.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Lazy Day
Today was another lazy day. I slept in, missed going to breakfast; I didn’t go to the gym. It felt really good. I wondered if Mike went to the gym, but he didn’t. I asked him if he went and he told me that he had to go to some big wig’s breakfast function and he was told he had to attend. He had to get up really early to make it to the breakfast and was mad that he didn’t get to sleep in.
Work was busy, but it was mindless, busy-work. Mike seems to think that the work that we are given by Chip and Spencer is just the busy work that they don’t want to do. Maybe it’s because they don’t trust us yet, or maybe it’s because they don’t want to give up any ‘power’, or maybe they just like their jobs and give us what they think will keep us occupied. Whatever it is, it will probably change. I try not to let it bother me because each day down is one less day here.
It rained here this afternoon. No one knew about it because we have no windows in our offices. The air felt clean and fresh when I walked back to my apartment. There was no funny smell and no dust in the air. My allergies have gotten much better since leaving Boston. Thank goodness. I hope it stays that way when everything starts blooming.
I tried calling Liam for his birthday, but there was no answer. I can’t believe that he’s four years old today. I still remember driving to the hospital, going seventy five mph in a forty mph zone and Sara yelling for me to go faster. I just had to have that darn bagel… maybe I would have made it to the delivery room in time to see the little guy being born. And he’s such a great kid. So much energy. Both of my kids are awesome. I miss them so much. I can’t wait to get home.
I also forgot to wear my pedometer today. I REALLY didn’t plan on forgetting it. But maybe I subconsciously planned on being lazy and I didn’t want to log a low number on my pedometer tracker.
Work was busy, but it was mindless, busy-work. Mike seems to think that the work that we are given by Chip and Spencer is just the busy work that they don’t want to do. Maybe it’s because they don’t trust us yet, or maybe it’s because they don’t want to give up any ‘power’, or maybe they just like their jobs and give us what they think will keep us occupied. Whatever it is, it will probably change. I try not to let it bother me because each day down is one less day here.
It rained here this afternoon. No one knew about it because we have no windows in our offices. The air felt clean and fresh when I walked back to my apartment. There was no funny smell and no dust in the air. My allergies have gotten much better since leaving Boston. Thank goodness. I hope it stays that way when everything starts blooming.
I tried calling Liam for his birthday, but there was no answer. I can’t believe that he’s four years old today. I still remember driving to the hospital, going seventy five mph in a forty mph zone and Sara yelling for me to go faster. I just had to have that darn bagel… maybe I would have made it to the delivery room in time to see the little guy being born. And he’s such a great kid. So much energy. Both of my kids are awesome. I miss them so much. I can’t wait to get home.
I also forgot to wear my pedometer today. I REALLY didn’t plan on forgetting it. But maybe I subconsciously planned on being lazy and I didn’t want to log a low number on my pedometer tracker.
Denied!
I had to sit through a four hour security briefing today. So did Tony, Ashley, and Mike. So we had to catch the seven o’clock bus to go to a nearby campus to get the briefing. The bus was packed and pretty bumpy. Only we found out when we got there that the briefing was postponed until Monday! Grrrr! So we had to get back on the bus to head back to our compound. I was anxious to get back because I was hungry and I was planning on eating when we got to our first destination
But we made it abck to work in time to get breakfast and watch a little television. When we walked back into the office, Chip and Spencer were really surprised that we were there. They didn’t know that the briefing had been cancelled.
We didn’t have any work scheduled so we pretty much just sat around for most of the morning. And in the afternoon we didn’t have a lot to do either. I helped Ashley with some of what she was doing. I printed out a bunch of copies and I assembled a three hole punch so that I could punch holes in my printouts and put them in a binder.
Later in the afternoon, we burned all of our documentation that we couldn’t get rid of any other way. That’s a Saturday tradition. There is a burn barrel over and away from out bldg, and we put the burn barrel to good use.
Around eight thirty Chip brought in his laptop and someone else found a projector. Someone pulled down the screen out of the ceiling and we all sat around and watched a movie called The Boondock Saints. I thought it was a pretty good movie. Kind of violent in a Tarantino kind of way. But I liked the story.
Now I just want to sleep.
But we made it abck to work in time to get breakfast and watch a little television. When we walked back into the office, Chip and Spencer were really surprised that we were there. They didn’t know that the briefing had been cancelled.
We didn’t have any work scheduled so we pretty much just sat around for most of the morning. And in the afternoon we didn’t have a lot to do either. I helped Ashley with some of what she was doing. I printed out a bunch of copies and I assembled a three hole punch so that I could punch holes in my printouts and put them in a binder.
Later in the afternoon, we burned all of our documentation that we couldn’t get rid of any other way. That’s a Saturday tradition. There is a burn barrel over and away from out bldg, and we put the burn barrel to good use.
Around eight thirty Chip brought in his laptop and someone else found a projector. Someone pulled down the screen out of the ceiling and we all sat around and watched a movie called The Boondock Saints. I thought it was a pretty good movie. Kind of violent in a Tarantino kind of way. But I liked the story.
Now I just want to sleep.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Squirrels
Since I’ve been here, I haven’t seen any squirrels. Nor have I seen anything that resembles a squirrel or something from the squirrel/chipmunk/rabbit family. I’m sure they have something here like that, but I haven’t seen one. And I’ve looked. Maybe it’s because Boston was so crowded and there was so much traffic that any little animals that were there just went somewhere else. But I didn’t even see raccoons or other garbage eaters. And I think that our neighborhood in Kissimmee might be so new that the recent construction frightened them all off.
Another thing I haven’t seen here in Kissimmee are a lot of birds. In Boston we had the black birds with big white spots on their wings (I’ll have to call it their elbows) that caused such a ruckus when the sun went down. They would sit in the trees and squawk and get all riled up. I also saw some fat, round robin looking birds. Not a whole lot of them, though. Here in Kissimmee I haven’t seen a whole lot of birds. I have seem some new birds that are black, don’t fly in flocks, and have tails that are slightly longer than ‘normal’ birds. I’ve never seen one on the ground, nor perched in a tree. I wonder where all the birds are.
Allegedly, springtime brings out a lot of mosquitoes. We have malaria pills to take in order to avoid getting sick. Some people don’t take their pills, but what can you do? There were a few cases of malaria last year and from what I’ve been told… it ain’t fun at all. Since we had a relatively dry winter and spring, maybe the mosquitoes won’t be bad this year. The flies are supposed to be real bad also. I’m not looking forward to flies.
Well, I slept in a little bit this morning. I was supposed to go to the gym, but that didn’t happen. I figured I could go later in the afternoon, but that didn’t happen either. We had out formal ‘Welcome ceremony’ for all the new folks that arrived over the past month. I know I’ve said that this is a new office here, and we must have had 75 new people introduced. It took maybe an hour and forty five minutes. It was killing me.
Then we all had to have a group picture taken and that seemed to take forever to get organized. I was in the back of the group talking to Chip and I don’t think that either of us were captured by the camera. We weren’t even trying. Spencer found a chair and he stood on the chair to be seen over the crowd.
We didn’t really get to work until three in the afternoon. And at that point I was way behind on what needed to be done. Mike and Ash were behind also. So we just nugged it out, and skipped the gym. By nine o’clock I was done. I repeatedly asked Mike and Ash if there was anything that I could help them with, but they said that the work they were doing was the kind of work that if more than one person was doing it, it would take longer. I understood and stayed for moral support. But they both told me to get out, so I did. So I went to the gym and burned off some energy.
So after my shower, I sat down and started writing about my day. I passed the 40% mark today. Another milestone!
Another thing I haven’t seen here in Kissimmee are a lot of birds. In Boston we had the black birds with big white spots on their wings (I’ll have to call it their elbows) that caused such a ruckus when the sun went down. They would sit in the trees and squawk and get all riled up. I also saw some fat, round robin looking birds. Not a whole lot of them, though. Here in Kissimmee I haven’t seen a whole lot of birds. I have seem some new birds that are black, don’t fly in flocks, and have tails that are slightly longer than ‘normal’ birds. I’ve never seen one on the ground, nor perched in a tree. I wonder where all the birds are.
Allegedly, springtime brings out a lot of mosquitoes. We have malaria pills to take in order to avoid getting sick. Some people don’t take their pills, but what can you do? There were a few cases of malaria last year and from what I’ve been told… it ain’t fun at all. Since we had a relatively dry winter and spring, maybe the mosquitoes won’t be bad this year. The flies are supposed to be real bad also. I’m not looking forward to flies.
Well, I slept in a little bit this morning. I was supposed to go to the gym, but that didn’t happen. I figured I could go later in the afternoon, but that didn’t happen either. We had out formal ‘Welcome ceremony’ for all the new folks that arrived over the past month. I know I’ve said that this is a new office here, and we must have had 75 new people introduced. It took maybe an hour and forty five minutes. It was killing me.
Then we all had to have a group picture taken and that seemed to take forever to get organized. I was in the back of the group talking to Chip and I don’t think that either of us were captured by the camera. We weren’t even trying. Spencer found a chair and he stood on the chair to be seen over the crowd.
We didn’t really get to work until three in the afternoon. And at that point I was way behind on what needed to be done. Mike and Ash were behind also. So we just nugged it out, and skipped the gym. By nine o’clock I was done. I repeatedly asked Mike and Ash if there was anything that I could help them with, but they said that the work they were doing was the kind of work that if more than one person was doing it, it would take longer. I understood and stayed for moral support. But they both told me to get out, so I did. So I went to the gym and burned off some energy.
So after my shower, I sat down and started writing about my day. I passed the 40% mark today. Another milestone!
Friday, April 3, 2009
Back in the Saddle
Today was a really busy day. Chip is being a little slow handing the reins over to me with the projects that he’s working, but that is completely understandable. He has been the pointman on working on these packages for so long, that he’s working himself out of a job and into more of a supervisory position.
But today went by really, really fast today. I worked two packages… completed one and almost finished the second. I was at the office until almost eleven at night I was so wrapped up with what I was doing. It is very interesting working with Chip because he also never did this work before coming to this office. As a matter of fact, I’ve been doing it a few weeks longer than he has. But he has a different background and his perspective on what we do is a nice change from what we had at the Boston office.
I’m still wearing my pedometer every day. I’m not getting hung up on trying to beat my highest day or anything like that. I’m just trying to get 10K steps per day now. Today I racked up 13,903 steps. But a lot of those steps are actually using stairs, so I don’t know how accurately I could guesstimate steps to miles.
I bonked my head really good today. I was putting clothes away at lunch, and I stood up quickly and cracked my temple on a shelf. I saw stars for a moment. I thought I was bleeding, but it wasn’t that bad. I do have a couple of small cuts that are roughly the same distance of the top and bottom of a single shelf on my forehead. Everyone noticed at work. What could I say?
Thank goodness tomorrow is a late reporting in day. I need to sleep.
But today went by really, really fast today. I worked two packages… completed one and almost finished the second. I was at the office until almost eleven at night I was so wrapped up with what I was doing. It is very interesting working with Chip because he also never did this work before coming to this office. As a matter of fact, I’ve been doing it a few weeks longer than he has. But he has a different background and his perspective on what we do is a nice change from what we had at the Boston office.
I’m still wearing my pedometer every day. I’m not getting hung up on trying to beat my highest day or anything like that. I’m just trying to get 10K steps per day now. Today I racked up 13,903 steps. But a lot of those steps are actually using stairs, so I don’t know how accurately I could guesstimate steps to miles.
I bonked my head really good today. I was putting clothes away at lunch, and I stood up quickly and cracked my temple on a shelf. I saw stars for a moment. I thought I was bleeding, but it wasn’t that bad. I do have a couple of small cuts that are roughly the same distance of the top and bottom of a single shelf on my forehead. Everyone noticed at work. What could I say?
Thank goodness tomorrow is a late reporting in day. I need to sleep.
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
It works.
I finally got my skype payment to work last night. My old, old paypal account came through. Not sure what the problem was with the ol’ USAA card. But I got it to work and I gave Sara a call to let her know. But she was at work, so I just left a message on the cell phone. But by the time I had figured it all out, it was late. And I had to get up early.
So I got up early so I could go running with my buddies. The weather started out kind of chilly, but we warmed up kind of quickly. We ran for about 30 minutes and looked at the mountains. Strange thing here… When the sun first comes up the sky is clear and the mountains can be seen well. But not even an hour after the sun is up, the mountains are hard to see.
I should have gone to the gym, lime Mike and I had originally planned, but I HURT!!! Holy moley. I need to stretch out more. So instead I went back to my apartment and gave Sara a call. Of course I woke her up but I had a nice groggy conversation with her. I planned on coming back to my apartment later this afternoon to call her after she woke up.
But work was crazy busy. Chip gave me a couple of taskers to work on and Mike and Ashley had a few as well. I probably could have gotten my stuff done today, but neither Mike nor Ashley knew how to tackle their tasks. Neither did I, but we all worked together to help Ashley and then Mike. I don’t think any of us finished what we were supposed to do. I turned in one of my packages and got a half day extension on the other.
Lunch was good. We had spaghetti and salads. For dinner, there was leftover spaghetti, but I just had another salad. There was also some weird fish parmesan dish that looked horrible.
Work was MUCH more bearable today. Our air conditioning in our offices kicked in. It felt so good. I would have taken off my jacket, but my chest hurt so much. Spencer was a little ticked (not at us) that the a.c. in his office hadn’t kicked on yet. The weather outside isn’t that hot now, but I think that it’s so hot in our building because there are no windows to open and we have a lot of electronic equipment that are constantly on.
Ashley came in to the office this afternoon and closed the door. She’s only been with the company for a few years and sometimes asks me and Mike about career stuff. She asked us if it would be bad if she were sent home early. Mike and I were a little confused. There’s no reason why she’d be sent back early. She’s new – we’re all new, and we haven’t been here long enough to screw anything up too terribly bad. But then she told us that she thinks she is pregnant. Yes. They will send you home for that so you can be with your family and see your own doctor. Mike and I were so excited for her. We asked why she thought she thinks she would be, if John (her husband) knew yet, yada-yada-yada… and then she told us April Fools. Mike and I were mad. We had been drawn in hook, line, and sinker.
I’m glad that Mike and Ashley are here with me. We’ve all become good friends. And that reminds me… Our computers and internet at work all work now. It’s only taken nine days. But I heard from Sandy’s replacement and he (Keith) is supposed to be here in a week or so. I hope he fits in well with us.
Time to crash. Good night.
So I got up early so I could go running with my buddies. The weather started out kind of chilly, but we warmed up kind of quickly. We ran for about 30 minutes and looked at the mountains. Strange thing here… When the sun first comes up the sky is clear and the mountains can be seen well. But not even an hour after the sun is up, the mountains are hard to see.
I should have gone to the gym, lime Mike and I had originally planned, but I HURT!!! Holy moley. I need to stretch out more. So instead I went back to my apartment and gave Sara a call. Of course I woke her up but I had a nice groggy conversation with her. I planned on coming back to my apartment later this afternoon to call her after she woke up.
But work was crazy busy. Chip gave me a couple of taskers to work on and Mike and Ashley had a few as well. I probably could have gotten my stuff done today, but neither Mike nor Ashley knew how to tackle their tasks. Neither did I, but we all worked together to help Ashley and then Mike. I don’t think any of us finished what we were supposed to do. I turned in one of my packages and got a half day extension on the other.
Lunch was good. We had spaghetti and salads. For dinner, there was leftover spaghetti, but I just had another salad. There was also some weird fish parmesan dish that looked horrible.
Work was MUCH more bearable today. Our air conditioning in our offices kicked in. It felt so good. I would have taken off my jacket, but my chest hurt so much. Spencer was a little ticked (not at us) that the a.c. in his office hadn’t kicked on yet. The weather outside isn’t that hot now, but I think that it’s so hot in our building because there are no windows to open and we have a lot of electronic equipment that are constantly on.
Ashley came in to the office this afternoon and closed the door. She’s only been with the company for a few years and sometimes asks me and Mike about career stuff. She asked us if it would be bad if she were sent home early. Mike and I were a little confused. There’s no reason why she’d be sent back early. She’s new – we’re all new, and we haven’t been here long enough to screw anything up too terribly bad. But then she told us that she thinks she is pregnant. Yes. They will send you home for that so you can be with your family and see your own doctor. Mike and I were so excited for her. We asked why she thought she thinks she would be, if John (her husband) knew yet, yada-yada-yada… and then she told us April Fools. Mike and I were mad. We had been drawn in hook, line, and sinker.
I’m glad that Mike and Ashley are here with me. We’ve all become good friends. And that reminds me… Our computers and internet at work all work now. It’s only taken nine days. But I heard from Sandy’s replacement and he (Keith) is supposed to be here in a week or so. I hope he fits in well with us.
Time to crash. Good night.
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