This Saturday hit pretty hard. All week I’ve been trying to stay on top of where everything was and I thought I was going to have a pretty easy day as I got my two reports ready. Wrong. Even though Mike wasn’t in the office for most of the day, I kept getting interrupted. And every time I tried to ask Spence a question he was busy with something else. I was pretty frustrated for most of the afternoon.
And by the time that movie time rolled around, I was nowhere near finished. The movie was Casino Royale. I don’t know if the two James Bond movies in a row is a coincidence or a new theme. But I did see that there was a pretty good crowd tonight.
I did stick around during the previews and watched the video for “Wake Me Up When September Ends”.
Ummm… It was hot today, but out a.c. works pretty good. We went out for tacos tonight. They were pretty good. They had real tortilla chips. The kind that are cut into wedges and fried. And they were served warm. Fantastic.
Speaking of food, I could really go for some popcorn right about now. I’m hungry. I need to change the subject.
I still have been wearing my pedometer. What a great invention. And Katrina’s old iPod had had a name change to Lil Stud. It’s the perfect size to fit in the tiny little pocket that’s good for nothing else but cough drops.
That’s it.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Haircuts
I need to cut my hair. It's been about two weeks and I'm getting a little fuzzy on the dome, if ya know what I mean. Sean, on the other hand, had a bad hair cutting experience. He went to get his haircut yesterday and the barber-lady was supposed to just take is close around the ears and leave the little bit on top. Well, evidently she wasn't listeneing and while Sean was relaxed in the barber's chair, she buzzed his head right up the side. Sean said he jumped up and was like, "what in the h#77?" Too late. So Sean only had two choices. Walk around with a messed up hair cut as an advertisement of where NOT to go get your hair cut, or shave it all off. So he just had her shave it off.
The funny thing is that all of guys in Sean's office shave their heads, so Sean fits in. But still, he's kind of ticked about it. I guess everyone else knows which of the barbers to go to, and more importantly which ones NOT to go to. Sean knows now.
I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but they are moving Mike into a new office. Keith and Ash are going to cover most of his duties. Chip will take over the rest of the stuff when he gets back. Chip found out over the phone that Mike was taken from us, and boy was he mad. I think Chip's going to raise a stink when he returns. Mike's not too happy about having to move either. I don't blame him. He's going to get stuck doing chump work for another "supervisor" who doesn't have anyone to supervise. It's totally political and everyone knows it. But the direction has come from 'on high', so there's not a whole lot anyone can do.
I got started late, so I'm wrapping this up.
And I'm not surprised that blogger isn't working.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Rudeness
I’ve tried really hard to limit my rudeness since I’ve been here. But I think that my rudeness is really directed at others as a direct result of their rudeness or inconsiderate attitude.
Take for example, outside of one of the exits of our office building there are two trash cans. In between our office building and our apartments there is a dumpster. Granted the dumpster is maybe 30 seconds out of the way, but come on people, if the trashcans are full, take your stuff to the dumpster. This isn’t a game of “how high can we stack our trashbags”. People leave their personal trash for the cleaning crew to take to the dumpster. Grrr!
Last night was a little windy, and someone had stacked a whole pile of flattened cardboard boxes next to the trashcans (which had four bags stacked on top). The wind had blown the pile of cardboard boxes all down the steps and it was kind of a mess. Rudeness #1 – the person who wouldn’t be bothered to take their cardboard to the trash. Rudeness #2 – someone, and I couldn’t see who, walked down the stairs right past (and over) the cardboard boxes on their way to the apartments. It took just about everything NOT to yell and have them come back and help me pick up the cardboard.
Here’s another think that really gets my goat. I like good coffee. Mike likes good coffee. Therefore, we have our own coffee pot IN our office (Room 245). We make our own coffee so we don’t have to drink the “community coffee”. And we share – and usually don’t have a problem with it. The community coffee pot is right outside the door of room 247 (notice how close the offices are). Naturally, Mike or I will come in a few minutes early to make coffee for us, Spence, and Chip.
But when the jackholes who work over in the other side of the hall come in and try to get our coffee before the other coffee is made, that really makes me mad. It would be different if the other coffee had been made, and had already run out. Make another pot and while it’s brewing - come and get some of ours. But the coffee in the other pot is from the day before! Mike is cool about it, so I try to chill out. There are some people who are good about keeping the community coffee fresh, and we know who they are. We also know who the lazy moochers are.
So what I’ve learned to do is this. When our pot is almost empty, and Mike and I are done for the morning, I’ll top off our cups and then put more water in the pot and let it go through the used grounds. Mmmm!!! Share and enjoy!
But a great number of people who work here are good people. And we are all in the same (figuratively speaking) boat. And being away from friends and family is stressful, to say the least, and you never know what someone else is going through. They might have had a bad day at work topped off with a fight with a girlfriend or boyfriend back home.
So I try to be tolerant and think about what the other person might be going through. Maybe, just maybe, they really aren’t being rude. Hold on – there’s a quote I have to look up. And the internet isn’t working now. That doesn’t surprise me. At all. But the quote goes something like this: “Never ascribe to malice, what might easily be explained by incompetence.” The last time I saw that quote, it was attributed to Napoleon. I think rudeness is a form of malice when it is intentional. But I don’t think I’m ready to equate incompetence with social-ineptitude and laziness.
I need to calm down.
We had lasagna for dinner. It was pretty good.
Oh! I ran into the opposite of rude tonight! I was so hung up on being mad I almost forgot. Sara wanted to hire a cat sitter to come by the house while she is in Colorado visiting her parents. But the cat sitter company doesn’t have a pass to come into our gated community. So I was trying to get the phone number of the guy to help Sara get a pass.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone to get the phone number for the guy who can help with the passes. My old number was busy, Nicole wasn’t in her office… I couldn’t remember anyone else’s number. Finally, I wrote to Courtney and called her and when I asked for the phone number, she started scolding me! She wanted to watch the cat… I forgot that she lives around the corner and down the street from Sara and I.
So that was very nice of Courtney. It was extremely nice of her, and I double-tripple asked if she really wouldn’t mind - because Sara’s going to be gone for a month. Courtney said, “That’s what friends do when you’re gone.” Okay. So she helped restore my faith in humanity. I’ll try to reciprocate the favor when I return.
Let’s see if the internet is up yet. Nope.
Nope.
Yep!
Take for example, outside of one of the exits of our office building there are two trash cans. In between our office building and our apartments there is a dumpster. Granted the dumpster is maybe 30 seconds out of the way, but come on people, if the trashcans are full, take your stuff to the dumpster. This isn’t a game of “how high can we stack our trashbags”. People leave their personal trash for the cleaning crew to take to the dumpster. Grrr!
Last night was a little windy, and someone had stacked a whole pile of flattened cardboard boxes next to the trashcans (which had four bags stacked on top). The wind had blown the pile of cardboard boxes all down the steps and it was kind of a mess. Rudeness #1 – the person who wouldn’t be bothered to take their cardboard to the trash. Rudeness #2 – someone, and I couldn’t see who, walked down the stairs right past (and over) the cardboard boxes on their way to the apartments. It took just about everything NOT to yell and have them come back and help me pick up the cardboard.
Here’s another think that really gets my goat. I like good coffee. Mike likes good coffee. Therefore, we have our own coffee pot IN our office (Room 245). We make our own coffee so we don’t have to drink the “community coffee”. And we share – and usually don’t have a problem with it. The community coffee pot is right outside the door of room 247 (notice how close the offices are). Naturally, Mike or I will come in a few minutes early to make coffee for us, Spence, and Chip.
But when the jackholes who work over in the other side of the hall come in and try to get our coffee before the other coffee is made, that really makes me mad. It would be different if the other coffee had been made, and had already run out. Make another pot and while it’s brewing - come and get some of ours. But the coffee in the other pot is from the day before! Mike is cool about it, so I try to chill out. There are some people who are good about keeping the community coffee fresh, and we know who they are. We also know who the lazy moochers are.
So what I’ve learned to do is this. When our pot is almost empty, and Mike and I are done for the morning, I’ll top off our cups and then put more water in the pot and let it go through the used grounds. Mmmm!!! Share and enjoy!
But a great number of people who work here are good people. And we are all in the same (figuratively speaking) boat. And being away from friends and family is stressful, to say the least, and you never know what someone else is going through. They might have had a bad day at work topped off with a fight with a girlfriend or boyfriend back home.
So I try to be tolerant and think about what the other person might be going through. Maybe, just maybe, they really aren’t being rude. Hold on – there’s a quote I have to look up. And the internet isn’t working now. That doesn’t surprise me. At all. But the quote goes something like this: “Never ascribe to malice, what might easily be explained by incompetence.” The last time I saw that quote, it was attributed to Napoleon. I think rudeness is a form of malice when it is intentional. But I don’t think I’m ready to equate incompetence with social-ineptitude and laziness.
I need to calm down.
We had lasagna for dinner. It was pretty good.
Oh! I ran into the opposite of rude tonight! I was so hung up on being mad I almost forgot. Sara wanted to hire a cat sitter to come by the house while she is in Colorado visiting her parents. But the cat sitter company doesn’t have a pass to come into our gated community. So I was trying to get the phone number of the guy to help Sara get a pass.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a hold of anyone to get the phone number for the guy who can help with the passes. My old number was busy, Nicole wasn’t in her office… I couldn’t remember anyone else’s number. Finally, I wrote to Courtney and called her and when I asked for the phone number, she started scolding me! She wanted to watch the cat… I forgot that she lives around the corner and down the street from Sara and I.
So that was very nice of Courtney. It was extremely nice of her, and I double-tripple asked if she really wouldn’t mind - because Sara’s going to be gone for a month. Courtney said, “That’s what friends do when you’re gone.” Okay. So she helped restore my faith in humanity. I’ll try to reciprocate the favor when I return.
Let’s see if the internet is up yet. Nope.
Nope.
Yep!
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Two funny words
Over the past days or weeks, I’ve heard a couple of funny words that I’d like to share with you. If I offend, then I apologize in advance.
“Muffin Top” – At first this word confused me. Rather it’s usage confused me. I’ve seen the Seinfeld episode about muffin tops. It’s generally accepted that the muffin top part of the muffin is the better part of the muffin. Katrina only buys the muffin tops. However, the way I’ve heard is used here is different. A Muffin Top is the name of the roll of fat that can be seen when a woman wears her pants tight, and also wears a tight shirt. The roll of fat sticks out over the top of her pants, and can clearly be seen due to the tightness of her shirt, and the roll looks remarkably like the top of a muffin sticking out over the edge of the cylindrical portion of the muffin.
Let me also say that men DO NOT use this word in conversation. It is 98% exclusive to women talking to other women about other women. “Did you see that shirt she was wearing?” “That girl needs to put on something different and put down that sandwich. That Muffin Top is sick!”
The second word is “Manscaping” – As soon as I heard it used in context I knew what they meant. Manscaping has nothing to go with actual gardening, or taking care of the grass, trees, and hedges, and mulch around your house. However, the guy taking care of all that stuff, might also have manscaping done. Manscaping is the term used for when men have their body hair (arm, leg, back, chest, whatever) cut, trimmed, shaved, or sculpted. Generally manscaping is done for mostly aesthetic reasons. Maybe they want to get rid of that unsightly back hair. Or have a perfectly trimmed Magnum P.I. (Tom Selleck circa 1986) chest hair cut.
This word can be used by either men or women.
Woman – “Did you know that spa around the corner also does manscaping? Take care of your back.”
Or a man, “I walked in on my roommate while he was manscaping himself.”
“You mean...?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude... Sorry.”
And now for something completely different.
It’s getting hot here. It’s supposed to be in the eighties all week long. Then the wind blows, it’s just hot wind. It’s not pleasant at all. We also have been invaded by flies. Lots of flies. And we have two types of flies. The first type is the standard smallish fly that just buzzes around and tries to land in your food and ruin your picnic. The second type is the big, black, hairy fly that sounds like a little airplane. The kind of fly that Tuffy used to catch on the screen and eat.
But the big flies that we have here are fearless.
When we were at the gym today I was on my back with a weight right over my face and one of these big flied landed right on my nose. I was huffing and trying to blow that damn thing off and I’m glad that I had Keith spotting me because he saw the fly and was ready to grab the weight out of my hand before I hurt myself. I’m not sure where all these flies came from all of a sudden. It was just like one day they were here.
I had a ‘eureka’ moment this evening about one of the projects that I’m working on that’s been bothering me. It’s one of the bigger projects that I’ve got on my place, but it’s not a hot priority. So I’ve been ignoring it. But when I was on the elliptical after work, I must have been thinking about it sub-consciously because the answer just popped into my head about how to take it apart and put rearrange it so it made sense to me and everyone else. The engineers that put this project together didn’t give me much to work with. It’s like trying to describe how to drive a car by explaining what each part does rather than focusing on the gas, break, and the steering wheel. I don’t need to know HOW the dual-overhead cam works. And neither does most of the customers. Anyway, I think I can get that project off of my desk in two days now.
And it’s time for me to wrap this up as well.
“Muffin Top” – At first this word confused me. Rather it’s usage confused me. I’ve seen the Seinfeld episode about muffin tops. It’s generally accepted that the muffin top part of the muffin is the better part of the muffin. Katrina only buys the muffin tops. However, the way I’ve heard is used here is different. A Muffin Top is the name of the roll of fat that can be seen when a woman wears her pants tight, and also wears a tight shirt. The roll of fat sticks out over the top of her pants, and can clearly be seen due to the tightness of her shirt, and the roll looks remarkably like the top of a muffin sticking out over the edge of the cylindrical portion of the muffin.
Let me also say that men DO NOT use this word in conversation. It is 98% exclusive to women talking to other women about other women. “Did you see that shirt she was wearing?” “That girl needs to put on something different and put down that sandwich. That Muffin Top is sick!”
The second word is “Manscaping” – As soon as I heard it used in context I knew what they meant. Manscaping has nothing to go with actual gardening, or taking care of the grass, trees, and hedges, and mulch around your house. However, the guy taking care of all that stuff, might also have manscaping done. Manscaping is the term used for when men have their body hair (arm, leg, back, chest, whatever) cut, trimmed, shaved, or sculpted. Generally manscaping is done for mostly aesthetic reasons. Maybe they want to get rid of that unsightly back hair. Or have a perfectly trimmed Magnum P.I. (Tom Selleck circa 1986) chest hair cut.
This word can be used by either men or women.
Woman – “Did you know that spa around the corner also does manscaping? Take care of your back.”
Or a man, “I walked in on my roommate while he was manscaping himself.”
“You mean...?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude... Sorry.”
And now for something completely different.
It’s getting hot here. It’s supposed to be in the eighties all week long. Then the wind blows, it’s just hot wind. It’s not pleasant at all. We also have been invaded by flies. Lots of flies. And we have two types of flies. The first type is the standard smallish fly that just buzzes around and tries to land in your food and ruin your picnic. The second type is the big, black, hairy fly that sounds like a little airplane. The kind of fly that Tuffy used to catch on the screen and eat.
But the big flies that we have here are fearless.
When we were at the gym today I was on my back with a weight right over my face and one of these big flied landed right on my nose. I was huffing and trying to blow that damn thing off and I’m glad that I had Keith spotting me because he saw the fly and was ready to grab the weight out of my hand before I hurt myself. I’m not sure where all these flies came from all of a sudden. It was just like one day they were here.
I had a ‘eureka’ moment this evening about one of the projects that I’m working on that’s been bothering me. It’s one of the bigger projects that I’ve got on my place, but it’s not a hot priority. So I’ve been ignoring it. But when I was on the elliptical after work, I must have been thinking about it sub-consciously because the answer just popped into my head about how to take it apart and put rearrange it so it made sense to me and everyone else. The engineers that put this project together didn’t give me much to work with. It’s like trying to describe how to drive a car by explaining what each part does rather than focusing on the gas, break, and the steering wheel. I don’t need to know HOW the dual-overhead cam works. And neither does most of the customers. Anyway, I think I can get that project off of my desk in two days now.
And it’s time for me to wrap this up as well.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Another Rough Day
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE54E4E920090520
Mike, Ashley, Keith, and I went Shawn and Rosalyn’s memorial service yesterday. That was rough. But the ceremony was very well done. They had a Rabbi there to give a traditional prayer for funerals in Yiddish (they were both Jewish). That was kind of cool. After Taps was played, I was kind of expecting to hear the bagpipes and Amazing Grace. And that got me thinking… since I’ve never been to a Jewish funeral before, do they play Amazing Grace? Something tells me no. I’m totally ignorant on how appropriate that would be. It’s kind of a military tradition (and fire fighters and law enforcement), but not a tradition for the Jewish faith. I’ll have to ask someone tomorrow.
And we received word that there were two more sometime today. Very similar scenario. Not all of the details are in yet, but I’m sure that you’ll see them about the same time I will. Twice in one week. That’s not supposed to happen. Something else you all might see in the news would be more heads rolling for lack of V-hull vehicles.
I hit my sixty day mark today. That means that tomorrow, and every day afterwards, will be the start of less than two months left. There’s something psychological about (1) the half way point, (2) being in the double digits, and (3) less than sixty days.
I mailed another package home today. This one had a blanked for Liam. On two other trips I brought home blankets. One for Rebecca and one for Sara and I. This blanket has a big polar bear on it.
You know what I hate? When you have to stand in line somewhere and there's a long line. And it moves slowly. But by the time you get to the front, you're the only one in line. And then some joker come up behind you and says something like, "Yay! There's no line!" That happened to me today at the mail room. I wanted to scream.
Now that I’ve been here for as long as I have, I don’t know what to write about anymore. I think you all must be tired of hearing about me going to the gym, the crappy food, the lack of rain… it is getting hotter here (thank goodness for he air conditioning. Everything that I’ve written about before were milestones or something that probably happened for the first time. I’m feeling like I’m repeating myself. It’s also really hard to write while beating around the bush all the time.
I think I have some sort of writer’s block and I need to do something to see things differently. I’m going to google writer’s block tonight.
Mike, Ashley, Keith, and I went Shawn and Rosalyn’s memorial service yesterday. That was rough. But the ceremony was very well done. They had a Rabbi there to give a traditional prayer for funerals in Yiddish (they were both Jewish). That was kind of cool. After Taps was played, I was kind of expecting to hear the bagpipes and Amazing Grace. And that got me thinking… since I’ve never been to a Jewish funeral before, do they play Amazing Grace? Something tells me no. I’m totally ignorant on how appropriate that would be. It’s kind of a military tradition (and fire fighters and law enforcement), but not a tradition for the Jewish faith. I’ll have to ask someone tomorrow.
And we received word that there were two more sometime today. Very similar scenario. Not all of the details are in yet, but I’m sure that you’ll see them about the same time I will. Twice in one week. That’s not supposed to happen. Something else you all might see in the news would be more heads rolling for lack of V-hull vehicles.
I hit my sixty day mark today. That means that tomorrow, and every day afterwards, will be the start of less than two months left. There’s something psychological about (1) the half way point, (2) being in the double digits, and (3) less than sixty days.
I mailed another package home today. This one had a blanked for Liam. On two other trips I brought home blankets. One for Rebecca and one for Sara and I. This blanket has a big polar bear on it.
You know what I hate? When you have to stand in line somewhere and there's a long line. And it moves slowly. But by the time you get to the front, you're the only one in line. And then some joker come up behind you and says something like, "Yay! There's no line!" That happened to me today at the mail room. I wanted to scream.
Now that I’ve been here for as long as I have, I don’t know what to write about anymore. I think you all must be tired of hearing about me going to the gym, the crappy food, the lack of rain… it is getting hotter here (thank goodness for he air conditioning. Everything that I’ve written about before were milestones or something that probably happened for the first time. I’m feeling like I’m repeating myself. It’s also really hard to write while beating around the bush all the time.
I think I have some sort of writer’s block and I need to do something to see things differently. I’m going to google writer’s block tonight.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day
Today is Memorial Day and I’d like to tell you about my friend Jason Faley. As you all know, I used to be in the Army. I met Jay when I was in Korea. He was an Air Force guy living in our Army Camp. At first I didn’t know why and I don’t think anyone really cared. Jay quickly became part of our little clique. He was fun to be around, dependable, he was cocky and he had a sense of self-depreciating humor, and he had a funny laugh.
Our little group consisted of Me, Dave, Jay, Greg, Malissa, Chere, and Michael C. We all got to Korea within a month or two of each other, so we knew we’d have each other though our time there. I was one of the first ones to leave and of course I gave the “if you’re ever in Clarksville, you’ll have a place to stay” speech. I meant it, but no one really thinks that someone is going to call in that favor.
A few months later, I’m sitting in my living room and there was a knock on the door. Jay was standing there with a big, goofy grin, and these UGLY metallic orange Oakley sunglasses. At first I couldn’t see past the ugly sunglasses, but there was my buddy – Jay. I invited him in and he told me that he was getting stationed in Kentucky also. He only stayed a night or two before his apartment was ready. But he wanted to surprise me. Yeah, I was surprised all right.
Over the course of the next two years, everyone but Michael C. ended up staying at my apartment once or twice. Sometimes longer… But Jay was always part of the scene. He was a wild man who loved to have a good time and was always there to help. He always had a sexy girlfriend who never seemed to stick around for too long. No one thought that Jay would settle down.
Sometimes we’d all go down to Nashville to a couple of the clubs. Jay would normally be the designated driver, because he just loved being the designated driver. He has a black Volkswagen Golf. It was either a GT or Turbo (I don’t remember), but he would drive insanely fast to and from Nashville while the rest of us in the car would beg him to slow down. Jay was a livin’ on the edge kind of a guy.
Jay was really gung-ho. Even though he was in the Air Force, he always worked with the Army. He was a Forward Air Controller, TAC-P, ROMAD… whatever you wanted to call it. He was the scary son of a gun sitting behind a rockpile, talking on the radio to an A-10 pilot and calling in air strikes down on the bad guys. And while he’s doing this – he has to be close enough to the bad guys to SEE the bad guys; and that means that he’s close enough for them to see him.
Jay was also the first to volunteer to help if you needed someone to help you move, paint some walls, watch your cats or dogs. And he never needed to be asked. The conversation would go something like this:
Jay: Hey! Do you want to go rock climbing on Saturday?
Me: I’m going to help Jon and Cathy move to their new place. (Jay didn’t know Jon and Cathy because I worked with Jon.)
Jay: I’ll help! What time on Saturday?
And before noon on Saturday, Jon and Cathy would be new best friends with Jay.
Right before I got out of the service, I met Shannon, another one of Jay’s girlfriends. And this girl was something totally different for Jay. She was very beautiful, really smart, and she totally had him under her spell. I only met her two or three times before I left Tennessee.
While I was going to college in California, I only heard from Jay once or twice a year. Jay and Shannon got married. A year or so later, they had a baby boy named Jason Andrew. We started to lose touch due to distance, job and family responsibilities… These things happen.
My buddy Dave’s wife called sometime in March 2001. Jason was killed in Kuwait. He and a group of FACs were in an observation post at Udari Range. Jay wasn’t calling in the strike, and the pilot was coming in at the wrong angle, and the pilot dropped the bomb before being cleared “hot”.
Jay’s son was one year old. It was my senior year of college and I was getting ready for finals. I couldn’t afford the airfare. I didn’t go to his funeral.
Jay was a patriot. He loved America and he loved the Air Force. He totally dug his job and if you asked him about it, he’d yap and yap about it for hours.
But he didn’t see his son learn to walk or see him off on his first day of school. He wasn’t able to teach him how to ride a bike or hit a baseball. I hope Shannon fills Jason Andrew’s head with all the stories about how great his dad was. Someday I’d like to meet Jason Andrew when he’s a little older and tell him what a great man his father was.
http://www.romad.com/finaljumper/faley.htm
That’s my Memorial Day story.
Our little group consisted of Me, Dave, Jay, Greg, Malissa, Chere, and Michael C. We all got to Korea within a month or two of each other, so we knew we’d have each other though our time there. I was one of the first ones to leave and of course I gave the “if you’re ever in Clarksville, you’ll have a place to stay” speech. I meant it, but no one really thinks that someone is going to call in that favor.
A few months later, I’m sitting in my living room and there was a knock on the door. Jay was standing there with a big, goofy grin, and these UGLY metallic orange Oakley sunglasses. At first I couldn’t see past the ugly sunglasses, but there was my buddy – Jay. I invited him in and he told me that he was getting stationed in Kentucky also. He only stayed a night or two before his apartment was ready. But he wanted to surprise me. Yeah, I was surprised all right.
Over the course of the next two years, everyone but Michael C. ended up staying at my apartment once or twice. Sometimes longer… But Jay was always part of the scene. He was a wild man who loved to have a good time and was always there to help. He always had a sexy girlfriend who never seemed to stick around for too long. No one thought that Jay would settle down.
Sometimes we’d all go down to Nashville to a couple of the clubs. Jay would normally be the designated driver, because he just loved being the designated driver. He has a black Volkswagen Golf. It was either a GT or Turbo (I don’t remember), but he would drive insanely fast to and from Nashville while the rest of us in the car would beg him to slow down. Jay was a livin’ on the edge kind of a guy.
Jay was really gung-ho. Even though he was in the Air Force, he always worked with the Army. He was a Forward Air Controller, TAC-P, ROMAD… whatever you wanted to call it. He was the scary son of a gun sitting behind a rockpile, talking on the radio to an A-10 pilot and calling in air strikes down on the bad guys. And while he’s doing this – he has to be close enough to the bad guys to SEE the bad guys; and that means that he’s close enough for them to see him.
Jay was also the first to volunteer to help if you needed someone to help you move, paint some walls, watch your cats or dogs. And he never needed to be asked. The conversation would go something like this:
Jay: Hey! Do you want to go rock climbing on Saturday?
Me: I’m going to help Jon and Cathy move to their new place. (Jay didn’t know Jon and Cathy because I worked with Jon.)
Jay: I’ll help! What time on Saturday?
And before noon on Saturday, Jon and Cathy would be new best friends with Jay.
Right before I got out of the service, I met Shannon, another one of Jay’s girlfriends. And this girl was something totally different for Jay. She was very beautiful, really smart, and she totally had him under her spell. I only met her two or three times before I left Tennessee.
While I was going to college in California, I only heard from Jay once or twice a year. Jay and Shannon got married. A year or so later, they had a baby boy named Jason Andrew. We started to lose touch due to distance, job and family responsibilities… These things happen.
My buddy Dave’s wife called sometime in March 2001. Jason was killed in Kuwait. He and a group of FACs were in an observation post at Udari Range. Jay wasn’t calling in the strike, and the pilot was coming in at the wrong angle, and the pilot dropped the bomb before being cleared “hot”.
Jay’s son was one year old. It was my senior year of college and I was getting ready for finals. I couldn’t afford the airfare. I didn’t go to his funeral.
Jay was a patriot. He loved America and he loved the Air Force. He totally dug his job and if you asked him about it, he’d yap and yap about it for hours.
But he didn’t see his son learn to walk or see him off on his first day of school. He wasn’t able to teach him how to ride a bike or hit a baseball. I hope Shannon fills Jason Andrew’s head with all the stories about how great his dad was. Someday I’d like to meet Jason Andrew when he’s a little older and tell him what a great man his father was.
http://www.romad.com/finaljumper/faley.htm
That’s my Memorial Day story.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Lost for words
I don’t even know where to begin for tonight. Not that I didn’t do anything, but I actually did a lot, but I didn’t think about most of it.
I woke up a little after five, I guess. I would have liked to have slept in, but I had a breakfast “meeting” that I had to attend. I was trying to be quiet around the apartment, since it was Sunday and Sean was sleeping in. It’s been kind of nice with only two of us sharing the apartment. Except for when Sean gets in from work, we mostly keep to ourselves.
Anyway, I caught the 5.45 shuttle bus over to Eggersville to where the meeting was at. This was the first time I’ve ever been there before, so I got there a little early to walk around and see what was up. Eggersville is just a little bigger than Kissimmee, but there is about four times the amount of people. I went to the eatery we were supposed to meet at and found my table. I ordered my breakfast and was very happy with the fresh fruit that they had.
Eventually, Senator Tom Carper and his little entourage showed up to eat and meet. There were four of us from Delaware to meet with Sen Carper, but (as it turns out) only one of us was really from Delaware (me). His aide wanted to take a picture of me and the Senator, and you should have seen their eyes pop out of their heads when I pulled my big Delaware flag out of my pocket.
As we sat down, his aide (“staffer” I should say) said that she had something for us and pulled out her bag. She started handing out little bags of Dolle’s salt water taffy. I jokingly said (in a disappointed tone), “Oh. I thought you brought us scrapple…” Then we all laughed. The Senator sat and talked with us for about 30-40 minutes about the economy, what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he and I talked about Delaware and families and stuff. It was quite a nice meeting.
I had an hour and some change to kill before catching the shuttle back to Kissimmee, so I found a nice sunny spot and sat and watched people walk by. It’s kind of funny how, when you live in a small enclosed environment, how the people you see every day become “invisible” and are just part of the environment. However, when you are somewhere new, every different person/face that you see actually seems alien to your eyes. For two and a half hours, I didn’t see one familiar face; whereas every other day of my life I see the same three-hundred-and-some all day.
But it’s nice living in Kissimmee and knowing everyone. When a new person shows up, we’re all like “did you see the new person working in ____?” Like we’re totally fascinated by the new fish living in our fishtank. I’m lucky to have gotten here when it was still very new and hardly anyone living here. I’ve been here two months and I’m already an old timer.
I have a coffee mug that has a removable bottom from Starbucks. Sara actually got it for Christmas, but since my big, blue travel mug broke a few months before I left Dover, I snagged this new mug. Anyway, the bottom of the mug comes off and you can put pictures inside your mug for display. I’ve been using this mug for four months and haven’t taken the original liner out and put my own pictures in. About once a week someone picks the mug up and looks at the pictures and asks if those are my kids or my dog, and I answer and say that those were the pictures that came with the mug.
Sara sent some pictures of her and the kids yesterday when they returned from the pool. So I figured it was about time to print a bunch of pictures out and finally customize my mug. That ate up an hour of my day. But I finally have pictures of Sara and the kids in/on my mug.
I fixed and re-fixed my power point slides. After dinner I went to church and listened to our new preacher. It was a nice message about memorial stones and he tied it in to Memorial Day. It was actually very nice. And that got me thinking about Memorial Day and I’m missing Rick and Judy’s BBQ. Dang.
I woke up a little after five, I guess. I would have liked to have slept in, but I had a breakfast “meeting” that I had to attend. I was trying to be quiet around the apartment, since it was Sunday and Sean was sleeping in. It’s been kind of nice with only two of us sharing the apartment. Except for when Sean gets in from work, we mostly keep to ourselves.
Anyway, I caught the 5.45 shuttle bus over to Eggersville to where the meeting was at. This was the first time I’ve ever been there before, so I got there a little early to walk around and see what was up. Eggersville is just a little bigger than Kissimmee, but there is about four times the amount of people. I went to the eatery we were supposed to meet at and found my table. I ordered my breakfast and was very happy with the fresh fruit that they had.
Eventually, Senator Tom Carper and his little entourage showed up to eat and meet. There were four of us from Delaware to meet with Sen Carper, but (as it turns out) only one of us was really from Delaware (me). His aide wanted to take a picture of me and the Senator, and you should have seen their eyes pop out of their heads when I pulled my big Delaware flag out of my pocket.
As we sat down, his aide (“staffer” I should say) said that she had something for us and pulled out her bag. She started handing out little bags of Dolle’s salt water taffy. I jokingly said (in a disappointed tone), “Oh. I thought you brought us scrapple…” Then we all laughed. The Senator sat and talked with us for about 30-40 minutes about the economy, what’s going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he and I talked about Delaware and families and stuff. It was quite a nice meeting.
I had an hour and some change to kill before catching the shuttle back to Kissimmee, so I found a nice sunny spot and sat and watched people walk by. It’s kind of funny how, when you live in a small enclosed environment, how the people you see every day become “invisible” and are just part of the environment. However, when you are somewhere new, every different person/face that you see actually seems alien to your eyes. For two and a half hours, I didn’t see one familiar face; whereas every other day of my life I see the same three-hundred-and-some all day.
But it’s nice living in Kissimmee and knowing everyone. When a new person shows up, we’re all like “did you see the new person working in ____?” Like we’re totally fascinated by the new fish living in our fishtank. I’m lucky to have gotten here when it was still very new and hardly anyone living here. I’ve been here two months and I’m already an old timer.
I have a coffee mug that has a removable bottom from Starbucks. Sara actually got it for Christmas, but since my big, blue travel mug broke a few months before I left Dover, I snagged this new mug. Anyway, the bottom of the mug comes off and you can put pictures inside your mug for display. I’ve been using this mug for four months and haven’t taken the original liner out and put my own pictures in. About once a week someone picks the mug up and looks at the pictures and asks if those are my kids or my dog, and I answer and say that those were the pictures that came with the mug.
Sara sent some pictures of her and the kids yesterday when they returned from the pool. So I figured it was about time to print a bunch of pictures out and finally customize my mug. That ate up an hour of my day. But I finally have pictures of Sara and the kids in/on my mug.
I fixed and re-fixed my power point slides. After dinner I went to church and listened to our new preacher. It was a nice message about memorial stones and he tied it in to Memorial Day. It was actually very nice. And that got me thinking about Memorial Day and I’m missing Rick and Judy’s BBQ. Dang.
Late for work
Tomorrow, I’m going to have to take a trip and buy a new alarm clock. I didn’t wake up until 15 minutes before I was supposed to be at work. Evidential, I got up when my alarm went off and turned it off, and I put it down someplace different than I had put it when I went to bed. It’s just not working out between the two of us. What can I say? It’s not you, little clock. It’s me.
So I rolled into work thirty minutes late. No one noticed. Work wasn’t nearly as hectic as I thought it would be. I’ll have to see what tomorrow brings. I got all of my slides for tomorrow night completed. And I waited until the end of the evening to turn them in for review. I figured if I turned them in too early, I would have had to just change them one extra time.
Movie night was tonight. We watched the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. In my opinion, it was better than Casio Royale. Though I was the only one who seemed to think so.
I got my Notice to Move on Thursday and like I had mentioned before, poor Sara wasn’t included. I did receive a corrected copy in my e-mail that included her. Yay! I get to take my wife now!
Now that we’ve received the NtM, Sara and I have a renewed interest in looking for houses. And since I’ve talked to the guy I’m replacing, he’s given us some new pointers of places to look for houses. So Sara and I are looking at different areas in the Tacoma/Olympia area for houses. She’s actually found some houses that I like better than we’ve seen before. It’s kind of unusual to look for houses and take the school districts under consideration.
Well, let’s see if blogger is working tonight…
----
It sure is!
So I rolled into work thirty minutes late. No one noticed. Work wasn’t nearly as hectic as I thought it would be. I’ll have to see what tomorrow brings. I got all of my slides for tomorrow night completed. And I waited until the end of the evening to turn them in for review. I figured if I turned them in too early, I would have had to just change them one extra time.
Movie night was tonight. We watched the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. In my opinion, it was better than Casio Royale. Though I was the only one who seemed to think so.
I got my Notice to Move on Thursday and like I had mentioned before, poor Sara wasn’t included. I did receive a corrected copy in my e-mail that included her. Yay! I get to take my wife now!
Now that we’ve received the NtM, Sara and I have a renewed interest in looking for houses. And since I’ve talked to the guy I’m replacing, he’s given us some new pointers of places to look for houses. So Sara and I are looking at different areas in the Tacoma/Olympia area for houses. She’s actually found some houses that I like better than we’ve seen before. It’s kind of unusual to look for houses and take the school districts under consideration.
Well, let’s see if blogger is working tonight…
----
It sure is!
Pedometer (Friday)
Dog gone it. I forgot to wear my pedometer today. I wore it to the gym and took it off when I showered and just forgot wo clip it onto my belt. Oh well. I’ve been really good so far about remembering to wear it.
My joints are really bothering me. Especially my shoulders, elbows, and wrists. After talking to Keith and Mike, I’m going to take a few days off from lifting weights. I might be straining my joints and don’t want to hurt myself. Though I’ll still use the elliptical machine or something for cardio.
Earlier today I was pretty hungry. Well, that’s putting it mildly. I was STARVING. I had received some trail mix in a care package a few days ago and it was calling my name. It wasn’t that big of a bag, so I poured it into a bowl and snacked on it while I worked. I wasn’t paying that much attention, but I accidentally ate the whole bag. Well, let’s not call it “accidentally”, but rather “inadvertently” ate the whole bag. I’ll not do that again. Too much fiber.
For some reason blogger.com hasn’t worked for me yesterday or today. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I hope it works tonight.
---------
Nope. Not last night. Not tonight either.
My joints are really bothering me. Especially my shoulders, elbows, and wrists. After talking to Keith and Mike, I’m going to take a few days off from lifting weights. I might be straining my joints and don’t want to hurt myself. Though I’ll still use the elliptical machine or something for cardio.
Earlier today I was pretty hungry. Well, that’s putting it mildly. I was STARVING. I had received some trail mix in a care package a few days ago and it was calling my name. It wasn’t that big of a bag, so I poured it into a bowl and snacked on it while I worked. I wasn’t paying that much attention, but I accidentally ate the whole bag. Well, let’s not call it “accidentally”, but rather “inadvertently” ate the whole bag. I’ll not do that again. Too much fiber.
For some reason blogger.com hasn’t worked for me yesterday or today. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but I hope it works tonight.
---------
Nope. Not last night. Not tonight either.
Pillow (Thursday)
I got my “Notice to Move” notice in my e-mail today. So I guess it’s official that the kids and I will be going to Washington. But for some strange reason, Sara’s name is not on the notice. So either (1) she’s got to stay in Dover, (2) she’ll have to find her own way to Washington, or (3) I’ll have to have her name added on to my Notice. After carefully weighing all three options, I called my human resources folks and asked why my wife’s name wasn’t on my Notice. And I asked for her name to be put on. I’m sure it was just an oversite on the HR Dept.
And the added bonus was that my two week extension (Dover) was approved. So I’ll be able to take my time when Sara and I are packing up and moving out. It would have been a huge, huge rush without those two weeks.
I know that the mattress in my apartment is awful, and I think that I might have mentioned it before. But I think that I need to get on Amazon tomorrow and buy a new pillow. I’ve had a sore neck and shoulder problems for the past few days. And some of those wake-up-and-your-arm-is-completely-numb episodes. Not fun for me.
Work was work. Chip is still away at his conference. Mike and I are moving his office tomorrow I think. We’re moving him in with us. Since we’re organizing our offices by function, Chip needs to move in with us. Ashley moved out a week or so ago, so Mike and I have had the office to ourselves.
I think I’ve figured out that with Chip gone, Saturday through Monday are the super-duper busy days. It starts to ramp up on Friday, but the weekends are slammed. We have a lot of info due on Tuesday and the three days that lead up to Tuesday are killer.
I don’t know if it would be any better or any worse If I had my two big reports due on different days of the week instead of on the same day. I don’t think it would be any better.
And the added bonus was that my two week extension (Dover) was approved. So I’ll be able to take my time when Sara and I are packing up and moving out. It would have been a huge, huge rush without those two weeks.
I know that the mattress in my apartment is awful, and I think that I might have mentioned it before. But I think that I need to get on Amazon tomorrow and buy a new pillow. I’ve had a sore neck and shoulder problems for the past few days. And some of those wake-up-and-your-arm-is-completely-numb episodes. Not fun for me.
Work was work. Chip is still away at his conference. Mike and I are moving his office tomorrow I think. We’re moving him in with us. Since we’re organizing our offices by function, Chip needs to move in with us. Ashley moved out a week or so ago, so Mike and I have had the office to ourselves.
I think I’ve figured out that with Chip gone, Saturday through Monday are the super-duper busy days. It starts to ramp up on Friday, but the weekends are slammed. We have a lot of info due on Tuesday and the three days that lead up to Tuesday are killer.
I don’t know if it would be any better or any worse If I had my two big reports due on different days of the week instead of on the same day. I don’t think it would be any better.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
A day in the life
So this morning I got up and pu ton my gym clothes. It was a little after five I guess. I felt pretty good since I got a solid seven hours of sleep. I must have really been chomping last night or grinding my teeth because my mouth guard seemed like it was glued to my teeth. I don’t know what it is about that thing, but sleeping with that thing makes me really thirsty. Maybe I’m sleeping with my mouth open or something and it’s drying out my tongue. I chugged a bottle of water and headed out for the gym.
It’s already daylight at five fifteen and I think the temperature is somewhere in the sixties. It feels pretty nice. Our gym is kind of small and we only have three elliptical machines and no treadmills. There are maybe twelve to fifteen freeweight stations and a couple of guided weight machines. There are two open elliptical machines and I so I grab a bottle of water and a small towel and get on one of the machines. Around five thirty the gym starts to really get busy. As a courtesy, if someone is waiting to use one of the elliptical machines, then the unwritten rule is to get off after you’ve been on for 30 minutes.
So I could tell that there were people waiting and I got off of my machine a little before six. Keith had come in a few minutes before hand and had started working on shoulders. SO I joined him and waited for Mike to finally roll on in. We worked on shoulders for about forty minutes of so and then we were finished. I was really feeling it. Keith and Mike left and I got back on an empty elliptical machine to go for a while longer.
When I didn’t feel like going anymore, I wiped my machine down and headed back to my apartment. Sean is a real stickler for locking the door, so I’m afraid that I’m going to be locked out. Not so afraid that I’ll take my key to the gym though. And when I got back to the apartment, I was kind of surprised to see that Sean hadn’t even gotten up yet. Well, I guess that means more hot water for me. Not that we’ve ever had a problem with running out of hot water, even when Shaun was here, but in my mind it’s best to get into the shower first.
After I cleaned up and got dressed I headed into the office. For breakfast I had a banana and a bowl of Special K. Not my favorite cereal, but that’s what I have stashed in the office. Mike has already made coffee, so I poured myself a big cup to have with my breakfast. Mike left for a while to take care of something and I was left in the office to read the news paper on-line with the quiet, desperate gurgle of the coffee pot to keep me company. The coffee pot is trying so hard to suck down the last of the water in the reservoir; it sounds like distant thunder. I finally turn the darn thing off just to put it out of its misery.
I wander over to Spence’s office and see the package that I turned in yesterday on his desk. It is evident that he hasn’t read it. No big surprise there. They can be pretty boring, so I nab it off of his desk for later. I go back to my office and run down my tasks of things to do. I still have five long tasks that I need to tackle. I pick two that I’m determined to accomplish today. One is a hot priority and one is definitely not a priority. But it’ll be relatively easy to knock out.
And the chance of it ever being approved and fulfilled are slim. But if I can get it done today, I’ll feel better crossing it off of my list. Besides, it’s not up to me to decide what gets approved and what doesn’t. My job is to just get my bit done.
So my next eight hours are a combination of reading, printing, researching, adding up numbers, adding them over again, making a couple of spreadsheets, editing, re-printing, stapling, re-editing, re-re-printing, re-stapling, and double checking. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we also eat lunch and dinner. I also sit down with Spence and give him the Reader’s Digest version of the Package that I took off of his desk earlier. He signed the cover sheet and I took it down to the next person who had to hack off on it.
After dinner, I finally finish up on the two packages. I nailed Spence down and brief him on the two packages that I’ve been working on all day. He seems kind of surprised that I have two more done, and he happily signs off on those packages. The next person on the staff sheet for these packages is an unusual guy who works down stairs. We call him “Too Cool” or TC for short. TC is ‘too cool’ for some of the rules around here. He’s also proud of his tan and his hair, and if you squint your eyes, he looks like Clint Eastwood circa 1978.
TC is pretty surprised to see me at his office and is really surprised to see that the two packages are done. I give him the postage stamp version of what they are about, but he already knows. He says something to me in French or Frenglish or Guinea… I don’t know. And then he gave me a hug. Like I said, he’s a weird dude. As long as he doesn’t try to kiss me, we’re good.
I headed back up to my office and looked at my computer for about 15 minutes. I don’t know why, I had no intention at all for doing any more work. I asked Mike what he was working on to see if he needed any help. Mike wasn’t working on anything either. He had to wait for Spence to come out of a meeting to talk to him about something. So I packed up my stuff and headed out the door.
Sean hadn’t made it back from work yet. I checked my e-mails and took another shower and sat down to write this entry.
That’s a day in the life of me.
It’s already daylight at five fifteen and I think the temperature is somewhere in the sixties. It feels pretty nice. Our gym is kind of small and we only have three elliptical machines and no treadmills. There are maybe twelve to fifteen freeweight stations and a couple of guided weight machines. There are two open elliptical machines and I so I grab a bottle of water and a small towel and get on one of the machines. Around five thirty the gym starts to really get busy. As a courtesy, if someone is waiting to use one of the elliptical machines, then the unwritten rule is to get off after you’ve been on for 30 minutes.
So I could tell that there were people waiting and I got off of my machine a little before six. Keith had come in a few minutes before hand and had started working on shoulders. SO I joined him and waited for Mike to finally roll on in. We worked on shoulders for about forty minutes of so and then we were finished. I was really feeling it. Keith and Mike left and I got back on an empty elliptical machine to go for a while longer.
When I didn’t feel like going anymore, I wiped my machine down and headed back to my apartment. Sean is a real stickler for locking the door, so I’m afraid that I’m going to be locked out. Not so afraid that I’ll take my key to the gym though. And when I got back to the apartment, I was kind of surprised to see that Sean hadn’t even gotten up yet. Well, I guess that means more hot water for me. Not that we’ve ever had a problem with running out of hot water, even when Shaun was here, but in my mind it’s best to get into the shower first.
After I cleaned up and got dressed I headed into the office. For breakfast I had a banana and a bowl of Special K. Not my favorite cereal, but that’s what I have stashed in the office. Mike has already made coffee, so I poured myself a big cup to have with my breakfast. Mike left for a while to take care of something and I was left in the office to read the news paper on-line with the quiet, desperate gurgle of the coffee pot to keep me company. The coffee pot is trying so hard to suck down the last of the water in the reservoir; it sounds like distant thunder. I finally turn the darn thing off just to put it out of its misery.
I wander over to Spence’s office and see the package that I turned in yesterday on his desk. It is evident that he hasn’t read it. No big surprise there. They can be pretty boring, so I nab it off of his desk for later. I go back to my office and run down my tasks of things to do. I still have five long tasks that I need to tackle. I pick two that I’m determined to accomplish today. One is a hot priority and one is definitely not a priority. But it’ll be relatively easy to knock out.
And the chance of it ever being approved and fulfilled are slim. But if I can get it done today, I’ll feel better crossing it off of my list. Besides, it’s not up to me to decide what gets approved and what doesn’t. My job is to just get my bit done.
So my next eight hours are a combination of reading, printing, researching, adding up numbers, adding them over again, making a couple of spreadsheets, editing, re-printing, stapling, re-editing, re-re-printing, re-stapling, and double checking. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we also eat lunch and dinner. I also sit down with Spence and give him the Reader’s Digest version of the Package that I took off of his desk earlier. He signed the cover sheet and I took it down to the next person who had to hack off on it.
After dinner, I finally finish up on the two packages. I nailed Spence down and brief him on the two packages that I’ve been working on all day. He seems kind of surprised that I have two more done, and he happily signs off on those packages. The next person on the staff sheet for these packages is an unusual guy who works down stairs. We call him “Too Cool” or TC for short. TC is ‘too cool’ for some of the rules around here. He’s also proud of his tan and his hair, and if you squint your eyes, he looks like Clint Eastwood circa 1978.
TC is pretty surprised to see me at his office and is really surprised to see that the two packages are done. I give him the postage stamp version of what they are about, but he already knows. He says something to me in French or Frenglish or Guinea… I don’t know. And then he gave me a hug. Like I said, he’s a weird dude. As long as he doesn’t try to kiss me, we’re good.
I headed back up to my office and looked at my computer for about 15 minutes. I don’t know why, I had no intention at all for doing any more work. I asked Mike what he was working on to see if he needed any help. Mike wasn’t working on anything either. He had to wait for Spence to come out of a meeting to talk to him about something. So I packed up my stuff and headed out the door.
Sean hadn’t made it back from work yet. I checked my e-mails and took another shower and sat down to write this entry.
That’s a day in the life of me.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Babysitting
We woke up a little early to go running this morning. The air was cool and the sun was shining and it wasn’t too humid. I forgot to mention last week that we saw some guy last week that was wearing running shorts and he was wearing them backwards. It HAD to have been a mistake. You don’t intentionally ware those shorts backwards. It looked ridiculous. We saw the same guy this morning, and he was wearing his shorts correctly. Unfortunately, as we were running the smog came in and the air started smelling like exhaust fumes.
We didn’t go very far, but we were a little bit late and we had to get into work to sit through a teleconference. Since Mike and I weren’t main players, we were quietly able to excuse ourselves about half way though and get back to real work and get stuff done. I was able to complete another package and get it staffing. And I got started on a second. Not many people came by to bother us today. I think Spence must have told the managers at his level to back off. Maybe it was just a slow day.
I miss all the great places to eat up in Boston. Our options are very limited and it seems like the quality of the food has gone down recently. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the influx of new folks, but there’s definitely something different.
Keith stopped by teh office this afternoon to chat. And while he was there, Sharon stopped by to ask a favor. She needed a babysitter for "no more than two hours" this evening. Her boss’s boss was going somewhere and they had an important meeting to attend. Since Spence was there when she asked, and he said we could go, we agreed to do it. It was supposed to be for an hour and a half, but it stretched to two and a half hours. It wasn’t her fault that it ran long, but I’m not going to volunteer anytime soon to help Sharon with her babysitting duties.
I’m so beat. I need to sleep.
We didn’t go very far, but we were a little bit late and we had to get into work to sit through a teleconference. Since Mike and I weren’t main players, we were quietly able to excuse ourselves about half way though and get back to real work and get stuff done. I was able to complete another package and get it staffing. And I got started on a second. Not many people came by to bother us today. I think Spence must have told the managers at his level to back off. Maybe it was just a slow day.
I miss all the great places to eat up in Boston. Our options are very limited and it seems like the quality of the food has gone down recently. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s the influx of new folks, but there’s definitely something different.
Keith stopped by teh office this afternoon to chat. And while he was there, Sharon stopped by to ask a favor. She needed a babysitter for "no more than two hours" this evening. Her boss’s boss was going somewhere and they had an important meeting to attend. Since Spence was there when she asked, and he said we could go, we agreed to do it. It was supposed to be for an hour and a half, but it stretched to two and a half hours. It wasn’t her fault that it ran long, but I’m not going to volunteer anytime soon to help Sharon with her babysitting duties.
I’m so beat. I need to sleep.
Monday, May 18, 2009
I’ve had it up to here.
I woke up this morning with a “We’re not gonna take it. NO! We ain’t gonna take it! We’re not gonna take it – anymoooooooore!” kind of an attitude. Actually, I was totally dragging @$$. But deep down inside I felt like Dee Snyder. Without the make up.
Mike also wasn’t feeling his chipper best when he got into work. I was wondering what crawled up his butt and died, but before I asked, I realized that I felt the same way. So all I said was, “you look like I feel.” That made us both laugh.
So I have this white board behind my desk. I wrote down all the tasks that I had to accomplish today in one column (short jobs), and packages that I haven’t even started in the second column (long jobs). I busted my butt all day and slowly knocked off about two thirds of my short jobs. No long jobs even started. I even added a project on the long job side.
Finally, at about four thirty-ish I grabbed my whiteboard and headed over to Spencer’s office. I gave him my “I’ve had it up to here” speech. I told him that some of these tasks were not going to happen and I needed to know what the glass balls were. I’ll drop the damn rubber balls all day, but I didn’t want to drop any glass balls. And I damn sure wasn’t about to kill myself and work 16 hours a day.
Spence’s response was something like this, “Mike, I’m your damn boss. If anyone else gets mad, then **** them. I’ve only got two guys (me and Mike) who do what you do. You’re doing good, and you keep doing what you’re doing. If anyone want to say something, I’ll tell them where to stick it.”
We outlined my top four priorities, I hung my whiteboard back up, and we went to the gym. It was ‘back’ day. Back and Biceps. Keith and Mike were already there, and so we joined them for a bit. After leaving the gym I felt a lot better. We went to get something to eat and all I wanted was a big salad. But something didn’t taste right, so I left discouraged.
After dinner, Mike asked how my meeting with Spence went and I told him what Spence told me and Mike laughed. Spence is very old school and, if there are no women present, his language can be very colorful. Then I told Mike that I was excused from the Monday mandatory manager’s training until further notice. Then Mike was kind of ticked that he wasn’t excused. And from what Keith and Mike told me, tonight's training especially suuuucked! Hehheh!
And I got a phone call from my new office in Washington! Jon, my future predecessor, has been with that company for three years. They travel more, but for much shorter periods of time. It sounds like it should be a more stable environment than what I’ve been used to. I can’t really get into it tonight, because I’m still digesting what he told me, but it sounds like a really nice job. In the past three years, he hasn’t been away from home for more than a month. And usually, it’s only two or three weeks at a time.
So over the next few months, Jon and I will be e-mailing and calling in order to get me ready to take over, when I get there, he’ll be in Iowa for a while and won’t be there to meet me. That was nice of him to reach out and find me.
Mike also wasn’t feeling his chipper best when he got into work. I was wondering what crawled up his butt and died, but before I asked, I realized that I felt the same way. So all I said was, “you look like I feel.” That made us both laugh.
So I have this white board behind my desk. I wrote down all the tasks that I had to accomplish today in one column (short jobs), and packages that I haven’t even started in the second column (long jobs). I busted my butt all day and slowly knocked off about two thirds of my short jobs. No long jobs even started. I even added a project on the long job side.
Finally, at about four thirty-ish I grabbed my whiteboard and headed over to Spencer’s office. I gave him my “I’ve had it up to here” speech. I told him that some of these tasks were not going to happen and I needed to know what the glass balls were. I’ll drop the damn rubber balls all day, but I didn’t want to drop any glass balls. And I damn sure wasn’t about to kill myself and work 16 hours a day.
Spence’s response was something like this, “Mike, I’m your damn boss. If anyone else gets mad, then **** them. I’ve only got two guys (me and Mike) who do what you do. You’re doing good, and you keep doing what you’re doing. If anyone want to say something, I’ll tell them where to stick it.”
We outlined my top four priorities, I hung my whiteboard back up, and we went to the gym. It was ‘back’ day. Back and Biceps. Keith and Mike were already there, and so we joined them for a bit. After leaving the gym I felt a lot better. We went to get something to eat and all I wanted was a big salad. But something didn’t taste right, so I left discouraged.
After dinner, Mike asked how my meeting with Spence went and I told him what Spence told me and Mike laughed. Spence is very old school and, if there are no women present, his language can be very colorful. Then I told Mike that I was excused from the Monday mandatory manager’s training until further notice. Then Mike was kind of ticked that he wasn’t excused. And from what Keith and Mike told me, tonight's training especially suuuucked! Hehheh!
And I got a phone call from my new office in Washington! Jon, my future predecessor, has been with that company for three years. They travel more, but for much shorter periods of time. It sounds like it should be a more stable environment than what I’ve been used to. I can’t really get into it tonight, because I’m still digesting what he told me, but it sounds like a really nice job. In the past three years, he hasn’t been away from home for more than a month. And usually, it’s only two or three weeks at a time.
So over the next few months, Jon and I will be e-mailing and calling in order to get me ready to take over, when I get there, he’ll be in Iowa for a while and won’t be there to meet me. That was nice of him to reach out and find me.
Pressure (Sunday's post)
The pressure certainly hasn’t let up. Last night I was just so exhausted that I chatted with Sara for a little bit and I crashed like a log. I feel kind of bad for skipping a day of my journal, but I’ve had it. I didn’t go to the gym, didn’t do anything but wake up, clean up, go to work, eat, work, eat, work… Okay, I did go to church, but besides that it was work work work.
We have a new preacher at church. Our old preacher was just filling in until the church could hire a new preacher. The old preacher was actually a doctor. Specifically, he was an anesthesiologist. So the joke at church was that it was okay if you fell asleep. He was used to it. (ba-dum-pshh!) Actually, he was/is a very good preacher.
We have a new preacher at church. Our old preacher was just filling in until the church could hire a new preacher. The old preacher was actually a doctor. Specifically, he was an anesthesiologist. So the joke at church was that it was okay if you fell asleep. He was used to it. (ba-dum-pshh!) Actually, he was/is a very good preacher.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
iTunes Joke
So last night, as I was writing my journal entry, iTunes sent me a message that said that there was a new version of iTunes available. Did I want to download the new version? I had ignored this message a few times before, and even though my iTunes was working fine, I hit the accept button. I think it took about an hour, more or less to download. Our internet isn’t too fast, but I guess that it worked. Until this evening.
It was my turn to pick a movie for movie night. I wanted to watch Fight Club. Before I left for Boston I copied a bunch of movies to my computer. And I copied them in whatever the format is that allows me to watch them on my iPod. So after dinner I headed back to my room to get my computer to bring to work. We have a really nice projector and we show the movie in the big conference room. Well, I tried to play the movie (just to make sure it worked), and I got an error message that I didn’t have iTunes on my computer anymore! Please install iTunes.
So as I type this, I’m downloading it again. I did have a dozen or so movies that I also had in some other format, so we ended up watching Vantage Point. Pretty good movie. If you liked Pulp Fiction, Memento, or Premonition, you’d like this movie as well.
Besides movie night, the day was extremely hectic. I’m so glad that I’m only here for six months. I have some coworkers that have one year “contracts” here and I don’t know if I could handle that. The pace is so relentless, that it’s like a meat grinder. One of Sean’s office mates turned in his resignation yesterday. A two week notice was mighty generous, I thought. If it wasn’t for contractual obligations, I think that half of the people would leave within a month.
And it’s not really because we have not enough people, but we have the wrong people doing these jobs. It’s like the company was so desperate to get people, they hired anyone and just assumed that they could learn another job. Regardless of what their training is, or what their degree is in. I wouldn’t recommend this place for anyone. If it wasn’t for Chip and Spencer and Mike and Keith… I don’t know what I’d do.
I was working straight through the afternoon putting together some slides and crunching my numbers; and even thought I was super-busy, I was feeling pretty good about it. Then I ran into a brick wall. I was stumped three ways to Wednesday. The only person I could ask was Chip, and he’s away at that conference. Since I was stuck, I went with everyone else to eat. The place we went had fish or prime rib as the specials. The smell of the fish was stinking up the place. Ug! And of course I had the prime rib. And it was awful! It was try and tasteless. And they didn’t even have that horseradish sauce. I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t.
Shaun is leaving here in a few days. He’s flying to Kansas for a day and then going back to his home office in Atlanta. It happened very quickly for him, and he’s pretty surprised at how well it’s going. So Sean and I will have the apartment to ourselves. Hopefully for a while. Except for the occasional person getting locked out, it’s a good room and we all get along.
It was my turn to pick a movie for movie night. I wanted to watch Fight Club. Before I left for Boston I copied a bunch of movies to my computer. And I copied them in whatever the format is that allows me to watch them on my iPod. So after dinner I headed back to my room to get my computer to bring to work. We have a really nice projector and we show the movie in the big conference room. Well, I tried to play the movie (just to make sure it worked), and I got an error message that I didn’t have iTunes on my computer anymore! Please install iTunes.
So as I type this, I’m downloading it again. I did have a dozen or so movies that I also had in some other format, so we ended up watching Vantage Point. Pretty good movie. If you liked Pulp Fiction, Memento, or Premonition, you’d like this movie as well.
Besides movie night, the day was extremely hectic. I’m so glad that I’m only here for six months. I have some coworkers that have one year “contracts” here and I don’t know if I could handle that. The pace is so relentless, that it’s like a meat grinder. One of Sean’s office mates turned in his resignation yesterday. A two week notice was mighty generous, I thought. If it wasn’t for contractual obligations, I think that half of the people would leave within a month.
And it’s not really because we have not enough people, but we have the wrong people doing these jobs. It’s like the company was so desperate to get people, they hired anyone and just assumed that they could learn another job. Regardless of what their training is, or what their degree is in. I wouldn’t recommend this place for anyone. If it wasn’t for Chip and Spencer and Mike and Keith… I don’t know what I’d do.
I was working straight through the afternoon putting together some slides and crunching my numbers; and even thought I was super-busy, I was feeling pretty good about it. Then I ran into a brick wall. I was stumped three ways to Wednesday. The only person I could ask was Chip, and he’s away at that conference. Since I was stuck, I went with everyone else to eat. The place we went had fish or prime rib as the specials. The smell of the fish was stinking up the place. Ug! And of course I had the prime rib. And it was awful! It was try and tasteless. And they didn’t even have that horseradish sauce. I couldn’t believe it. I really couldn’t.
Shaun is leaving here in a few days. He’s flying to Kansas for a day and then going back to his home office in Atlanta. It happened very quickly for him, and he’s pretty surprised at how well it’s going. So Sean and I will have the apartment to ourselves. Hopefully for a while. Except for the occasional person getting locked out, it’s a good room and we all get along.
Race Day
Today started out pretty good. I went to the gym and worked out with Mike, Keith, and Spencer. Funny thing was that when I got back to my apartment, Sean had locked me out. The funny thing is that Sean had locked Shaun out two weeks or so ago. So I walked over to work and looked around for Sean. After I found him, he gave me his keys and I headed back over and showered and got ready for work.
Back at work, things got busy really quick. It was like running a 2 mile race. But as you approached the finish line, you get told that it’s a 3 mile race. So you run a little more… only to find out it’s a 10K, then it’s longer and longer. I never felt like it was out of control, but I never got caught up.
It was the same way for Mike. But I finally quit for the day (at 11.00 pm) and Mike stayed behind to finish up. Though I don’t think that he’ll finish tonight. And there’ll be more in the morning.
Every time I thought I’d be about caught up, there would be something else.
I don’t know what else to add.
Back at work, things got busy really quick. It was like running a 2 mile race. But as you approached the finish line, you get told that it’s a 3 mile race. So you run a little more… only to find out it’s a 10K, then it’s longer and longer. I never felt like it was out of control, but I never got caught up.
It was the same way for Mike. But I finally quit for the day (at 11.00 pm) and Mike stayed behind to finish up. Though I don’t think that he’ll finish tonight. And there’ll be more in the morning.
Every time I thought I’d be about caught up, there would be something else.
I don’t know what else to add.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Space Out
I don’t know where to begin with today. I just had one of those not-very-motivated-to-do-much-today kind of days. After the last few days that I had, I justified that I deserved a day to kind of putz around and just take care of little stuff. Most of the morning I just sat at my desk and I just sorta spaced out. “Space out?” you might ask. “I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I'm working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too.”
Anyone? Anyone?
Actually, after lunch, I sat down with Spencer and got him caught up on the dozen or so projects that all popped up after he left for the conference. Mike also gave him a brief on the piece of the pie that he’s involved in. That took almost an hour. Then I sat and thought about what I could do for the rest of the afternoon. I was kind of sleepy, so I told Mike that I was going to take a nap. I think that Mike thought I was going to go back to my apartment, but I just leaned back in my chair and slept for about an hour. And when I woke up, I felt like a million bucks. I did get some stuff done after that, but it was most ly just ‘token work’. Like work to justify my existence.
A few days ago (Monday) I picked up a Snickers bar and I kept it on my shelves. I knew it would be dangerous to keep around. And I actually picked it up and held it in my hand a few times. But not today. I ate that bee-yotch and it was good. Mike walked in on me with it and gave me stern look and told me that I was going to have to pay for that this afternoon. Woop-de-doo. It was 280 colories and that's about 25 minutes at mid speed on the elliptical. I think Mike was ticked off, because he's a bigger snacker than I am. And since I ate some candy, so that means that his will-power will decrease by 50%. I'll figured I’d him eating something later in the afternoon. And he would blame it on me.
I was almost right. When Mike came back from dinner, I asked him what he had for dinner and he said that he had mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and tuna fish. Then he blamed my Snickers bar. Ha haha!
After work today I went to the gym and worked off my Snicker’s bar. I haven’t mentioned my pedometer lately, but I use it almost all the time. I’ve only forgotten it one time lately. I’m going to try to post my spreadsheet on this entry now.
Date Steps Comments
9-Mar-09 3,000 First day (didn't wear it until after the gym)
10-Mar-09 14,365 all day
11-Mar-09 9,926 forgot it in the morning
12-Mar-09 15,843 all day
13-Mar-09 5,477 No gym today
14-Mar-09 13,600 Gym day!
15-Mar-09 12,775 Gym day!
16-Mar-09 13,153 Gym day!
17-Mar-09 13,400
18-Mar-09 15,482
19-Mar-09 17,594
20-Mar-09 14,063
21-Mar-09 13,898
22-Mar-09 16,276
23-Mar-09 15,728
24-Mar-09 17,238
25-Mar-09 16,665
26-Mar-09 10,246 no gym
27-Mar-09 12,940
28-Mar-09 12,904
29-Mar-09 4,064 no gym
30-Mar-09 15,895
31-Mar-09 13,386
1-Apr-09 9,575
2-Apr-09 13,903
3-Apr-09 8,978
4-Apr-09 12,715
5-Apr-09 115 Forgot to wear my pedometer
6-Apr-09 15,164
7-Apr-09 14,212
8-Apr-09 11,588
9-Apr-09 9,102
10-Apr-09 15,325
11-Apr-09 9,274
12-Apr-09 12,621
13-Apr-09 14,685
14-Apr-09 16,214
15-Apr-09 18,196
16-Apr-09 4,499
17-Apr-09 12,818
18-Apr-09 15,289
19-Apr-09 13,087
20-Apr-09 4,278
21-Apr-09 14,449
22-Apr-09 8,308
23-Apr-09 16,380
24-Apr-09 14,713
25-Apr-09 11,512
26-Apr-09 12,796
27-Apr-09 13,657
28-Apr-09 4,667
29-Apr-09 26,819
30-Apr-09 18,082
1-May-09 22,275
2-May-09 7,941
3-May-09 12,915
4-May-09 0 didn't record that day
5-May-09 14,825
6-May-09 12,818
7-May-09 4,348
8-May-09 4,235
9-May-09 9,386
10-May-09 14,699
11-May-09 5,110 no gym recoup day
12-May-09 12,465
13-May-09 25,594
14-May-09 22,119
The first attempt was not good. I hope this one works better.
If not, I'll fix it tomorrow. Good night.
Anyone? Anyone?
Actually, after lunch, I sat down with Spencer and got him caught up on the dozen or so projects that all popped up after he left for the conference. Mike also gave him a brief on the piece of the pie that he’s involved in. That took almost an hour. Then I sat and thought about what I could do for the rest of the afternoon. I was kind of sleepy, so I told Mike that I was going to take a nap. I think that Mike thought I was going to go back to my apartment, but I just leaned back in my chair and slept for about an hour. And when I woke up, I felt like a million bucks. I did get some stuff done after that, but it was most ly just ‘token work’. Like work to justify my existence.
A few days ago (Monday) I picked up a Snickers bar and I kept it on my shelves. I knew it would be dangerous to keep around. And I actually picked it up and held it in my hand a few times. But not today. I ate that bee-yotch and it was good. Mike walked in on me with it and gave me stern look and told me that I was going to have to pay for that this afternoon. Woop-de-doo. It was 280 colories and that's about 25 minutes at mid speed on the elliptical. I think Mike was ticked off, because he's a bigger snacker than I am. And since I ate some candy, so that means that his will-power will decrease by 50%. I'll figured I’d him eating something later in the afternoon. And he would blame it on me.
I was almost right. When Mike came back from dinner, I asked him what he had for dinner and he said that he had mozzarella sticks, onion rings, and tuna fish. Then he blamed my Snickers bar. Ha haha!
After work today I went to the gym and worked off my Snicker’s bar. I haven’t mentioned my pedometer lately, but I use it almost all the time. I’ve only forgotten it one time lately. I’m going to try to post my spreadsheet on this entry now.
Date Steps Comments
9-Mar-09 3,000 First day (didn't wear it until after the gym)
10-Mar-09 14,365 all day
11-Mar-09 9,926 forgot it in the morning
12-Mar-09 15,843 all day
13-Mar-09 5,477 No gym today
14-Mar-09 13,600 Gym day!
15-Mar-09 12,775 Gym day!
16-Mar-09 13,153 Gym day!
17-Mar-09 13,400
18-Mar-09 15,482
19-Mar-09 17,594
20-Mar-09 14,063
21-Mar-09 13,898
22-Mar-09 16,276
23-Mar-09 15,728
24-Mar-09 17,238
25-Mar-09 16,665
26-Mar-09 10,246 no gym
27-Mar-09 12,940
28-Mar-09 12,904
29-Mar-09 4,064 no gym
30-Mar-09 15,895
31-Mar-09 13,386
1-Apr-09 9,575
2-Apr-09 13,903
3-Apr-09 8,978
4-Apr-09 12,715
5-Apr-09 115 Forgot to wear my pedometer
6-Apr-09 15,164
7-Apr-09 14,212
8-Apr-09 11,588
9-Apr-09 9,102
10-Apr-09 15,325
11-Apr-09 9,274
12-Apr-09 12,621
13-Apr-09 14,685
14-Apr-09 16,214
15-Apr-09 18,196
16-Apr-09 4,499
17-Apr-09 12,818
18-Apr-09 15,289
19-Apr-09 13,087
20-Apr-09 4,278
21-Apr-09 14,449
22-Apr-09 8,308
23-Apr-09 16,380
24-Apr-09 14,713
25-Apr-09 11,512
26-Apr-09 12,796
27-Apr-09 13,657
28-Apr-09 4,667
29-Apr-09 26,819
30-Apr-09 18,082
1-May-09 22,275
2-May-09 7,941
3-May-09 12,915
4-May-09 0 didn't record that day
5-May-09 14,825
6-May-09 12,818
7-May-09 4,348
8-May-09 4,235
9-May-09 9,386
10-May-09 14,699
11-May-09 5,110 no gym recoup day
12-May-09 12,465
13-May-09 25,594
14-May-09 22,119
The first attempt was not good. I hope this one works better.
If not, I'll fix it tomorrow. Good night.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Time
It's about time. After what seems like weeks and weeks, the internet is back on in our apartments. Considering how much the internet costs here, it's surprising that it took this long. What I mean is that even though we might be customers with no other internet company options, we still do have the choice of NOT buying the service. There are a lot of people always griping abd complaining about the service. I gripe right along with them, "Yeah! You should QUIT! Don't give them any more of your money! Show them you can do without them!" And the whole time, I'm thinking, "And if you stay off the internet, maybe it'll be faster for the rest of us.
Work was surprisingly smooth. There were a few minor emergencies, but it wasn't anything that Mike and I couldn't handle. Ash also came to the rescue. Spencer is getting back into the swing of things. I really think that he's surprised at how much the three of us have taken over our jobs. Granted, our jobs are here are remarkably similar to what we did when we lived in Boston. Oh well. It's fun having him back.
Every day there are more and more people moving into our neighborhood. It's really starting to get crowded at the eateries and when we're out and about. Not that we're out and about all that often. But when we're walking to work there are more bodies around.
And me and my buddies had our weekly little jog this morning. It was nothing spectacular, but we're starting to see the mountains turn green and brown. It probably got in the mid 70s today. I was out this afternoon when I was picking up my laundry and the sun felt so warm. Shaun was telling me that he went out to somewhere to help some his friends do some outdoor stuff. He arrived a few minutes early and sat under a tree to wait for everyone else. Well, he fell asleep and his buddies didn't see him and were cussing him out for not showing up. And he woke up as they were finishing, and that made them madder. At least before that, they thought he was stuck at work or something.
Speaking of work, has any of you seen in the news that my boss' boss' boss was fired? Ooooh! That certainly is causing quite a ruckus around here. I've never met the man, and I'm sure he's done a fantastic job, but the CEO is looking for fresh blood. I've never heard of the new guy.
But it is time for bed. Good night.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Rough
Yesterday was rough. I had that "behind the 8-ball" feeling all day. I'm all caught up and know what the plan is for the next few days. I knew when everything was going down that a lot of the action was being driven down from much higher levels and that Chip was stressing out also. He had a lot to take care of before leaving for his conferences.
The entire section had a meeting this morning which seemed like a very public butt-chewing from our director. Since it had nothing at all to do with me, I just listened to it and let it roll off me like water off of a duck's back. Keith and I got the scoop later from Sean about why we had the meeting. The main culprit for some of the stress and pain within our directorate - dropped the ball in a meeting with the director and the director's boss. There were some other factors involved, but the meeting should have been a "hey, we're better than that. Let's all work together to bring ourselves up" kind of a meeting. And later this evening, the director called us all in and explained what happened (he didn't give names or specifics) but let us all know that we're doing a great job and "hey, we're all better than that". So that was interesting.
I was trapped in my office by a really nice guy who wouldn't shut up, so I sent Keith a "S.O.S." e-mail and he came and rescued me just a few minutes later. He stopped by my office and said that we had to go, so we grabbed out hats and walked around outside for ten minutes or so. I'm not sure what the temperature is/was, but it's starting to get warmer here during the day. My guess was that it was in the low to mid 70s, and it felt really good to be outside. Perfect Jeep weather. If I had my Jeep.
Monday, May 11, 2009
You Want It Bad...
You want it bad, you're going to get it bad. Okay - today I really had my butt handed to me with business. But I wouldn't have been so busy if Chip had been able to protect me with the quasi-mandatory b.s. that we have to deal with around here. I don't know if Chip really knew how important this stuff is or if this was sprung on him at the last minute.
Now, I don't mind if my boss tells me that I have to rearrange the priorities of my tasks depending on which way the wind blows (doesn't really matter to me)... At least I'm being told what should be important to me. And when my priorities were rearranged at three thirty this afternoon, what I thought was, "better to hear about this now rather than at eight o'clock tonight".
So I busted my butt all afternoon, hardly tasted dinner in order to finish up tonight. So tonight we had our weekly managers training seminar, and afterwards got tasked with a no-kidding, right now, must have job. Let me tell you, the train is not coming off of its tracks if this doesn't get turned in tomorrow. It was a little after eight o'clock, and now I'm wondering what was more important, the three thirty tasking or the eight o'clock tasking.
Dang! I just realized that I forgot to pick up my laundry this afternoon. And I didn't get to go to the gym either. Speaking of the gym, I stepped on the scale a few days ago and was shocked at my weight. Some guy came up and said that he thought the scale was off by seven to ten pounds. So I grabbed enough weights to come reasonably close to how much I thought I weighed. I zeroed out the scale and carefully put the weights on the scale... It was off by nineteen pounds! I even rechecked my weights and re-did my math because I thought I had made a serious mistake. Nope. 19 pounds off.
Our pal, Ben, came down from Boston today for a two day visit. Ben was supposed to come down to Kissimmee shortly after Mike and I got here. Well, after visiting here twice, he doesn't want to come down here anymore. Sometimes I think I'd like to go back up to Boston, but I think that's just "the grass is greener" syndrome.
It's not bad here. It's just been a rough few days.
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